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Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:30 am
by SBB
My last couple of tomato paste washes have fermented out pretty slowly due to the cooler weather. I thought Id try a different method and post the results here as it ferments.
As can be seen by the photos I have three washes going, each one is 27 liters. The fermenter barrels are all sitting on plastic crates and are sitting as close to each other as possible, they all have a good layer of old blankets under them for insulation. The plan is to use a small electric blanket to keep them at a constant temp of around 28-30c and more old blankets as insulation. I have a digital thermometer set up to give two readings, one for ambient air temp and the other is from a probe which is tucked down in the air space between the barrels.
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So far it goes like this, the electric blanket wont be used until necessary
All three washes were put on yesterday Sat 23rd at about 11.30am.
The ingredients for each is as follows
5.5 kg sugar
2 x 140g tubs leggos tomato paste
Juice of one lemon
70g Lowens bakers yeast
Pinch of Epsom salts
Enough water to bring up to 27 litres
SG 1.07 - 8
Yeast was pitched at approx 32c there was a bit of difference between barrels.
Air temp at that stage was 26c All washes were bubbling within ten mins. Left the barrels as they were until 5pm when the air temp started to drop quite a bit. Barrels were at about 32 -33c at this point. Wrapped 2 small blankets around the barrels for the night, they are not individually wrapped.

Day 2 Sun 24th
6.30am Air temp 16c Wash temp 28c
3.15 pm Air temp 24c Wash temp 29.1c Added two large heavy blankets to barrels
7.20 pm Air temp 20.5c Wash temp 30.7c

Day 3 Mon 25th
6am Air temp 18.1c Wash 30c
12.30pm Air temp 24.5c Wash temp 30c
3.00 pm Air temp 24.1c Wash temp 30.1c

Day 4 26th
10.30 am Air temp 20.1 Wash 28.7 SG today SG 1.05
1.30 pm Air temp 22.4 Wash 28.7
5.00 pm Air temp 19.7 Wash 28.6 turned electric blanket on (lowest setting)
8.50pm Air temp 18.5 Wash 28.4 turned electric blanket to second setting

Day 5 27th
4.30 am Air 17.6 Wash 28.6
12.30pm Air 22.6 Wash 28.9
10.30 pm Air 19.3 Wash 29

Day 6 28th
8.30am Air 19c Wash 28.7
12.00pm Air 24.3 Wash 28.5 Fermentation slowing noticeably today
5.29 pm Air20.1 Wash 28.3
10.pm Air 19.1 Wash 28

Day 7 Fri 29th

8.30am Air 19.1 Wash 27.4 SG today 990 still fermenting slooowly
12.00 pm Air 22.1 Wash 28.2
9.30pm Air 19.4 Wash 28

Day 8 Sat 30th
6am Air 18.2 Wash 27.5 Just the occasional "Bloop" from the three fermenters today.
8.00 pm Air 19.2 Wash 26.4 Two fermenters have stopped one gives a bloop every few minutes, Turning off the blanket as I dont think its worth using power to get 1 bloop every two mins from one fermenter.
SBB

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:47 pm
by maheel
for $25 more you can add fully automatic climate control
i use one on a fridge

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buy one here or if you hunt around ebay usa you can get them for $18 including freight from HKong
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mini-Digital-Tem ... 336746ebb7

fridge set up
find an old fridge working free and you have fully automatic cooling and heating system (put a heater in the fridge)
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(this one has a diff temp controller but the same thing, light bulb for heating)

you could use a cardborad moving box over the top and the heater and controller and call it a temp cabinet
i measure the ambient temp of the "air" not the wash itself but i put the temp probe inside a small 1L sealed container to simulate the internal wash temp
it stops opening the fridge changing the temp around the probe and smooths out changes in temps etc

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:01 pm
by SBB
Thanks for that Maheel, for some reason I thought those fancy little boxs were worth much more than that.
I probably still wont buy one as Id have trouble finding a fridge big enough to hold the amount of wash that I want. Eventually I want to use a 220 Liter food grade barrel I have to ferment in, and was hoping that the method Ive used here would be suitable. So far it has worked as well as I hoped it would, Temps have stayed far more stable than my previous washes and fermentation time has been much quicker. (hopefully not to fast) From what Ive read 7 days is about the right period of time for a tomato wash. I already owned everything used so it cost me nothing to experiment.
SBB

