Couple of questions for my first tpw

[chill]

Frank, my guess is that it is either the amount of tomato paste or the quality (how condensed). I only recall making this once, mine was distinctly pink! My regular sugar washes end up yellowish.

Chuck

[Jonc26uk]

Hi frank

When my wash finishes I degass it then making use of our weather I leave outside for a couple of days, I degass again on the second day. I then syphon into another barrel and let this clear in that. But I look at pics on here of cleared washes and none of mine look as clear as them? Even leaving them for over a week to clear.

Have started my second tpw now and will hopefully get to distill the first sometime next week

[Frank]

Mate,
IMHO you have done more than enough to have a decent wash here. I've never had a clear TPW in about 50 ferments; I am satisfied with making sure it is fully fermented and 'settled'.
Assuming its not too 'offsmelling' (TPW can get a bit 'funky' on the nose) then all should be good....especially if you apply the same careful method through your distilling and maturing.

[Jonc26uk]

Well the wash cleared extremely well, and managed to double distill it, got 3.6 litres of'40% neutral overall which is ok. Was thinking of substituting the bakers yeast with a pack of champagne yeast this time and increasing the sugar to 6kg, see what that brings me

[Frank]

Mate, good result I'd say. Did you do anything different this time that might 'explain' the clearer ferment result?

[Jonc26uk]

Tbh frank, there is a couple of things that are different from previous times are:

1. I have sacked the heat plate now and use a fish tank heater, which held a consistent temp through the brewing stage which also helped with it finishing brewing quickly. I mention this as reading in previous posts it's mentioned that if it's not finished brewing it won't clear correctly.

2. It's really cold here at the moment so when its finished brewing, I degass then put outside, then next day degas again then bring in to settle. Then the next day I rack off to a new barrel then this went back outside again for a few days to clear.

I'm going to follow this again and see if I get the same results. Also now once it's degassed and into another barrel I can get the next one to start brewing. Which means instead of taking a month all in I'm getting nearly 4 litres every 2 weeks. This should give me chance to build a stock up.......maybe

[amaark]

Frank,

Used your tpw recipe.

Any guidance on heads, hearts and tails.

Plan to strip it as per Mozr's chart. 1.5 litres of everything, then cut to 30% for a spirit run.

[Frank]

Mate, (its not my TPW recipe )
to be honest its been MANY moons since I did strips or spirit runs in the airstill. I use 40l washes in the potstill now and do 30l lowwines runs.

Anyway, given your plan to run lowwines at 30%abv, (and assuming you have an airstill) I reckon the mozr/AidanMac cuts guide is an excellent reference point and more than suitable for you here. Just remember to take all your spirit in small sized jars...that way, once aired etc, you'll get to know LOTS about the fractions.
IMHO, TPW hearts are very 'neutral' smelling and tails are quite funky smelling BTW.