tpw ferment time

[monners36]

Hi all, quick question. I have a tpw down and it seems to have taken a while, nearly 2 weeks. I am due on holiday in 3 days and was hoping to distill before I went. What is the earliest you can oull a wash for distilling? It currwntly has a SG of 1010. Is this to early? Can I speed it up somehow? Please help peeps, first tpw not sure if its all above board.

[Yummyrum]

Hi all, quick question. I have a tpw down and it seems to have taken a while, nearly 2 weeks. I am due on holiday in 3 days and was hoping to distill before I went. What is the earliest you can oull a wash for distilling? It currwntly has a SG of 1010. Is this to early? Can I speed it up somehow? Please help peeps, first tpw not sure if its all above board.

Wondering what temperature you have been running it at ..the lower you are the longer it takes .Read less than 25 Deg C
you could try upping the temp but realistically if you want to run this in three days them probs run out of time to get it to dry .990.

Its a bit exponential ,the bulk of it happen in the first few days ...the rest takes a lot longer....then there is clearing time.

so...if you really need to do this in the next few days then you might need to call it a compromise wash ...SG 1.010 isn't great but it will still give you a good amount of hooch :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[monners36]

Ok, might have to run it. I started it off with it around 24 but have cranked it up to 30 for the last few days. It is still bubbling but not much really happening. The abv is at 0, will it still give some hooch or have I stuffed it some how? Did a turbo wash the other day as well cause I knew this wash might have been a bust lol

[Smbjk]

Tpw loves 30 deg, the bread yeast needs a higher temp. As for clearing I've never never worried to much about it being super clear :-B wait to the day before you go and run it or wait till you get back it will be fine unless you are going away for years :D

[Yummyrum]

The abv is at 0, will it still give some hooch or have I stuffed it some how?

Not too sure how you calculated this :?

Without getting out the sliderule :ugeek: , I'd guess you will only get around 6 bottles instead of 8.ish ...if you get my drift ...just do it .it won't be a wasted exercise :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Sam.]

The abv is at 0, will it still give some hooch or have I stuffed it some how?

Not too sure how you calculated this :?

Without getting out the sliderule :ugeek: , I'd guess you will only get around 6 bottles instead of 8.ish ...if you get my drift ...just do it .it won't be a wasted exercise :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I assume you have used your alcometer in the wash? You need to calculate your ABV of your wash from your starting gravity and finishing gravity using your hydrometer :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[monners36]

Yup, I realised what I had said done after I posted lol. How much should I get out of a tpw? I might be cutting to much? I am running everything through my air still and collecting first 1300ml. There for 6 x 4L wash x 1300ml = 7.8L. Then I was going to run the 7.8L through again and do cuts so I am assuming I will get 2 x 1.25L after dilution. Does this sound right or am I mucking it all up again?

[monners36]

Or should I just be running like I would with turbo wash, collect 700ml odd from each distil and chuck the rest, dilute to 40%
, ad flavour and drink

[Urrazeb]

Never used an air still myself, but you need to take cuts regardless of the still. collect in separate ~200ml jars/stubbies/glasses and starting from the centre of the run work either way until you sense heads and tails.

Cutting the fractions will yield a quality neutral product, if it's only quantity your after then don't make cuts and keep everything except the foreshots - but this is not recommended.

[monners36]

I have put a tpw down and gone on holiday. It has been on for a week now and not being home, I havent been able to check it. I probably wont retur for another week before I get a chance to look at it or do any thing with it. Is there a maximum amount of timenyou should leave a wash in the fermentation tank? I have seen mention of people saying be careful of plastic, is that durimg this stage of the process or after distilation. Any advice would be appreciatedas I am still a noob and dont want to poisen myself lol

[kelbygreen]

plastic is only a worry when you are making the spirit so once the still is running then and anything after should never touch any plastic.

I would say a month is pretty safe as long as it is sealed fairly well. If the fermenter is wide open then its different 8-}

[Brendan]

I have put a tpw down and gone on holiday. It has been on for a week now and not being home, I havent been able to check it. I probably wont retur for another week before I get a chance to look at it or do any thing with it. Is there a maximum amount of timenyou should leave a wash in the fermentation tank? I have seen mention of people saying be careful of plastic, is that durimg this stage of the process or after distilation. Any advice would be appreciatedas I am still a noob and dont want to poisen myself lol

I just went to give you a link to the thread titled 'How long can a wash stay was[sic] before distilling' in the Newbies Corner, but then I read through it...has anybody read that lately? Apart from a good post from Mac and crow, the rest is all shit and it's in the Newbies Corner? :wtf:

Sorry about that mate, to answer your question:

As long as a sugar wash is kept sealed up with an airlock so that no oxygen can get in, it will keep for months :handgestures-thumbupleft:

And HDPE (high density, what fermenters are made out of) is fine for a wash (say below 15%abv). Once your alcohol is distilled it should not touch any plastic of any kind.

[monners36]

Cheers

[noname4670]

to answer some of your questions

how long does it take ? depending on where you live i live in tassie so i can get a tpw out in about 2 weeks in winter time and about a week in summer time
Plastic? this is correct once it is dostilled it should never touch plastic as plastic can leach into your spirit i store my spirit in either a stainless steel beer keg or glass demmi's also since you run an airstill same as me there is what i do i turf the first 100ml then collect the next 700ml and turf the rest you only need to turf the first 100ml at the begining of each drum not at the begining of every 4L batch

[Zak Griffin]

noname, are you saying you don't remove the foreshots on every run, just on the first run out of a fermenter?

I'm struggling to see the logic here... "turf the rest you only need to turf the first 100ml at the begining of each drum not at the begining of every 4L batch"

[Brendan]

Yeah that doesn't really make sense...what you are turfing in the first 4L batch is in the same proportion on each 4L batch out of the drum...

Maybe your 100ml is too much for a 4L still, and you could cut it down but do it each batch as the same stuff is in there in equal portions...

[Sam.]

I just went to give you a link to the thread titled 'How long can a wash stay was[sic] before distilling' in the Newbies Corner, but then I read through it...has anybody read that lately? Apart from a good post from Mac and crow, the rest is all shit and it's in the Newbies Corner? :wtf:

That one slipped through mate, it has been cleaned up to take all the dribble out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

How long can a wash stay before distilling?