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:45 pm
by maheel
you would need to build a coldroom :)

you could make a big plywood "box" or some other suitable "box?" and use that and a TC to control the warmth easy enough and maybe a fan could pull in air if you needed to move some heat.

anyway just throwing ideas up that have worked for me, i reckon stability of temps is one of the most important things in brewing beer and i transfer those ideas to my stillin

based on your numbers the heat-blanket is working well. update us with any things you notice improvements or otherwise

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:05 am
by audistiller
Another old thread I know, but some places that make cool rooms, sell off-cut pieces of panels rather cheap, and its easy to build a box only requiring some aluminium angle, and pop rivets, should be able to knock up something flash in a day. I bought some of these panels years ago to build an esky, cost me $40 for all the bits.

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:50 am
by fields
now thats a good idea

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:55 am
by maheel
i have seen a few build small "walk in" cool rooms / fermenting rooms out of the panels and use a window box air-con to cool and heat the whole thing.

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:45 pm
by SBB
Sorry Folks...all good ideas Im sure...........but I think Ill stick to the KISS method............it works for me.
A: It folds up to almost nothing if not in use.
B I can make it bigger or smaller at a moments notice..
C its cheap and I dont have to build anything.
D it works perfectly well for what it is

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:24 pm
by crow
I have a big old chest freezer at home could fit 2 brews and a lamp or 3 brews and a work light 25 watt globe thermometer in there if it got a little warm just ajar the lid a bit , stick or rock or what ever . i have immersion elements over there as well of the type photography developers use they're ok (they work) tropical fish elements would mostly work as well . The fella i got my reflux still from is even more south than me , he is using some proper ferment elements he's drilled into the bottom well 100mm up from the bottom of his brew kegs . probably not a bad idea if ya going to live in a cold c....t of a place like that :-? or here

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:19 pm
by SBB
Can you fit a 200L fermenter in it ??????

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:24 pm
by cdbrown
I use an old fridge to ferment in using the STC-1000 controller. I've got a 15W aquarium heater which is in a 2.4L berri bottle and I'll put that against the wall of the fermenter to keep things warm. The addition of a blanket or something similar just helps reduce the impact of the outside temp.

After the wash is fermented - do you guys chill it down for a few days to help all the particulates clump and drop out of suspension?

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:00 pm
by crow
SBB wrote:Can you fit a 200L fermenter in it ??????

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: Yeah sure piece a piss sideways ;-)
EDIT :)) maybe I could just stop the lid light from turning off and fill er up that'd be 6 to 800 ltrs :icon-lol: :icon-lol: :icon-lol: :shock: hey with a drain :-?

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:58 pm
by SBB
Ill stick to my electric blanket idea then ;-)

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:33 pm
by crow
use to do that too on a serious note I don't Know how much the submersible elements would heat up but I'm sure it would over 200 ltrs and the other sort I mentioned that lad had 60 ltr sugar washes on them

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:30 pm
by CyBaThUg
how does that temp controller connect to the fridge to controll the temp????????

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:02 pm
by Kimbo
you can just wire in a 3pin female plug to the back of the controller, that way you can just plug the fridge in (or heat lamp)

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:38 am
by Aussiedownunder01
I use these excellent price they can control ether heating or cooling [to hot turns fridge on to cool to cool turns light on to heat]
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI ... 0822772478

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 12:09 pm
by Sam.
:text-+1:
Aussiedownunder01 wrote:I use these excellent price they can control ether heating or cooling [to hot turns fridge on to cool to cool turns light on to heat]
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI ... 0822772478

Re: Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:29 pm
by Aussiedownunder01
On a 20 liter TPW wash whats the average liters of 93 % can you expect

Tomato Paste Wash at Cool Temps

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:33 pm
by BackyardBrewer
Aussiedownunder01 wrote:On a 20 liter TPW wash whats the average liters of 93 % can you expect


My reflux puts out anywhere between 2-2.5L @ 93~95% on a TPW. But

I'm brutal with cuts, turf a lot of heads and tails. Technically I re-run these in a future batch so I don't really lose them, but usable spirits per run for me is an average of a bit over 2.2L of 93-95%