StillSmart

Its nearly there.

Your yeasties are doing what they do best.

Give them a little while longer and they might make you another half bottle of good. There again they may decide tomorrorow that you have enough. Its not your decision, they know best but whatever they decide, it wont be long.

once its finished and given a good degassing is it best to leave it in a cool place to clear ? would there be any probs to put it in the airstill slightly cloudy ? thanks again everyone

It is better cleared, but slightly cloudy and then carbon filtered will be OK. I have had a lot of washes lately that just would not clear, so I ran them anyway.

I'm with Chill on this.
The best 'neutral' with an air-still will come from a clear wash.
A cloudy one will probably carry some flavour/taste over to the spirit.
Sometimes you have to do it.
Carbon filtering will help restore it to a more neutral taste.
HTH
Robert.

ive cleared the wash with alcotec turbo klar because patience is not my strong point lol , will soon be on a stripping run next wash going in soon , well impressed with aidens lentil recipe much better and cheaper than buying vodka star !

Agree with you about this recipe....I've got one ready to strip with another one in the wings. I'm not so sure about dumping another load of sugar onto the old lentils for a 2nd run???...I've tried this twice now, the wash is very slow to get going, also I've had a job to get it to clear. So I use new lentils on each wash, they don't cost that much...in fact I'm still on my first bag.

I put down my first attempt at this wash on Thursday night, I used 500gm red lentils and 5.5kg of sugar and Alinsons yeast, I've got my fermenting fridge set at 30°c +/- 0.6°c it was off like a rocket after an hour and still going strong today, what a great recipe this seems to be.

I'm expecting it to come in at 12-13% does that sound about right?

Anavrin wrote:I put down my first attempt at this wash on Thursday night, I used 500gm red lentils and 5.5kg of sugar and Alinsons yeast, I've got my fermenting fridge set at 30°c +/- 0.6°c it was off like a rocket after an hour and still going strong today, what a great recipe this seems to be..

I'm expecting it to come in at 12-13% does that sound about right?

I'm just surfing some "older post" and as I've just started another lentil wash...(I think at the moment this recipe is my favorite one because of the ease of it) how did your first attempt turn out Anavrin??.

Edit..
Just gone to add the soaked lentils and after I'd emptied the bowl into the bucket I noticed what at first, I thought were maggots.... in fact were the shoots of the lentils. They have started to throw tiny shoots, I hope they won't have any detrimental effect on the wash. May even add something.... you never know.

iv just walked in with all i need to do this recipe lol..

iv been an avid vodkastar user, so this will be interesting.

I've got another bag of lentils ready for another wash, the last one I did stalled, it seemed overly frothy when I first mixed it up so I'm thinking maybe I didn't rinse properly after I sterilised my FV, I've got an experimental pearl barley wash almost finished, if it works well, the lentils might take a back seat in future, the reason I went for the barley was experimental to see if I could find a nutrient for the yeast that could also be converted to fermentable sugar through starch conversion.

im going to do mine this evening.

hope it turns out ok

Some will say this is nuts but the original recipe says to ensure the starting pH is 5.2 and this has always worked for me and from 5.5Kg of sugar returns a regular and predictable 12%ABV wash.

AM

There must be more variations on or to,a Lentil wash,than you can shake a stick at.
Most seem to work.
The best part being that they are cheaper or simpler than a Turbo sugar wash.
I joined this forum as an avid Turbo user.
I have seen the light.And now reap the rewards.
The ingredients for my neutral washes are now sourced from local supermarkets.

Chances are your local tap water,and a Lentil wash will take care of themselves.

It will do no harm to check pH if you are able,or have problems.

As AM says,a starting pH around 5.2 is an ideal start for the yeasties.
If yours is much different,this may be where any problems arise.
HTH
Robert.

Hey Guys

So ive looked at all these posts and decided i'll jump on the band wagon and give it a try....2 questions, is allinsons active yeast ok to use and put in dry? and aidanmac first post on the recipe...when you say soak the lentils in 2 litres of boiling water then throw the lot in...do i throw lentils and the water they soaked in.

cheers Paul

Don't over think it, it is a wash. Dry yeast is fine. Personally, I boil my lentils until they start to soften so the yeast will have an easier time of it. Don't boil until they come to pieces. I toss the whole lot in, water and all. No sense in discarding part of the nutrition.