A couple of questions

[bourbonplumbing]

Hey all i've read all the newbies threads and learnt a lot so far, but there is still a few things i'm a little unsure of.

So i have 2 25l TPW's fermenting atm one i believe is ready to distill although i'm not 100% sure it's ready it was really only fermenting for 5 days before the airlock stopped bubbling the hydrometer is reading 1.000 ,in the video tutorial for the t500 wash it mentions you want a reading of .990 for 2 days, i really have no idea what i'm reading or how to read my hydrometer. I'm assuming all readings on the "wine" part of the hydrometer are .9 something , so i'm meant to cut the hydrometer at 90 so at a reading of 1.000 do i still have sugar in my wash or is 1.000 less sugar than .990 ? sorry i get confused easily.

Once ive determined my wash is finished fermenting, what is the best way for me to let it settle, do i rack it off into another container or leave it in the fermentor a few days then rack it straight into the boiler ? the first wash i did was with turbo products and i noticed a fair bit of carbon particles coming out of the wash, when i used the tap on the fermentor to transfer to the boiler. I have purchased an auto syphon but i'm a bit unsure how to use it, will i have to hold it a distance off the bottom of the fermentor to avoid sucking up the sediment of the tpw wash ?

Thanks in advance for any advice and apologies for any questions that have been answered somewhere else.

[EziTasting]

ahhh its early in the morning, but I'll have a go...

Hey all i've read all the newbies threads and learnt a lot so far, but there is still a few things i'm a little unsure of.

So i have 2 25l TPW's fermenting atm one i believe is ready to distill although i'm not 100% sure it's ready it was really only fermenting for 5 days before the airlock stopped bubbling the hydrometer is reading 1.000 ,in the video tutorial for the t500 wash it mentions you want a reading of .990 for 2 days, i really have no idea what i'm reading or how to read my hydrometer. I'm assuming all readings on the "wine" part of the hydrometer are .9 something , so i'm meant to cut the hydrometer at 90 so at a reading of 1.000 do i still have sugar in my wash or is 1.000 less sugar than .990 ? sorry i get confused easily.

Basically what they are saying is if theres no change for 2 days the fermentation as it is is finished. Not sure what you mean by: "so i'm meant to cut the hydrometer at 90 so at a reading of 1.000" please don't cut your hydrometer, that renders it useless... If you meant look at it on a 90 degree angle (as in perpendicular) your spot on, but I can't get my fat head into the fermenter at the best of times so you can either look at it as best as you can OR extract some of the wash into a cylinder and measure it there. In the end, 1.000 or 0.990 isn't a huge difference, not initially anyway. As you get better at this hobby, you will address that, so don't panic.

Once ive determined my wash is finished fermenting, what is the best way for me to let it settle, do i rack it off into another container or leave it in the fermentor a few days then rack it straight into the boiler ? the first wash i did was with turbo products and i noticed a fair bit of carbon particles coming out of the wash, when i used the tap on the fermentor to transfer to the boiler. I have purchased an auto syphon but i'm a bit unsure how to use it, will i have to hold it a distance off the bottom of the fermentor to avoid sucking up the sediment of the tpw wash ?

Thanks in advance for any advice and apologies for any questions that have been answered somewhere else.

Best way to let it settle is "Do nothing!" ignore it for a couple of days, weeks or months... all good. The longer you leave it the more it settles.

IF you want to rack it off, go for gold. I've never racked off (unless my wife told me to ... :laughing-rolling: ) and its been fine. But if you do, it is ALWAYS advisable to keep the syphon out of the muck! The purpose of racking off is to remover the 'beer' from the sediment (yeasts and stuff).

Never used an auto syphon but there are probably vids on Youtube that'll give you a heads-up, can't imagine it being too difficult...

Enjoy and give us feedback on how you go! Let the fun begin ...

[wynnum1]

Carbon particles are in the turbo to get rid of some of the off flavor they then use settling agent to separate from the wash that all adds cost..
A wash will not clear if its still fermenting so best to give time .
To start a siphon just fill the tubing with water from the tap .
When siphoning stay clear of the sediment can lilt fermenter slightly .
If you have liquid left with the sediment in the bottom of the fermenter pick up fermenter and using funnel pour into a bottle and refrigerate and will resettle and can pour liquid off.

[Teddysad]

What your hydrometer tells you is the Specific Gravity of a solution.
The SG of pure water is 1.000.
When sugar etc is dissolved the solution becomes more dense - ie higher SG.
A good comparison is when one swims in sea water vs fresh water. Because the sea water has salt in it it is denser and you float higher - the denser water is more bouyant.

So we take the starting SG of our wash - generally somewhere between 1.030 (for low sugar levels beer) and 1.100 high level of sugar (wines).
Desert wines start with even more sugar but for our purposes (unless you are using the dreaded turbo yeasts) we should stay below 1.100 (within the range able to be processed by out yeasts.)
As the yeast works on the sugar it turns it into CO2 and alcohol with the CO2 being released as a gas and the alcohol remaining in solution.
Therefore as the amount of sugar consumed/converted by the yeast increases, the SG reduces because alcohol is less dense than water.
This is why with a good ferment it will finish with a SG lower than that of water ie between 0.990 and the water level of 1.000.
Taking the starting SG and subtracting the finishing SG will also give a good guide at to the potential alcohol in the solution.

[Kenster]

Teddy & Ezi... nicely put boys.
For what its worth some newer brewers seem very concerned to incorporate all or as much of the final wash into the boiler. The point i am making is that as it is so cheap to produce overall, the need to be super concerned with siphoning as much off as possible is IMHO a bit of a mistake, coz, as mentioned, the need to kep the grungy shit out, produces a superior product. So i regularly decant into clear 15 lit water containers, let it sit for a week or so to settle nicely and siphon off only the clear stuff, with no second thoughts of discarding/wasting a litre or so of the dregs...

[bourbonplumbing]

Thanks everyone for the responses, i'm not worried at all about losing some wash when i rack, i've just never used an auto siphon before and was wondering if there were any tricks to avoiding picking up the junk at the bottom, Tbh after i run this wash through the still,i'd be happy with 700ml of semi drinkable spirit after my first failure. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[EziTasting]

Try this link ...

[Kenster]

EZI, you da man... i was going to suggest the dreaded TUBE for the Hydrometer reading, but you just slid an even better one in... ( i like the way you do the 'link' thing) obviously i need more computer skills.