StillSmart

Yup. Silly. :-D


6 kilo sugar
25 grams yeast

I know.

Ta.

Is there any problem if I add too much whey?

Looking at my asda yeast paste it is 41% protien.

So half a teaspoon would add about a gram of protien.

A cupful of whey has 1.9g a batch could have two or three times as much.

I haven't compared the vit content. Bit tedious.

Too much we not be a problem

Ok ta. Will report back when I have something to report.

Topped up my sugar supply and got a litre of gold top. Let the brewshop blag me into getting two hydrometers. One for spirits by gay lussac and one for washes with pretty coloured bands by Hambleton Bard. She swears they are calibrated differently and not interchangable. Not very dear anyway; about £8 the pair.

I have some old keg bitter in a 25lt Hdpe tub. I was thinking of running that first to free up the container for fermenting. I have been freezing it 5lt at a time which gives a special brew kinda of thing. Is there anything I should be aware of when I potstill?

Alternatively I have a 2 USA gallon stainless vacuum insulated jug that might perhaps do for small test washes. It has a drain tap from right at the bottom of the inner pot. Which way do you guys think I should go?

I do have a 7W & a 22W reptile heating pads. Very low density. Also a length of 12.6W per meter trace heater cable. Plus a variety of insulation. Silvery bubblewrap, glassfibre loft and various thicknesses of kingspan type rigid foam, also silvered.

Any suggestions? Opinions?

Looking at your tronozymol wash.., should I use 6kg or 5kg? Why the difference?

That was a typo. Use 5kg.
Thought I had corrected that and re-uploaded it.

No prob.

Here is a pick of my vacuum jug. The clamp down lid has a vent hole in the top with a screw stopper. No idea how it got here from chicago.





The reason pot stilling makes me nervous for drinking rather than cleaning alcohol is the cuts seem a lot more smeared and imprecise. You certainly couldn't make neutral in one.

You can certainly get very close. And i don't think it's impossible just a nack you are yet to aquire.

If concerned, be a bit over zealous of you are concerned.

@ Ant: Don't be nervous about using a pot still. Patience and practice will see you right.

There is no way you will get a neutral from a pot still configuration. It doesn't work that way. A neutral needs to be odorless and tasteless. You can however get a very clean product from a pot still.

Ahhh RJ...
I'm presently doing a head scratch as my pot stilling experiences in producing a whisky gave me a crystal clear, but brown toned product. I never questioned this as it was what I was expecting. Now I discover I'm at odds with the world and trying to savvy why?
I did smoke my base product - weetbix and all-bran and wonder whether that may've been the factor.
The end result worked for me and I'm happy.....just puzzled

RumJohn wrote:There is no way you will get a neutral from a pot still configuration. It doesn't work that way. A neutral needs to be odorless and tasteless. You can however get a very clean product from a pot still.

I like that. Not neutral but very clean.
Nicely defined.

Yes you did change the other recipie from 5.5kg to 5kg but I was talking about this thread and the 6kg. I'm going to assume that is 5kg as well now. I think that is what you were saying to me.

I have the yogurt on the go today. After taking the curd off I will add the yeast with a bit of sugar in the yogurt maker which should be an easy way to make a starter. I will then add it to the hot sugar water mix in the 7.57lt jug up to 7.5lt actual fill. This will give a a high nutrient feed for the first attempt. If this doesn't work then whey is not up to it. If it does then I can try 25lt next time.

I won't be using heating but rely on the jug and the yeast activity to keep it going. See where that ends up.

Sound like a viable plan?

Thanks RJ. I will still be nervous but proceed anyway and report for feddback as I go. Hopefully with the guidence I recieve I will make progress.

What is the pH of the whey? I am just thinking that whey plus sugar might be too acidic for the yeast to be happy.