StillSmart

Hi Guys

I've been experimenting with keeping some Turbo wash's at a low temperature (not more than 21°c) during fermentation.

I used my temp controlled fridge which has a 65w heater in the bottom and a controller to keep the temp constant, the theory being that more off flavours are produced during fermentaion at high temps and Turbos can take off like a rocket, easily hitting 30°c in the first day or two.

I fermented 1 x Alcotec 48 with 5kg of sugar and 3 x Vodka Stars with 6kg of sugar in each, all kept at 21°c throughout the ferment, each one took about 7 days to ferment, then I left them in the cold guarage for a week to clear before stripping.

I stripped them using 3 x 4" bubble plates with reflux until the Alcometer in the parrot read 30%.

I was able to fit all 4 x 25 litre wash's into a 19litre Cornie keg once stripped, the ABV of the strip was about 67%

Last night I filled the still with the strip and added 21litres of water to give me a 40 litre still charge at just over 30%

Today I ran it and 7 hours after it started I had collected just over 11 litres at 93%-94%, the first 4 litres I collected in 1 litres jars and set to one side as heads, then I collected 19 x 400ml in jars to make my hearts cut from in a few days after an airing.

My first impression of the quality so far is it seems to be a very clean neutral and I think I'll get about 13 litres of clean 40% spirit to go through the Essencia Filter.

I'll update in about a week once I've made my cuts with the verdict, I get the feeling it was worth keeping the temp down during the fermentation stage.

Your post prompted me to go and check the temps of the 3 bins of my usual lentil wash that I started about 8 hours ago.
Between 28 and 30°C, as usual, fiery little yeasties.

After pot stilling and Essencia filtering it is "neutral" enough for me, but I do wonder if I kept the fermentation temps down, if it would be better?

I can be quite lazy,and so may never find out.
Chillers and fermenting fridges just seem like so much work.

What's that phrase, "You cannot win, If you do not play!"

Wishing you well with yours.

Robert.

Coming back,as I realise Anavrin gave lots of numbers there,and I will try to throw mine in.
Also, we are considering different stills here.
My usual 46'ish Litre lentil wash yields around 4 to 4.5 litres of hearts at 63 to 67%,depending upon how long I leave it to air.
Which is around 6.5 litres at 40%.
This may have no relevance to the OP,but my late night/early morning head is telling me to do it!

Robert.

Update

Made my cuts tonight, after already setting aside the first 4 litres as heads I was hopeful that only the first 1 or 2 out of my 18 collected jars would be heads but I found too much heads in the first 7 jars (another 2.8 litres)!!!!!

Normally I expect the first 30% to be heads on a neutral run made with bakers yeast and wheat/lentils but this bunch of turbos has produced over 45% heads!!

I did get about 11 litres of spirit from it, it smelt fairly ok after the cuts and being diluted to 40%, its going through the essencia filter now, im sure it will come out fine for mixing with essences, but im not sure how it will stand up on its own as neutral, we will see what comes out of the essencia.

The excessive heads production is what I have been experiencing with my own turbo experiments (not temperature controlled, just as an alternative to my usual lentil or sugar washes). They result in a very neutral smelling ferment, which is really what I was after, but they produce close to double the amount of heads. On the bright side, I do heads runs to make a base for my gin so I am not altogether unhappy.

Chuck

Easydrinker wrote:{snip}
I can be quite lazy{/snip}

Ha! I'd put money on being worse........

The ups and downs of the last couple of years at home mean I'm still refusing to throw out the last few packs of out of date vodka star, and having to get them fired up and running by twice daily whisking with a leccy balloon whisk to oxidate the wash an encourage the few live yeasties to do their thing......

Been taking 2 or 3 days to get the ferment going properly, then just leave them to finish with a heater belt round the bucket (24C constant).

Then the slow business of strip with airstill, before just doing a n00b standard spirit run and then "Z" filtering making sure the carbon is reasonably fresh.......

Thus far it's satisfied my low expectations and flavoured up nicely to drown in whatever mixer is to hand......

Cordless balloon whisk eh! Now that is serious!

I also used up my out of date turbos last year,slow,slow ferments,sometimes topped up with a bit of Allinson's to keep it moving.
Waste not,want not.


I now use one of these,from this supplier, for aeration,and after trying cheap Chinese imports have to say that these are fan-fecking 'tastic.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aquarium-Fish ... 1itkm8Y0AQ
I have the two outlet model.
Even on offer right now.
Run the stones in clean water for 10 mins after using in the wash,and all is good.

Robert.

You can find stainless steel air stones if you have a dig rou.D the net.

Not cheap but being stainless, hygienic and washable.

I'd query the standard aquarium ones and whether the adhesive/resin used to bind the sand, and whether it might be affected by the alcohol levels as they rise (totally agree about the slow/weird ferments).

@Mash - not that serious as to use cordless

I just make sure that the bucket is next to a double socket. One for heater belt and one for cheapo corded whisk (Aldi)

I believe I did mention about being a bit of a tightwad...

I've mixed up most of this turbo spirit with essences, it seem perfectly fine once it's been flavoured and drank with a mixer, tried a few essence's out.
Prestige Mississippi (Southern Comfort) is very close
Prestige Rum Spice (Captain Morgan) also seems good
Essencia Barcara (Bacardi) not so good makes a very cheap tasting white rum

On its own the spirit wasn't quite there for drinking as vodka and coke, I had a 50ml bottle of Russian Vodka Essance, until now it sat in my drawer and my thought was it was the most pointless essence in the world, however I mixed it with 2250ml of neutral (as instructed on bottle ) and it made a massive difference, it's now passable as vodka with a mixer :-)

Turbo Experiment Part 2
I have 4 new packs of vodka star (new style pack), I bought before Christmas, I'm going to do another 4 batches, this time with only 5kg of sugar to see if it's too much sugar that stresses the yeast that's causing the over production of heads, it may be less sugar but but could yeald equal of more hearts.

Phantom wrote:
I'd query the standard aquarium ones and whether the adhesive/resin used to bind the sand, and whether it might be affected by the alcohol levels as they rise (totally agree about the slow/weird ferments).

I am only aerating washes before fermenting,I see no problem with those dissolving resins in air stones.

Loving your tenacity Anavrin,you do stick with your projects!

Robert.

Fair enough Robert. I generally aerate a bit further along (habit from other stuff I make) where there would be a possible issue.

That other stuff ? It's easy to read of excess effort (IMO) where some use pressurised pure O2 (overkill I think).

If you're just blasting the unfermented must the there's no issue (me seeing devils where they don't exist)........