Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I did
7 kg sugar
140g lowans bakers yeast
1 teaspoon epsom salts
250g home brand tomato paste
i found out later that i only supposed to use 5 kg of sugar( geez i hate wasting)
question: i kept the sludge/ yeast from the bottom of my fermenter, how long will it keep in the fridge?

I tried:
6kg Dextrose
250gm tomato paste
40 ml lemon juice(freshly squeezed)
1 teaspoon epsom salts
70g bakers yeast
22 litres water
This fermented out in 7 days (summer) but only yealded 3.2 litres@94%

I am now trying the same but with 7kg sugar, its fermenting now.

kimbo wrote:question: i kept the sludge/ yeast from the bottom of my fermenter, how long will it keep in the fridge?

I've kept rum lees for about 6 weeks and then used them, I have even aged a ferment for a couple of months and reused the lees for the next wash.

Cheers.

I've just set up another forum where you guys can discuss flavorings and so on, I'd like to keep things posted in their appropriate catagories please.

If this site grows we dont want people to be straying too far off topic, that way in future we can find all our info easier.

I've split this topic into the aging forum and moved the posts about flavorings over to there, no posts were deleted :D

Thankyou. :D

McStill with this recipe do you reuse the left over liquid in the still for your next batch and add it to the sediment left over from the fermenter? Do you need to add more yeast?

No,

I've come to the conclusion that doing so is probably not a very good idea, the reusing of lees for generations is usually only done when trying to induce more flavor in the final product.

In this case I think it is probably best to do a new wash each time, as it's a flavorless product your chasing.

If your out of yeast and need to get a batch going, then you could use the sludge.

Cheers.

Mcstill,

I am using the same recipe as you, but using 8kg os white sugar, is that too much sugar.

rumby wrote:Mcstill,

I am using the same recipe as you, but using 8kg os white sugar, is that too much sugar.

Yeah I reckon it is way too much, your going to be pushing your yeast colony real hard trying to get more alcohol out of a wash with that much sugar in it.

By doing the get more hooch thing your yeast might struggle to get through all that sugar, and when yeast stress they can produce bad flavors in your final product, giving you mediocre booze.

Keep your next wash ABV% low, 12% at the most and you'll start to notice a big improvement in your final product.

The recipe I use is tried and true, been done many times by many people, sometimes we're all just better off sticking to what we know works.

Cheers.

The 16 kg for 60 ltr rumby was talking about is my bad, 15 kg will give 14.7% which is the max you want to go for. As McStill said if you go for about 12% you can't go wrong.

My bad, sorry about that rumby.

I have been going for 14.7%, takes longer to ferment out but I have qute a few fermenters and I am a greedy bastard :)

just sipping on a TPW and tonic from today's run.... (TPW = tomato past wash)

i let my TPW settle for ages and it clears right out to nearly like water :)
sometimes it sits around for months untill i run it
i keep it to 5kg / 23L batches and i dont worry to much about chasing my tails (maxing out the returns)
i dont stir or once it's mixed up in the barrel just let it go.

here a old pic but todays was jut as clear sitting on 990

i need to refill my fermentors :roll:

Got to love the TPW, bran washes, I was doing a lot of TPW then got a 40kg bag of bran because it was cheap, now I have to do bran washes to get rid of it.

Hi yet again all those whose wisdom I request, (Spud1700 you might have to club ME with your filtering system soon :lol: ) can I make an assessment that using heaps of dextrose eg 8kg and SS turbo yeast and turbo carbon AND turbo clear etc etc etc is not as cheap nor as quality inducing nor as neutral end product smelling as a good tomato wash (esp when multiplied by whatever it takes to catch up with the 8kg dexrose wash in terms of finished ABV volumes)? NB: I've got an airstill!
I'm questioning because, afterall, when does one ever find cheap better solutions ??..... but hoping because this answer might just make my day :roll:
Frank

Not sure if I got your question 100%, the tomato paste washes, bran wash will give a much better quality product. I have tried turbos a few times and the smell before and after is shocking :(

TPW and bran washes are cheap and they work well :)

