Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Yeah, I'm surprised at how quick it was. But it'll give it more days to settle somewhat before I run it this Saturday.

My molasses and sugar mix rum washes always ferment out faster than anything else (as long as temps stay above 30 deg). Usually done in four days or thereabouts.

Let it settle for a week, otherwise shell puke like a b&*!h!

southern45 wrote:My molasses and sugar mix rum washes always ferment out faster than anything else (as long as temps stay above 30 deg). Usually done in four days or thereabouts.

Above 30 degrees! Jeez I wish!
I've got 2 belts and a heating mat on mine and can just manage 30C

Hull brew wrote:Above 30 degrees! Jeez I wish!
I've got 2 belts and a heating mat on mine and can just manage 30C

Hahaha yeah well I guess that's an issue over there in England. Way down here in Tasmania when it gets cold I pitch two 30L fermenters next to each other, each sitting on it's own heat pad, then wrapped together in blankets to keep the heat in!

Hi all

Been a while since i have been on here until this week.

Is it still the consensus to strip rum fast through the pot then low wines through 4 plates or has anything changed?

Seems to be but I thought id throw this out there for comments!!

Thanks

My 90ltr wash last week went straight through the 4 plate bubbler in 2 x 42ltr batchs... no stripping run.

Hey everyone

I'm doing 25l runs of macrum through my airstill. But the main problem now is that its becoming increasingly hard to buy molasses atleast near me, unless its in 500g bottles and even then i had to use to treacle for my second generation. I want to do 3 more generations maybe 4 and i was wondering if i can't find molasses will brown sugar do alright or will there not be enough flavour in it?

A post in the welcome thread first is customary mate
Brown sugar and simmilar variations have been used well before
Even a couple of jars of molasses will make a taste difference if you add it in with the Brown sugar, Panela sugar is another to look for
You could do a smaller ferment for a gen or 2 to build up the funk well for a regular sized g5 & 6
Hoppy days have 15kg drums of food grade for 35 plus shipping - no pick up currently...

HI all,

Been running a reflux still for a while and have recently acquired a nice new shiny pot still so I thought I'd try making some rum.

I put down two initial washes in 30L fermenters and slightly modified the original recipe to reduce from a 25-30L to about a 20L wash in each fermenter. The reason I did this, is that I have a 50L keg boiler and I wanted to run about 30-35L as a max. So after a successful ferment I racked off about 16L from each fermenter for a stripping run. This left about 4L in each fermenter. (I wanted to reduce the amount of potential solid materials in the boiler so I was conservative in leaving quite a bit in each fermenter).

After the stripping run I mixed two buckets ready to mix in with the sludge from the original washes. Each bucket contained about 7L from the remnants in the boiler from the stripping run, 2.5L of molasses, 2kg raw sugar, 0.5kg brown sugar, a pinch of Epson and a dash of DAP. I added water and then mixed it with the remnants in each fermenter, to a total volume of 21L. The original washes were done with SAF Gold yeast and I didn't add any more yeast to the second attempt. The temp of the buckets was about 33C when I mixed them back into the fermenters.

The problem I am having is that there is no action happening in either fermenter. So I'm guessing that the PH is wrong or the original yeast was not keen on the temp I introduced the new mix at. The questionI have is, I don't have a PH testing kit and it would be at least a few days before I can get hold of one. Should I just add some more re-hydrated yeast to the fermenters to see if I can't it going again without testing the PH? Or is there something that I have missed that I should look at first?

Cheers.

Chuck some more yeast in there :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Natjac wrote:I put down two initial washes in 30L fermenters and slightly modified the original recipe to reduce from a 25-30L to about a 20L wash in each fermenter. The reason I did this, is that I have a 50L keg boiler and I wanted to run about 30-35L as a max.

I run a 50 ltr keg boiler too, ive been putting 40ltrs or a touch over in my runs. Occasionally it pukes during heat up while both elements are going. I just shut it down for 5-10 mins and let things settle before firing back up and heating the last bit with one element. To date this stopped the problem from re accuring during the run.
Prob should add i do use a dollop of oil in the run too.

Natjac wrote:After the stripping run I mixed two buckets ready to mix in with the sludge from the original washes. Each bucket contained about 7L from the remnants in the boiler from the stripping run, 2.5L of molasses, 2kg raw sugar, 0.5kg brown sugar, a pinch of Epson and a dash of DAP. I added water and then mixed it with the remnants in each fermenter, to a total volume of 21L. The original washes were done with SAF Gold yeast and I didn't add any more yeast to the second attempt. The temp of the buckets was about 33C when I mixed them back into the fermenters.

The problem I am having is that there is no action happening in either fermenter.

With my experiences with rum i would be surprised if you wont have to adjust the ph at some point after adding that much dunder in next the gen. I can't guarantee thats the reason you have no action atm, but you will want to keep an eye on it.
If you dont want to waste a heap of yeast finding out just put 200ml of the wash in a glass jug and sprinkle a little yeast on top... you will soon see if anything happens.

Thank you both for the suggestions.

I have already rehydrated 50 grams of yeast for each fermenter and mixed it in. I'll give it a few hours and see how it goes.

I should have tried the wash and the sprinkling of the yeast first, but I had already gone ahead and pitched the full amount !!

Do you think that the 7L of dunder and the 4L of remains was too much for the second gen? Should I only be adding about 5L or so to the next wash considering its only about 20L in total?

Natjac wrote:Do you think that the 7L of dunder and the 4L of remains was too much for the second gen? Should I only be adding about 5L or so to the next wash considering its only about 20L in total?

Not necessarily... more dunder means more of a effect on ph and more important to know where your ph is.

A couple of hours after I put the extra yeast in its gently bubbling away. Gently, but consistently.
I guess I must have upset the original yeast by throwing in the under/molasses mix a tad too warm.

I'll have to get a method of measuring the Ph fairly soon and ensure that that is correct as well.

Cheers for the assist.

https://www.5stardistilling.com/product/ph-test-meter/
Just saying

The Stig wrote:https://www.5stardistilling.com/product/ph-test-meter/
Just saying

Looks the same as what ive got, they do the job... yours is prob better quality than mine though.

Natjac wrote:A couple of hours after I put the extra yeast in its gently bubbling away. Gently, but consistently.

Glad you got it all sorted. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Can you do a molasses run through a Turbo 500 reflux still?

Reece Dalrymple wrote:Can you do a molasses run through a Turbo 500 reflux still?

You can but you will loose most of the rum flavour as the t500 is a still for vodka/ neutral.
A pot or bubbler is what want for brown spirits.