What I Did Today

[chill]

A carbon filter? I'd not do that unless the rum tastes way too strong for you. I used some old carbon to filter some strong blackstrap rum that I did not like a couple of days ago. The result was close to neutral. Oops.

Chuck

[edwatters]

It actually mellowed it perfectly for my taste, I was concerned it would make it too neutral so I did a test pint first.one thing I learned from past mistakes.

[Uber]

Today I have put on a 45 litre TPW in one of my new 60 litre fermenters which I picked up for £5 each.

I love a bargain

[KerryW]

Today I cannot do anything but enjoy some of my drinks,, which I will do as best I can,,

[Almanac]

I started my first molasses wash a few days ago. I'm intending to make White Rum for my wife.

2.5lt Feed Molasses (76% sugar)
3Kg White Sugar
Yeast Bomb
Bioferm Champ Yeast Starter.

Total volume 30Lt (25 in main fermenter and 5 in a DJ for my thumper)

A little slow to take off but after 24 hours it went like the clappers and finished in 36 hours

That's when I realised I should have put on at least a 50lt wash as I won't have enough low wines after a stripping run to do anything with and I'll just have to store the low wines until I can get more wash done.

Isn't impatience a bitch

AM

[alan]

just finished a stripping run on a sweet-feed wash,got a few salmon flies to tie up for a mate.

[Almanac]

I just realised that I posted here, on 16 March, that I had pitched my first TPW the day before and it's still not stripped.

On Tuesday evening I decided that the first 50lt batch was finished fermenting as the gravity was down to 0.988 and activity was almost non-existent so I removed the drum from my hot-box and degassed it. I left I to settle out but last night, despite the ambient temp in my workshop being down to 6 oC the bugger is still blowing bubbles about 4 times a minute and the second 50lt drum, which was pitched 2 days after the first, is also still blowing bubbles in the hot-box.

The first drum is more than 14 days running and I expected it to be quicker.

As an experiment I pitched the first 50lt with 12kg sugar and 2 tins of Tomato Paste (pH was 5.4 so I left out the lemon)

The second 50lt batch was as above but with the addition of a yeast bomb as per Capt C's recipe.

I expected the second batch to run faster but it's no different to the one without the yeast bomb Go figure!

AM

[chill]

What is the pH of each? A low pH and lots of nutrition would likely still ferment slowly.

Chuck

[Almanac]

I'll check in the morning and add so e Potassium Chlorate if it needs it but the first batch shows a gravity of 0.988 so I'm slightly stumped.

AM

[KerryW]

Stripping the RoboRum today,, seems to be going well,,
Can't wait t do the spirit run,, I might do one tonight just to see what it will be like,,,

edit later in the evening,, decided to do a spirit run but was preheating 4 l of wash so I returned it back to the rest of the wash,, gggrr it stirred up the lees n ow I need to wait til it clears up I should have racked it off a lesson learned,,

[Almanac]

You were on the money Chuck, pH of the second batch had dropped to 2.9 but the gravity was still 1.050 from a start of 1.090. So I treated it with Potassium Carbonate and got it back to 5 then pitched some additional yeast put in an immersion heater to get the temp back to 25oC and restarted the thermostat in my hot box to keep a constant ambient atmosphere.

It's bubbling away nicely now but I'll keep an eye on it.

Both 50lt washes were TPW but I decided to experiment a little and while both had 12kg of sugar and two tins of tomato paste and both started off with a pH of approx 5.4 with water from the same source but I put a yeast bomb, as per Capt C's recipe, in the second one.

Evidently the additional nutrients were an overdose that sent the pH to the floor and even though the wash kept on bubbling slowly it was stalling - lesson learned e.g. If it's not broken don't fix it

Hopefully the second TPW will finish properly sometime this week - maybe!

AM

[chill]

Happy to hear that you have it sorted out Aidan. You may want to try a pH buffer as suggested by Dr. Who on MD. I have been using a slightly different formulation, with 192g of citric acid powder combined with 252g of baking soda. A 110g dose of this keeps a 24L wash near to 5. I have also tried using only 55g, but the pH does dip down at the end, I think 4 or below. I will try somewhere in-between and see how that goes. It definitely helps to keep the yeast working away.

Chuck

[Almanac]

Strangely enough I did use a commercial pH buffer called 5.2 but to no avail so I'll be using a citric/bicarb mix in future.

If you want something done properly, make it yourself!

AM

[chill]

I have that commercial buffer as well. The home made works much better IMO. Maybe the 5.2 project is aimed at grain based mashes and sugar washes overwhelm it?

Chuck

[Almanac]

I'd better go get some more citric acid and make up a batch as I'm going to be running continuous washes for a while to rebuild my stocks and a lot of it will be TPW

AM