Newbie needs help...

[Cerbera7]

Hi, my son n me have decided to have a go at this game and have bought an air still and some fermenting bins etc.
any who we made our first sugar wash with 8kg of sugar, Alcotec8 yeast and a bag of SS carbon. We followed instructions and set it all away with a lid with an airlock and an immersion heater set to 23 degrees. Everything went well, the wash began to bubble like fury.
It was bubbling the airlock every 5 or 6 seconds at first and did this for 6/7 days while slowly decreasing the amount of action to about every 30/40 seconds. By which time it was 2 days past the stated fermentation time on the Alcotec 8 packet. Anyway I unplugged the heater and syphoned it off to a clean bin and added the Turbo Klar as per instruction.
Now to my problem...the bloody thing won't clear. Next day still black n full of carbon. So I asked my local brew centre and he said add another finings. So I added an SS Turbo Clear...guess what. It still won't clear and is still black. I read that you can just leave it to settle on its own. So I've tried this, it's been 4 days now and the thing is still black.
So any help or advice would be welcome. Is this normal, can it sometimes do this and have lost the wash. Please guys, any help you can give a first time spirit guy.

[chill]

First, welcome! I will start by suggesting that you spend some time reading the Fermentation and AirStill/SmartStill sections. There is a wealth of information there which will help you to produce a far, far better result that the guidance the shop gave you. I am not trying to cast blame on the shop, but you can do much better.

As to why it won't clear. I've not used a turbo with carbon before, so I can only guess. Despite what it says on the package, length of time is not a guarantee of a finished ferment. Do you have an hydrometer to measure the Specific Gravity? It should be well below 1.0 if it really is finished.

My guess is that due to temperature, low pH, or some other cause that the fermentation has slowed, but not stopped. It is continuing to produce gas which is keeping the clearing agents in suspension. Assuming you have nothing to measure pH with, you can try adding 1 Tbsp of Baking Soda (no, not Baking Powder!) and see if that restarts the fermentation. It might take 2 or three or more to really get it going again if the pH has really dropped. Or if it i cold outside, set it outside as the cold will also retard the yeast and help it settle out.

Chuck

[Still Brewing]

And a welcome from me as well.

I don't think I could add anything as I think the previous reply by Chill has covered all areas.

I'm also very new to the forum and I joined because I was having some right problems with my spirit production using an airstill. Nothing went right for me, the end product wouldn't clear, it tasted foul or it didn't even finish fermenting at all. I did get to the stage where I thought about selling my kit and going back to winemaking until I found this site, but I'm glad I didn't. With the excellent advice I received from these guys, I'm now producing some cracking spirit for very, very little cost.

Once you have sorted out your problems with this wash, I would advise you to check out the lentil wash in the recipe section. Its easy to make, very quick to ferment (average 6 days !!) and now I rarely use any clearing agent at all as it does it by itself. The price of this wash, excluding electricity is costing me less than £3.00, yep that's right three quid, and the taste is fantastic. At the moment I have a 25 litre wash clearing and 2 new 25 litre washes fermenting as of last night. Might even pop to Aldi in a bit for some more sugar and get another one going, it would be rude not to !!.

[Cerbera7]

Cheers lads for the welcome and the help. I will check gravity and let yawl know where it's at.
Thanks once again, will be in touch.

[Icefever]

+ 1 with both Chuck & SB posts. You do need to read all you can in the Airstill section.

My Cerbera would be....cut back on your sugar down to 5.5 maybe 6 kgs for your next wash..who ever told you to use 8kgs...it's too high.

I don't think your wash has finished, without an hydro to take SG & FG you can't be sure...

SB suggested trying the lentil wash....you will see a big difference between your sugar wash and the lentil one....you won't need any carbon to clear it.

[Mash]

Bingo ice. In my experience if it won't clear it isn't done. Lots of beer and wine will clear on its own when it's done. I think the hydrometer will tell us what's going on.

Also near in mind that yeast are an organism and work in their own time. They didn't read the instructions so they don't know they were supposed to be done in 8 days.

[Icefever]

They didn't read the instructions so they don't know they were supposed to be done in 8 days.