Transferring and storing whisky wash

[Grandvewe]

Hey guys.

Im toying with the idea of making a large whiskey wash of about 1000L in an IBC.

My pot still however is only 50L. I was hoping I could sit the wash in the IBC and simply take out 40L at a time over about a 3month period.
Im concerned that if I use a quarter of it then there is a chance that bacteria may grow and ruin the wash due to the exposure to air etc.
I have been told that I would have to probably run all 1000ltrs in less than a week.

Questions:
IS this too long to have a whisky wash sitting around?
Does anyone have tips of techniques to maintain whisky wash quality?
Could I use CO2 to fill the air gap in the IBC container or would this hurt the wash?
Would it be better for me to move the 1000L wash into multiple 100L kegs and seal them up to maintain quality?
Anything im not thinking about?

Thanks in advance :text-thankyoublue:

[newbiboozer]

Why you wanna do such a large wash as opposed to doing say 5 x 200 liter washes. Seems like a big risk to take to me you loose the lot if it does go bad. Just my 2 c.

[the Doctor]

If you can strip it it will last much better as low wines.
Doc

[scuzzy]

when I do all grain beers I make up big batches and pour the mash in to 25l food grade plastic containers while still very hot, then seal them. they last for a long time, the longest was about 8 months I think. this way I can just pour them into my fermenter, add yeast and away we go. I know its not what ya asked but it works well and this way you are only messing about with mashing once every few batches.
:handgestures-thumbupleft:

[imhazza]

I am thinking about a similar thing for my washes. Only having to mash every few months would be beneficial in my situation. I'm assuming that if an all grain beer mash can be stored safely for 8 months there is no reason why the same rules cannot apply to a bourbon(i assume :-p )

[Sam.]

For the hobbyist having a large fermenter then just taking off what they want when they want will work most of the time as the chance of infection will be minimal if done half right and if it turns to shit, no great loss.

If you are going to do it in 1000L cubes you don't want to be wasting 960L of it because you didn't have a chance to run it and it somehow hosted an infection.

As long as everything else has been done sanitary and your in a cool climate (you can't get much closer to the arctic) I like the idea of injecting CO2 into the top as you go to keep out any nasties :handgestures-thumbupleft:

At the end of the day though you would need a seriously bad infection to ruin a batch of 10% wash to the point that it will affect the taste dramatically after everything else, but if you are after repeatability with your product this might be enough to fuck everything up :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scuzzy]

hi imhazza,
the only thing I can think of is that with beer it gets boiled (it sterilizes the plastic containers and fills the air gap with steam), for this to work with whiskey you would have to boil your mash, I don't know how this might effect a bourbon mash

[Sam.]

The original question was not about no chill cubing. We are talking about using the wash after it is fermented :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scuzzy]

no, I mean before fermentation

[Sam.]

no, I mean before fermentation

I know what you mean but it has nothing to do with what the original poster asked about

[scuzzy]

sorry, im not meaning to get off point. was just trying to suggest a way to store mash

[Grandvewe]

Thanks for your help on this topic Sam & Liv
Its reassuring to know that my cold temperatures will work in my favour :smile:
Is keeping it cold the only way to reduce infection?

To explain in more detail:

Im slowly building my hobby into a Micro-distillery but its hard to step up production and equipment at the same time.
I have an opportunity to buy 1000L of whisky wash already completed for me, my concern is that I dont want to fork out large sums of cash if I cant store it long enough to use it all.

Doc
Im hoping you might have some solutions but I guess your setup would allow you to run the whole lot in one go.
I thought about stripping it all but I worked out a 40L strip would take around 2hrs? This means it would take me 25 runs totaling 50hrs = 7days (if i strip 8hrs/day)
I have a full time job so realistically the fastest I can strip is about one per day after work which gets back to 25days.

So I need the wash to last at least 1 month, preferably 3 months so im still enjoying the process rather than felling like a slave to it :))

Just trying to get some piece of mind from the experts that the wash will be fine and last this long and possibly some handy tips to reduce the chances of it spoiling.

Thanks

[Sam.]

If you are buying pre done wash that leaves a lot of variables.

If you want a guarantee of no infection everything needs to be clean and sanitary before and during the ferment then kept air tight with a layer of CO2.

If the supplier says you have a week I would invest in a bigger unit :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Grandvewe]

Thanks S&L.
I think I need to rape my current pot still for a few months to hopefully generate some cash before I can think of a more appropriate upgrade :-D

[Yummyrum]

grandvewe ,

The way I see it is the only way infection can get in is through the airlock as airborne bacteria. So as you take wash out ,air must come in..

Now CO2 pumped in through the airlock would be the obvious solution to replace the volume taken out as liquid. But if that seems too difficult ,what about bubbling the air through sodium meta bi-sulphate solution (sterilizing solution) if done slowly enough ,I recon that would kill any airborne bacteria easily

[Canadoz]

Here's a thought, look around your area for food processing operations, medium/large baking/food preparation companies or restaurant supply companies. You may be able to get food safe, airtight sealing 200L +/- barrels for a few dollars each or even for free, since some operations use ingredients (oil, olives, other liquids) that arrive in these barrels, and then are stuck with them in quantity and have to pay to dispose of them if their supplier doesn't re-use them. I noticed someone on gumtree recently in Sydney offering them for $3 each with lids and sealing clamps.

This would split your wash into 5 batches, taking your proverbial 'eggs' out of 'one basket.'

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Yummyrum]

Good Idea Canadoz. just be careful of used olive barrels .

I'm on 5 acres and have over the years got many olive barrels for various uses cause they're cheapish . Chook water feeders , recycled toilet flushing , garden water etc etc.. Thing is .... its fucken hard to get that "olive smell" out of them . Bad enough convincing your chooks to have a drink but there's no way I'd stick my whiskey in one .

Having said that ,there probably are many 200l barrels out there that are perfectly odour free and fit for the purpose :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[bt1]

Howdy,

only ever had an infected wash once for two reasons. Wasn't properly sealed...I'll use a glad wrap seal as well next time and in the middle of a Adelaide stinker summer.

Climate and the Co2 purge makes good sense to me.

Given the commercial focus longer term I reckon a larger boiler would be the go once you've got the learning /tasting curve phase done. Upside here is with identical wash you can really play with oaking etc for flavouring to get your ideal mix.

bt1

[Dominator]

If it were me, I would get 5 x 200L food safe barrels and store the wash in them. Then I would get myself another 50L keg, strip 200L of wash at a time and store it in the keg and do spirit runs as time permitted. That way your limiting the risk of infection, if you do get an infection it will be contained to one 200L drum and you wont spend the next month or two stripping wash. And when you graduate to doing your own mash/wash you have 5 x good sized fermenters ready to go.

[Jonno]

I use 200l fermenter. I struggle with doing multiple strip runs and been infected twice now but drink still tasted real good.

That was my plan dominator with having second boilers but I just use a keg with tap for storage. It's good. Now with the bubbler, don't really need to anymore lol. Will use it as an aging vessel