Sugar Mash vinegary smell after seven days - normal ?

[andysst]

Hi All,
Hope you had a good Christmas.

Ok, I have searched for this, but I haven't managed to find my answer here or on google. But brain is in neutral during festive period, so please forgive me -

I am completely new to this so I ordered a kit with buckets, yeast etc -

I started a wash on Christmas Eve having cleaned and sterilised the bucket and airlock.
Alcotec Triple Still Turbo Yeast + sugar
I followed the instructions in the triple still packet

Temperature wise, I could only maintain 20-22 degrees C - I stuck a thermometer card on the side of the bucket, wrapped it in towels and kept it in the front room.

Sometimes it would drop down to 18-19 degrees over the seven days fermentation period.

I have just kicked off the clearing process using the Turbo Klar finings
But when I lifted off the top of the bucket, the dark mixture smells a bit vinegary - not enough to water your eyes, but does not smell like vodka if you know what I mean.

I took a reading with the spirit alcohol meter which came out as '10'
And the wine hydrometer came out bang on 1.000
I took a taste from the hydrometer and it tasted slightly sweet.

I guess I should have taken a hydrometer reading before I added the triple yeast in hindsight.

My question -

Is this smell normal ? If not, does it matter ?

If I have to bin it and start again, any ideas where I went wrong ?

Many thanks & Happy New Year

Andy

[YHB]

Andy,

Welcome to the Forum.

Stop panicking, everything will be fine.

The fact that it does not smell like vodka is probably because that it is not vodka - Yet. But by the sound of it it will be quite soon.

Forget the spirit hydrometer it will not work on a wash, save it for the distillate.

What still did you buy? and what spirits do you want to make?

[chill]

Taste some. Does it taste like vinegar or like dry white wine? If it is sour like vinegar, you may have gotten a lactic infection (think sour Belgian beers). It will at least reduce the amount of alcohol produced.

[Almanac]

We're talking turbo yeast here and it's still sweet! And with a gravity reading of 1.000 I'd say it's probably stalled or at least very very slow

AM

[Icefever]

Welcome to the forum Andy.

As a newbie to this hobby myself, I'll have put my beer making hat on with this Q...and go for the hydrometer & temp part.

YHB as pointed out that the spirit hydrometer is only for spirits, what comes out of your still.

Now a beer/wine hydrometer is a niffy bit of kit but you have to use it correctly. To start with you have to know what temperature your's is set at, most are 20c, some 15c...it should have it on the card inside the hydro.

You need to know the temp of whatever is in your bucket..then with a temperature correction calculator..Here you'll have a true reading.
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Andy..And the wine hydrometer came out bang on 1.000

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If I got that reading from one of my brews I'd say it was finished, and be looking to keg it...but you have to be sure that you have a correct reading from yours.

Hope everything goes well for you on your first run...

[RumJohn]

Andy: It has been cold where you are so the lenght of time taken is acceptable. You have added the agent so consider the batch finished - which it may have been anyway.

It probably tastes a little sweet because there is still some unfermented sugar in the wash as indicated by the SG.

If you found a way to achieve vodka without going through the effort of distilling, I would appreciate being able to buy into the process. However as it doesn't work that way, your wash will not smell like vodka ( which should be odourless and tasteless) but rather like beer which is what it is called at this time.

[andysst]

Hi,
Wow thanks for all the replies and advice!

I'll check out the wash later, see if it has all settled out

Maybe just all newbie paranoia

Fingers crossed

Cheers

Andy