Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Assume
1. I have moments of coordination issues and stepped on my hydrometers with a big fat stupid boot.
2. The wash has been in for 17 days and looks ok
3. heading out for a few days at the end of the week and don't want the wash to go to long.
4. Off grid with zero nearby shops to buy new 'is it done yet' devices

So, the question is, how do I know if it's done yet, and if not can I go early (distillation event) and just get a smaller output if I'm early. While I'm ou, I'll go near the big smoke and buy new glass things.

Press your ear against the fermenter, if you can hear it fizzing/bubbling its still going. If not then it's done.

Just keep it sealed until you're ready to run mate. Letting it sit will only let the yeast settle, giving you a cleaner product :handgestures-thumbupleft:

thanks, worry averted, I'll wait until next week then zoom. :-B

Can also have a taste, if there is any sweetness there is still sugar and it aint done yet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sam. wrote:Can also have a taste, if there is any sweetness there is still sugar and it aint done yet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:

As Sam says, if its sweet let it go longer as it wont over ferment, you lose heaps of output if you go too early, pretty much a waste of time and disappointing.

I do what magnus said listen to the brew for activity/fizzn

What is a normal time frame for a tpw?
I put a tpw down for the first time about 10 days ago. It doesn't appear to have any fizzing noises coming and the airlock has stopped popping.

natnben wrote:What is a normal time frame for a tpw?
I put a tpw down for the first time about 10 days ago. It doesn't appear to have any fizzing noises coming and the airlock has stopped popping.

As long as there is no sweetness I would say it's ready to run :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Time frame depends mate. What yeast did you use, how much sugar, what fermenting temperature? I know with mine, 2 weeks max in warm weather, 3 weeks max in cold weather. As Copperhead said, dip your finger in and taste for sweetness, no sweetness means ready to run :handgestures-thumbupleft: . I haven't owned a hydrometer for years, this is how I check my washes. That and years of running the same washes gives me a good baseline to run off.

Can I please ask a very newby question here? With the TPW, I'm in sydney and its now rather cold here (approx 9-20 deg atm over a 24hr period) so without any heating devices can I leave a TPW in the garage for a few weeks or so till its done? Will these low temps stall the yeast?

scottyd72 wrote:Can I please ask a very newby question here? With the TPW, I'm in sydney and its now rather cold here (approx 9-20 deg atm over a 24hr period) so without any heating devices can I leave a TPW in the garage for a few weeks or so till its done? Will these low temps stall the yeast?

Same in Adelaide mate. You can pretty much leave these washes for weeks on end as long as they are sealed (with an air trap). It won't go off, just take a bit longer to ferment.