To fine or not to

[Admiral Toad]

Now I've Been a long time fan of good finings sparkaloid etc
Latest batch of mashed peated malt went really well but as Ever lots of flour and yeast
The last 25 litre had settled really well 20 mm or so of sedimentt after the usual 4 day vigorous ferment
Was well tempted to leave at that but did the usual degas and fining
Now it's not settling well at all as previous lots of sediment
My thoughts for next tub is let it settle au natural siphon to boiler THEN degas
I think that might just work rather well

[Capt-Cudellez]

I wouldn't worry about using finings for flavoured washes like whisky or rum.
Just degas and leave a day or 3 before running,

A little nugget that I picked up at the springbank distillery, they run the wash the day after its finished as they think it causes fruity notes if they leave it sitting.

I have found letting a rum wash sitting for a couple of weeks makes a difference to the flavour so I think they could be on to something.

[Admiral Toad]

I think your right mate when I think of the distillery tours I've done they all seem to charge their low wines still as soon as the wash has stopped fermenting so just a basic settle out of the yeast
I think a good degas in the boiler and a tweak on the power controller might do it

[Capt-Cudellez]

Oh I would still degas, else it will foam like crazy. The running right away could be down to commercial reasons, to maximise throughput, but the guy at spring bank was really sure about it being a about a flavour thing.

[Frank]

@AT: mate, I dont use finings at all; but I do let the wash settle for quite a few days, post-ferment (closed fermentation method, of course) prior to a careful racking off for stripping.....it seems to work for me anyway, but I'm always keen to improve things etc

@CC: mate, what do you reckon 'fruity notes' means in terms of flavour profile etc after a double distill? I am wondering about whether their open ferment vats at Springbank might be susceptable to 'nasties' once the wash has completed and thus contributed to a negative result in the past (or am I being Aussie/subtropical again? )
Footnote: I've been to Springbank Distillery some 20 years ago......fabulous place, great folk then too, and their 21yo is a truly fine dram as well IMHO. I particularly remember that it ALL happened 'onsite' at the time, including bottling.

[chill]

Wine is usually let sit for quite a while before bottling. I thought that was for flavour development. If so, there may be a relation to what we do. In Ian Smiley's book on Making Pure Corn Whiskey he also says to run it right after fermentation stops or the quality of the produce is reduced. I have not experimented with this yet.

Chuck

[Admiral Toad]

I've gone back to basics. Racked the bugger off the huge lees THEN degassed and fined

Simpleeeesss

Sometime you can't see the wood ..........

[Admiral Toad]

Now that worked FINE ho ho

Mind the bugger don't half puke and foam if you forget to put distilling conditioner in due to Sunday morning fuzzy heed