First stripping run

[Wellsy]

Well guys at long last the day finally arrived when I could strip my ngw wash. It had been sitting at .990 for a day so it was as ready as me having set the still and collection point all up the night before. So at precisely 8:15 I entered the shed ready to syphon off the wash into a couple of buckets with the easy to use jiggle syphon.
Well that was mistake number 1. 45 minutes later with some wash in the buckets and plenty on me and the floor I was ready to put this into the boiler. Best estimate would be 40 litres into the boiler. And switch on both elements.
I watched to temperature rise steadily going up 5 degrees every 3 or 4 minutes. Just as the gauge hit 65 the first drop appeared from the tap at the bottom of the parrot. Woohoo my first fores but I took too long to smell it and it evaporated. It is true what they say about a watched pot lol.
Once the temp got to 75 degrees I turned off the top element and disgarded the 300 ml of fores. I then stripped spirit slowly watching the abv stay steady at 60 % for the first 3 litres. I was stripping spirit at approx 5 litres an hour until the abv started to drop and it slowed up a little. I ended up with nine litres at an average of 50% abvin 3 hours from turning the elements on.
Did I go too slow on the stripping run or is that about the right speed to extra the best from the wash.
Thanks to everyone who has helped get me to this first step

[RC Al]

For a strip you want to go as fast as possible, with a flavoured wash your trying to get as much of the water/flavour to carry over into the strip so that your not adding any more water to the strip come spirit run time. I run mine down to around 10% or so and usually end up with low wines right around the 40 % - which is pretty much perfect to just run as sits :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Thanks RC, so perhaps a little slow and finished to soon hey.
Not the first time that has been about just quietly :laughing-rolling:

[dans.brew]

Well done Wellsy!
#1 run under your belt and many more to come. :dance:
When filling the boiler, as soon as you've got enough wash siphoned to cover at least the bottom element whack it in and switch it on and get things heating.
Sometimes i find it takes a bit of stuffing around getting all the wash out the fermenter cleanly so can be a lot of time wasted if you switch element on at the end.
When i use to strip with my pot i would just strip down to 20% Abv, by this stage the final Abv of the combined strip was generally around 35-40%

[Wellsy]

Thanks Dan
Will definitely do that next time as it took 40 minutes to get up to temp.
So much stuffing around to get the wash out. Will actually look for some clear narrower tube tomorrow as there has to be a better way than what I did today.
Have a bwko sitting on .995 this morning so will probably be ready tomorrow.
A big plus today was when I put the second generation on with back set after an hour it fired back up so I got the generational wash management correct it would appear.

[dans.brew]

Thanks Dan
Will definitely do that next time as it took 40 minutes to get up to temp.

My 50ltr takes an hour or there abouts.
Doesnt hurt to leave your ferment at least a couple days to settle when finished, allows all the yeast and particles to make there way to the bottom and intern a cleaner wash to run. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Thanks Dan
I turned the second element off and it took about 2.5 hours, I was happy to go slow with the parrot on but the next one will be faster without the parrot as I will leave both elements on.

I will have to show some patience and let the BWKO was settle for a day based on what you have said Dan.

[Wellsy]

I also meant to ask if it was normal for spirit to come out cloudy.
The first 8 litres were crystal clear but the last litre ,about 25% abv, was just a little cloudy, it still tasted ok .
Thanks

[dans.brew]

I also meant to ask if it was normal for spirit to come out cloudy.
The first 8 litres were crystal clear but the last litre ,about 25% abv, was just a little cloudy, it still tasted ok .
Thanks

All normal mate... you'll even notice a oily looking film on top that is completely normal in the lower tails. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Thanks again Dan
Part of the reason I stopped at the 25 % abv mate.
Will do the bwko wash tomorrow and strip it faster and much lower mate.
It makes such good sense to use low wines to dilute back to 40% instead of water :)

[RuddyCrazy]

Wellsy for transferring wash from the fermenter to the boiler is an easy task if you have the fermenter sitting above the height of the boiler, just get a long hose plonk it in the fermenter then when by the boiler start sucking. Once it gets over the high point you setup the flow will start then just let it siphon over at it's own pace. What I did with my setup is using some 30 micron SS mesh just soft soldered up a screen and I used a 1/2" bit of copper tube to connect to the hose.

That way only the wash is transferred and all the grain etc is left in the fermenter, Now I just sit that screen about 1/2" above the trub and hold the hose there with a clamp to keep it in place.

All too easy and not much work to get it done.

Cheers Bryan

[Wellsy]

Thanks Bryan
The issue I had was the hose was to soft and kept kinking where it went over the fermenter lip.
I ended up using a jug to get the final dregs.
Thanks for the suggestion guys

[Amberale]

Hey Wellsy.
I have a couple of old 30 litre beer fermenters.
I syphon from my 60 litre fermentor into the two smaller ones which are then light enough for me to pick up and put on a shelf.
The shelf is a bit higher than the top of my boiler( which is on wheels) so I can leave it for a couple of days to clear and pour straight into the boiler.
I pour the The wettest part of the trub into a cheap strainer(reject shop salad drainer) over a bucket to collect the last few litres and keep that in another container to settle.

[Wellsy]

Thanks for the ideas guys
I was trying to do too much at once. I found if I stopped the hose from kinking and syphoned into a couple of buckets I could strain those when pouring into a smaller bucket for ease of management.
I was also using to big a diameter hose. I have dropped down to a smaller size and it works much better