StillSmart

Thanks Cc-I am starting to realize the shortfalls of a reflux still like my T500 when you want to carry flavours through such as malted barley or molasses. The hard question is weither to invest in a pot still or convert the T500. I have endless access through work to scrap metal so will look into a home build with bear keg. The posts of this site inspire me to give it a go.

Found a useful site today that may be of use to fellow distillers: http://homedistiller.org/wash-sugar.htm

All the best for new year and my wish is that every one out there could have the freedom we have here in New Zealand to have a still at home with out breaking the law. It is not some thing I take for granted

Checked them again today.

Lefty has now moved into first place as it's at 998 (13.4%) so the extra nutrients and yeast moved it along nicely. Righty is at 1000 (13.10%)

Both are still producing co2 so I'm going to leave them until the ferment finishes but it's looking like a pretty good yield

Good stuff Mr Cat - can you clear up one thing for me (I got a bit lost), does each fermenter have 4x500ml Molasses (2L) or 4L as in your post.

I only ask as I've never gotten a gravity that low on a rum wash, and if its light on the molasses that may explain it. Or it may be because you're pushing a higher ABV??

I guess that I should amend my first post to prevent confusion.

Each fermenter has 4 * 500 ml (2 litres @ 56g of sugar per 100g or 1.6kg of molasses sugar)

I think the gravity is dropping under 1000 simply due to the EC-118 yeast as it is a superb yeast. It's a champagne yeast and it's not cheap (£1.20 per 5g sachet) but it's a cracking performer with a high alcohol tolerance.

As I put in my original post I'm not looking for a fast high abv ferment - I'd rather a slow 12% ish ferment with no off tastes/smells.

They are still bubbling away so what the FG will be is anyones guess

Righty finished the night before last at 996 but Lefty is now down about 992 and still bubbling.

The wash from Righty tastes nice but the wash from lefty tastes nice and alcoholic..... Still a little sweetness in Lefty so that may go even lower...

Molasse wine anyone???

And tonight lefty has finished at 990. So that's 14.5% in that one.

The plan is to leave them to clear for a week or so then take 10 litres from each at a time to make a 20 litre stripping charge. With 100 +litres it's going to take a while to strip them....

That's a nice problem to have though eh! Well done mate, sounds like you're onto a winner!

Nice Mr Cat, If it was me I'd keep a few ltrs of the wash and add to the strip on the spirit run adds a bit more flavour and makes it a bit rougher off the still (I think). That smooths out when aged and you just get the flavour.

I have also tried adding molasses to the boiler, worked well, no issues with burning either with 40% strip.

Let us know what you do and how it turns out.

Done the first two stripping runs - I've got 2 gallons of 60% and a gallon of 40% so far with 60 litres left to strip...

The next 'batch' is already fermenting.

Really high on the molases this time though..

When I racked the big fermenters off I left a litre in the bottom of each which had all the yeast etc left over from the first ferment. I got 13 litres of dunder from the first wash and re-aerated this by pouring it from one big fermenter to the other. I added the old yeast etc to this and put it to one side.

Then this afternoon whilst the second stripping run was in progress I got 15 jars of molases (6.3kg of sugar), heated the jars to get the contents out, rinsed the bottles out with a kettle of water and then poured in the boiling hot dunder from this afternoons run. I aerated that and waited for the temp to drop to 45 degrees.

When it hit 45 I added that to the other fermenter (with the dunder from the first run and the yeast from the original fermentation) pitched 5 packets of EC-118 and 100g of nurtient, wrapped it all up in a sleeping bag and have left it to ferment. Later in the week once the ferment is well under way I'll be adding ten litres of water with 5kg of white sugar in.

Judging by the smell of this wash there should be a LOT of taste if I can get the ferment to keep going. Hoping for a nice round 10 unstressed percent.

Should be interesting

Man - this fermenter is going mental - it's the most vigorous ferment on a molasses wash I've seen. The wash temp is about 30 degrees whilst the ambient is only 12.. The airlock is constantly bubbling and my brew room just smells of sweet molasses.

I've got a stripping run on now so as soon as that finishes I'm tempted to take 10 litre of the dunder, dissolve a 5kg bag of sugar in it and add that right now..

I'd go easy on the dunner - had one stall recently was very acidic had to water it down, adjust pH and re pitch - a right PITA.

If your going to add sugar to the ferment - it will foam like a bastard - had one spew a gallon of wash all over the floor

CC - thanks for the heads up but I'm going to have to cross my fingers and hope on this one.

I'd already added half the remaining dunder /sugar before I spotted your post. so I gave ti 2 days and threw the rest in tonight

Basically I have 100% dunder in the fermenter. The SG has dropped to 1047 (temp corrected) after 3 days (from a calculated 1096 - 6.4%) and the wash temp is up at 32+.

I had a taste of the wash from the trial jar and it tastes just like treacle..

I'm hoping that because the dunder was light on molasses and that we have good water here which was used to make the original wash that I'll get away with it. But if not I can PH adjust it, split in between fermenters, water it down a bit and add more yeast.

I'm in no rush so we'll see how this goes.

Ah, I was forgetting it was light on molasses and you got it quite dry - I have so much unfrementables I don't ever get it under 1.12ish.
Also the dunder from fancy seems to do better than the feed (or so it seems - too early in my rum making to be sure of anything)

If I'm going for a high dunder wash (30% or so) I only add 60% of the sugar\molasses at the start, the yeast seems happier, once they have dropped the gravity a few points, I'll carefully add more over the next few days - seems to make it finish in a few days rather than trudge on for weeks.
----Not my idea btw, never had an original thought in my life, I think if was from an old timer recipe I was on yahoo distillers.

I guess I was doing the add a bit of sugar at a time by accident. 6.2 kg in molasses on Saturday, 2.5kg on Sunday and then 2.5 tonight.

If I get away with out it sticking this time I very much doubt I'll get away with it from the dunder from this run...

Mind you - I can trip back and get some more molasses this week at buy one get one half price...

It works out well - 1.5kg of molasses and two jars for £3

Finally the stripping runs have been done.

I collected into glass demijohns, one per run and once that had filled swapped another demijohn in for the tail end of the run.

Five runs so I got 5 gallons at 50/60% and 2 gallons at 30%.

The T500 is prepped and ready for the first charge tomorrow.

It will be two and a half gallons of 50%, one gallon of 30%, topped up to 20 litres with filtered water for a quick run. I'll discard the foreshots and then collect everything into a demijohn. Hoping to get about a gallon and a half.

the the next day repeat that with the remaining demijohns before a final slow run with cuts