Hi Frank

turbos are great if you want massive yields but they come with a cost and that is carbon, filtering and more mucking about trying to get them "clean"

they are great if you just want to get drunk, LHBS (local home brew shops) love them as they as are a cash cow in making you buy sugaz, dex, clearing agent, turbos, carbon, the "new filter" the "new carbon" the new "whatever we can market" all the things they need to make a living.

how many times do you hear them telling you, " have you tried using a TPW or bran / ???" if you bring up the idea they try to mostly avoid it.. there is not much of a living selling $2 worth of ingredients and $5 worth of sugar to do a standard HB size TPW

your way better off making TPW and only pulling the hearts out of it and dumping the rest down the drain...... thats hard to do on a airstill just based on wash volume in the still but you need to focus on quality to get the best out of your drinks

i can just keep 1L of 40% hearts out of each 5kg of sugar and be happy :) and not even care about the yields but each to their own on what they like best

Frank,

I too loved the excitement the Home Brew Shop sells about the turbo yeast, I ran my first wash through spuds still, and was like a pig in mud, took it home and tasted my delights. It wasnt until & tried a tomato paste wash, and really noticed the difference. My missus didnt have the heart to tell me after a few drinks of the turbo vodka , it was giving her a headache. I still can smell that dirty turbo smell. I ended running the neutral through the still twice to get rid of the smell.

I get funny comments at the woolies checkout, with 30 bgs of sugar, lowans yeast, tomato paste & citric acid. I told an old bloke the other day I keep my dentist in buisness.

What type of fermentor do you use?

Yeah if your doing turbos you realy need to run it through carbon, I can still remember the smell of the turbo's. When it's fermenting and after it's been run, if you go to a home brew shop and ask them they will say "that tomato paste wash they talk about doesn't work, if it did people wouldn't buy turbos would they?"

If people are happy using them though fair enough, if you were in a real rush and needed to have a wash ready to run in two days and had a carbon filter afir enough.

I have a bit of a stash in the garage though so I will never be in a hurry to run a wash.

I am really looking forward to aging some stuff for 12 months or two years, just need to get more bottles.

Hiya everyone,

I think my TP wash is just about ready to be degassed and left to clear, SG is .990, I am getting maybe 1 air bubble through the airlock every 30 seconds ish.

Probably a stupid question but.....When it comes to clearing the wash, should I degas before transfering the wash into a new container stirring in all the yeast and gunge in the bottom of the fermenter then wait for it to clear, or transfer the wash, leaving the yeast cake in the bottom of the old fermenter, then degas and wait for it to clear in the new fermenter?

I think that I would transfer the wash first and leave the yeast cake in the bottom of the old fermenter, however just wanted to confirm.

Thanks

Couple of different ways to do it, first one just let it sit there for a week or two after it's finished with the airlock in place then decant into your boiler and go for it (thats what I do) or once it's finished decant it into another vessel, air lock on, then let it settle then when ready to run siphon into boiler (more trouble that it's worth and I have never done it myself)

Other people use the turbo clear etc (waste of money in my opinion but each to their own :) )

Yes, I dont want to use turbo clear in this wash, just wanted to see how it goes without adding anything except the basic recipe ingredients.

Thank you

racking it to the next fermenter is a good idea but not that important, plenty of beer brewers do it "racking to 2ndary"

it should eventually (and maybe faster) make your wash clearer.

i dont bother degassing or racking, i just leave them sit for ages often 8 weeks as i often don't have time to still them :(
by the time i run them they are flat (no gas) and clear as

some recycle the yeast cake by putting fresh water and sugaz on top of it.
i often when making beer, tip the cake into a 2L sterilized coke bottle then clean the fermenter tip in the new wort and tip the 2L yeast on top.
many say the dead yeast and leftovers make great nutrient for the new wash with the still alive but dormant yeast in the cake

if i was going to i would do it pre-degassing and use a hose to the bottom of the new fermenter to avoid "splashing and re-aerating" the wash.
the CO2 would then come out and give you that layer of CO2 protection from O2 in the new fermenter.
but that's me and why i don't bother.