Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Woodduck, this cycle I added 2 gal of backset and 3 of warm water on top. Filled 'er up to about 9 gal and then some. She's sitting in the shed merrily perkin away. Runnin about on bakers yeast, ground corn and about 2 lb of sugar per gallon. Went way too heavy on the sugar this time, tho' but no room to dilute. It'll do what it's gonna do. :oops:

As a max amount of sugar we do 1kg per 5l liquid...

I am on 16 th jen uncle j and stopped backset at about 5 th heated to 22 no extra yeast just 2 table spoons of shell grit works for me [Oh yea thats in 200 liters ]

Ok now this has me buggered


I have added the new yeast as mentioned yesterday and now 18 hours later still no activity

Are sure your yeast is OK?

Take gravity out top and out bottom see what they are..i had a ferment not long ago because of high gravity ready out tap i stuffed around for two weeks trying to restart it. Ended up I measured a sample off the top and was on 1.000 so I ran it turned out it was finished.
Also put some wash on your finger let it dry then rub your fingers together if it aint sticky should be done. Also taste it. If sweet its not done if its dry and sour/bitter its done..

Professor Green wrote:Are sure your yeast is OK?

Hi Professor

Yeah i have 10 5g packs of the EC1118 in the fridge and i used 3 of them, as mentioned in the other post the only thing I did differently with these is I made the starter by adding the yeast to 40c water and stirred the crap out of it then waited 20 min rather than add to 40 c water wait 20 minutes and stir gently

There is alot of unfermentables in a lemon vodka with all the pith in there. Has it cleared or is there crap still floating around in it. If there is stuff floating it will read high on your hydrometer. What did your first gen finish at? What was your starting gravity? If it doesn't taste sweet I would say it's done?

bluc wrote:Take gravity out top and out bottom see what they are..i had a ferment not long ago because of high gravity ready out tap i stuffed around for two weeks trying to restart it. Ended up I measured a sample off the top and was on 1.000 so I ran it turned out it was finished.
Also put some wash on your finger let it dry then rub your fingers together if it aint sticky should be done. Also taste it. If sweet its not done if its dry and sour/bitter its done..

What is the best way to take a sample from the bottom, i don't have anything that will really do it

woodduck wrote:There is alot of unfermentables in a lemon vodka with all the pith in there. Has it cleared or is there crap still floating around in it. If there is stuff floating it will read high on your hydrometer. What did your first gen finish at? What was your starting gravity? If it doesn't taste sweet I would say it's done?

I cant recall the starting on the original and forgot to take it on the second, yes there is a heap of floaties in this wash, the wash is sticky

I assumed you had a bottom tap. No real way you can in that case..

bluc wrote:As a max amount of sugar we do 1kg per 5l liquid...

Bluc, unless there's something wacky with my maths, a kilo per 5 liters is 2.2 pounds per 1.3 gallons so....
Anyway, temp in the shed is 80f. I have a thermometer built in to the mash tun and the yeast has raised the temp to about 97, it's merrily perking away eatin sugar and pee'in UJ. :happy-partydance:

bluc wrote:I assumed you had a bottom tap. No real way you can in that case..

I might try and siphon from the near the bottom of the fermenter, give that a go

I have tried siphoning from near the bottom and the top and both are the same around the 1020 mark and the liquid is sticky

I cannot think of what is going wrong

I have some lowans yeast, would it be worth trying the lowans before ditching this wash?

Whats it taste like ?

Doh forgot to taste it

Yeah it tastes sweet

Did your starter froth up before you added it? 40 degrees C is pretty hot for ec.

Dig Brinker wrote:Did your starter froth up before you added it? 40 degrees C is pretty hot for ec.

Hi, the EC1118 calls for a starter at 40c.

The first fermentation I did was with a starter following the instructions with a water temp of 40c,i added the yeast to the water and left for 20 mins and it did froth up, I then stirred gently and added, this fermentation went fine

The second fermentation i was doing was a second gen using the original yeast but topping up with sugar and dunder from the first still run and additional water, this stalled.
Adding yeast to the stalled wash, I did the same starter at 40c but i stirred the crap out of it then let it sit for 20 minutes and it did not froth up

Would it hurt to add some Lowans yeast to see if this kicks it off?