Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

hey guys just got a 25ltr TPW going at the moment it was bubbling away happily when my dog went into the room and pulled out the cord for the fish tank heater in it it has cooled down to 14 degrees and it isn't far off done gravity of 1200 ish is it worth warming it back up and re pitching the yeast if so how much and what's the best way to do it, or should I just cut my losses and still it off maybe filtering it first or something. thanks heaps

Mine stalled so i bought an aquarium heater during it and plonked it in and it went fine done in a few days XD

You mean it's at 1020?

Chuck the heater back in and it will probably get up and go again :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah sorry just saw that typo haha I have the heater cranked up again now

suffered a similar fate, set a TPW to go before I left for Darwin 4wks ago, come back thinking it would be o.k, should have taken it up there with me... a quick niff and taste test reveal the ferment stalled not long after I left. Restarted it and have the heat belt "plugged in" to the timer this time... :?

I have an aquarium laying about, are they the go?

Heat belt should do the job

I put a couple of TPWs on the other day with EC1118 yeast they are bubbling away happily at 18 degrees no heat required. I'm happy with this as I believe this yeast is happy at this temp and the bit extra cost of yeast you can save in power running the heater.

I put on a TPW 25L (5KG Sugar OG 1080) on Sunday.

I have mine in a hot water cupboard that is pretty much 20-22 C. It started bubbling about 30 mins after I pitched the yeast and is still going crazy! I was hoping to run it this weekend due to the temps, but won't test the FG till it stops bubbling. Wife is pissed due to the lack of space, and bakers shop smell in the HW cupboard, but she does admit it smells better then my last Turbo\ wash...

My wife hates the smell of them all :laughing-rolling:

Idea for the smell to go away if you like...
i have 2 fermenters side by side with 2 small hoses going into the airlocks on both. These 2 hoses meet up in a tee section to form one hose that i run outside through an opening neat to garage door. This way i cant smell anything and all that co2 is going outside. Just stick the hoses on with duck-tape or something

I like ta leave the hydrometer in the wash and have glad wrap with a couple of pin holes over the top with an elastic band,that way you can check it without removeing the lid,it's a tip I got from a book on home brew beer,only problem was I had to buy a couple more hydrometer's.cheers hillzabilly

That's what I do, Billy :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Just don't forget to take the hydrometer out if you need to give the wash a stir... (Just something I worke... Learnt from a mate :oops: )

hillzabilly wrote:I like ta leave the hydrometer in the wash and have glad wrap with a couple of pin holes over the top with an elastic band,that way you can check it without removeing the lid,it's a tip I got from a book on home brew beer,only problem was I had to buy a couple more hydrometer's.cheers hillzabilly

Wow never thought of that! :clap: Great idea.

yes that is a good idea. Ill be trying that. Ill have to think of a way to get the smell outside though :think:

Bunnings does a 150mm extractor fan set up pretty cheap.cheers hillzabilly

If you distil a stalled wash would you get a considerably reduced yield?

valkorum wrote:If you distil a stalled wash would you get a considerably reduced yield?

Depends how far along it stalled, if it was near the end it would be minimal but if it was at the start then yeah you wouldn't get much

I ran 2 weet bix wash the other week that had stalled. It was one i rehydrated 25grams of yeast for and then it got hit with the cold however my next one didnt stall its ready now :D
Anyway i usally get maybe 3.2L including fores from a 25L wash on T500 strip pass and the stalled wash got maybe 2.6L or something. I think it had a finished gravity of 1.000 or something. my SG meter thing is crap, wont go to .99 ofr up to 1.08 or whatever. cheap still spirits one that come with my still. :violence-smack:

Anyway with a gravity of 1.00 compared to .99 i had lost about 500ml of product.
Hope this helps

If your brew is getting too cold and you want to keep it just a couple of degrees warmer, this seems to work for me.

Probably not a good idea with a bigger batch though.