My First TPW

[Frothwizard]

Hey Guys,

So I decided it was time....time to ditch the turbo and the airstill and become a man.

I've set my sights on a TPW.

I pretty much followed the TPW thread in what to do with the following provisos:
- I used 6Kg of sugar instead of 5Kg cause I just came of a 12hr night shift and bought a bunch of 3Kg bags. $1.10 / Kg. Dumped two bags in then thought....hmmmmmmm.
- Due to that I put 100g of bakers yeast and 220g of tomato paste
- I didn't have citric acid so I did a simple bit of googling and put a Tablespoon of lemon juice in.

Pitched the yeast in around 31 degrees C.

Sealed it up and sent her on her merry way and she's loving life atm.

I measured the SG at 1.092 which seemed pretty high.

Just wanted to get some thoughts on that is all...

Cheers,
FW

[Zak Griffin]

I'm no expert by any means, but it looks like a bit too much sugar... It will stress your yeast and taste like shit. I aim for a SG of 1.08...

^ all of this is just information I have read, not first hand experience... ^

EDIT: what are you fermenting in?

[Frothwizard]

Fermenting in a standard 30l Fermenter from HBS. Sanitized with an airlock.

[BackyardBrewer]

Fermenting in a standard 30l Fermenter from HBS. Sanitized with an airlock.

How much water mate? That's a lot of yeast and a lot of sugar. I use 6kg but go to 28L. I still only use about 80grams for a wash that size, the yeast grows mighty quick if you keep her warm.

Why not add a little more water? You've got plenty of everything else.

[Frothwizard]

Came to about 26L mark on the fermenter. It's been in for 5-6 days now...too late to add an extra litre?

[BackyardBrewer]

Came to about 26L mark on the fermenter. It's been in for 5-6 days now...too late to add an extra litre?

Mate I reckon this will be fine. You could add a litre but I'd leave it, it's a very forgiving recipe.

[Frothwizard]

Excellent, thanks for the feedback!

[Frothwizard]

Ok, results are in for my bastardized TPW

It FINALLY stopped fermenting a few days back.

Stirred it up and degassed it. Then took the final SG reading of .94

This, based on some online calculators means I've got an alcohol content of 19.95%...which I'm assuming is due to the extra sugar / yeast I put in.

Running it through the new still now.

Results pending....

[Sam.]

I doubt your bakers yeast fermented out that high.

Reckon your original reading was probably incorrect, see what our yield is :-B

[Frothwizard]

That is exactly what I thought...I triple checked both readings at the start and end. I'm sure that's what it was reading.

Started coming out around 72%. Threw out the first 400ml.

Stopped collecting at 30% and kept what was left down to 20%. Stopped the still at that point.

When I diluted it all down to 40%, came up with 6.3 Litres.

It's got some strange earthy tones to it. Not unpleasant, but not completely neutral by any stretch of the imagination.

[Sam.]

Yeah from that yield I would say you were between 10 and 12% in the wash.

Sometimes undissolved sugar will mess with your reading also you normally measure at the start hot and the end cold which will throw it off a bit :-B

As long as it finishes you are fine :handgestures-thumbupleft: