Turbo Ahoy!!

[Frothwizard]

Hi Lads and Ladettes,

Well I gotta say, I f*cked up in the best way possible.

As any new distiller does when they first enter into this hobby via the airstill pathway, they put on the turbo wash that comes with the airstill.

In this instance I hadn't done my homework and whilst watching the online instructions from Still Spirits I pitched my yeast in at 40C instead of 30C. Turns out their Triple Distilled Yeast is meant to be put in at 30 and their Classic Yeast is meant to be 40. I didn't realise there was a difference.

Anyway, as you can imagine, it didn't start bubbling for a long time...almost 24hrs. I thought I'd destroyed it but eventually it started up and puked out the airlock and blew carbon everywhere for a couple of days, then settled down.

I thought it was all going well and it settled into a nice bubbling routine...but after a week it was still going strong with no signs of slowing down...and the instructions said it should be done in a week. But I kept waiting anyway, then 2 weeks went by...and it was still going...and last week (wk 3) it finally slowed down to about 1 bubble a minute so I decided to run it. I should mention at this point that it only fermented to 10% ABV, not the 14-18% it proclaimed on the packet.

I did 6 runs through the airstill and did the carbon filtering cause the direct distillation had some weird overtones of....something akin to ball sweat...I can only assume. I did some pretty brutal cuts (100ml off the front and 100ml off the back for each 4L charge).

Anyway, after carbon filtering, it came out smelling really clean. I did intend to distill it again but had to hit up work for a few days.

Last night my mate Steve came over and we wanted to test out some essences that I'd got but I told him I hadn't double distilled it yet and he said "Have you tried just the neutral on its own?". Which I hadn't yet. So we decided to do that and it was the most pleasant surprise I'd had to date. It was refreshing and not bitey at all, it had an undertone of sweetness to it but on the whole it was incredibly drinkable.

So we mixed some Irish Whisky essence into it and made up a bottle. Poured it over some ice and did a real taste test to which he proclaimed "If you set out to make something acceptable, I think you failed, because this is really really good".

I had to agree with him, I was expecting my first turbo to taste like bin juice but I think whatever processes I interrupted at the beginning and the long ferment time, stopped the yeast from destroying my wash.

FW

[Dominator]

Maybe by pitching at a high temp killed some of the yeast which resulted in your slower ferment. The faster you ferment, the more congeners you will get (which will cause off flavours) I remember reading somewhere about the molocules not lining up. It is likely that the slower ferment resulted in a cleaner wash.

[Sam.]

I'm glad your happy with your results.

I do suggest you keep a sample of that first run to compare against future runs of some of the tried and proven recipes here. Your outlook on that first run may change ;-)

[BackyardBrewer]

I'm with Sam, if you're happy now (and I'm glad you are) then save some and compare it to your first TPW.

Cheaper, easier and cleaner drinking. Plus you tend to get better each run as you learn your wash and your still and your cuts so wait until you do a TPW, air it for 48 hours and then let your essence (cordials) sit in the neutral for 7 days rather than hooking in straight away. Then you'll notice a real step up.

[Frothwizard]

Duly noted...thanks lads!!

Speaking of first TPW...just did a measure of it's SG just then. Appears we've hit ~11% ABV. Still bubbling slowly. Couple more days and she'll be ready I rkn.