Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

4 weeks in Darwin and its still bubbling in my 220 litre olive drum.

Hopefully it finishes off before i die from old age.

Matt_Pl wrote:4 weeks in Darwin and its still bubbling in my 220 litre olive drum.

Hopefully it finishes off before i die from old age.

That's interesting, I had a similar problem with my first couple of batches but with the help of Peregian, Teddy, et al. I now have very consistent results and have simplified the process no end and it still performs brilliantly.

I had come to the conclusion that my initial problem was low temperature - I now keep the ferment at around 30C and the yeast seems to love that - in fact the ferment keeps itself warm for about one and a half days, then I drop in a small aquarium heater that really works well (an other idea from this thread).

Having said that, you being in Darwin suggests that temperature isn't your problem.

I do 160L batches so it's not a scaling issue.

If you post your process and materials someone may recognise an issue.

Cheers, I hope it ferments out well for you anyway.

Matt_Pl wrote:4 weeks in Darwin and its still bubbling in my 220 litre olive drum.

Hi Matt, did you aerate the wash after adding the yeast?

I use a stick blender with an aerating blade but this may be difficult in a 220 liter drum. the trick with the blender is to use it on the side of the fermenter with about half the blade out of the wash and it set up a cavitation pulling air into the wash. When you hit the sweet spot it makes a very distinctive sound, similar to an outboard motor prop sucking air.

I use an 18 v battery drill and a paint sturrer, it works very well. I am not too fussed with a long ferment. I checked the wash this morning its still bubbling away so it hasnt stalled yet.

I attempted to give it a stir last weekend, it bubbled over the fermenter lip so I certainly wont be doing that again!

Matt_Pl wrote:I use an 18 v battery drill and a paint sturrer,

Is the paint stirrer sucking in air or just stirring every thing together?

When I have finished with the stick blender the top of the wash is covered in largish bubbles. Up your way temperature should not be a problem, I am on the Sunshine coast so gets a bit cool overnight this time of year, the washes still finish in 72 hours if I wrap then in a sleeping bag, I put 4 x 30 liter fermenters together to form a thermal block.

Something odd going on.....yeast....water quality......PH levels......type/quantity of nutrient added.

Matt_Pl wrote:I use an 18 v battery drill and a paint sturrer

Did you remember to clean the paint stirrer since the last time you painted the house? :))

Wondering if it is worth holding the bran at 65deg and treating it like a full grain to get sugars out, weather there is going to be an advantage

Fireplace01 wrote:Wondering if it is worth holding the bran at 65deg and treating it like a full grain to get sugars out, weather there is going to be an advantage

Unless you are adding an enzyme (either directly or via malt) you wont see much gain in sugars.

The bran is there for both nutrient and more importantly flavour

Yeah cheers, was thinking nothing to gain, just thought I would check

Matt_Pl wrote:4 weeks in Darwin and its still bubbling in my 220 litre olive drum.

Hopefully it finishes off before i die from old age.

got me thinking Matt, maybe it IS temperature, the yeast will generate a fair bit of heat, specially in a 200 ltr drum, maybe it got a bit hot for the little buggers?

How would this go without the use of DAP? Im finding it pretty hard to get in town and my 2 options are either order it online or drive 4hrs to the nearest brewshop.

Is there some thing that can be used in its place to substitute it thats readily available?

Tomato paste will work but may leave a tomato flavour. Also hear dap( diammonium phosphate) is a fertiliser and available from rural or gardening shops. No idea of difference between rural grade and stuff from home brew shop...

If it isn't good grade and white in color I wouldn't use it from an agricultural place. They usually sell it by the semi load anyway.

Just give it a crack without it to start, it should still take off then order some and add it when it rocks up :handgestures-thumbupleft:

skurvy84 wrote:How would this go without the use of DAP? Im finding it pretty hard to get in town and my 2 options are either order it online or drive 4hrs to the nearest brewshop.

Is there some thing that can be used in its place to substitute it thats readily available?

It will still work just take a little longer to ferment out. I have forgotten to put DAP in a couple of times and it still worked.

Are you putting in a multi vitamin? If so it will be fine.

Heavy metals in DAP fertilizer.
http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agricultu ... ey-2008-09

So its just a yeast nutrient am i correct?, can the same thing be achieved with just a generous amount of boiled/dead yeast cells? I take it the nitrogen is what helps the ffv finish as quick as its supposed to.

Yes you are correct. The nitrogen is balanced with the vitamins and magnesium to give the yeast the energy it wants to work well.
Stick to food grade DAP. at 10c or so per 23 - 25l wash it makes this recipe really race along.

The "designed for fuel" Turbo Yeasts are far more expensive and produce a lot of off-flavours.

There are a lot of chemicals that have nitrogen like sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate calcium nitrate that are used in food and can buy food grade but there seems to be very little written about effects on yeast.
Sodium nitrite seems to be very toxic in concentrated form.

Got a question on fermentation time. I did a 10L wash (pretty much 1/2 the ingredients) of this and the same time a 25L TPW. The FFV was still bubbling after 4 days and the TPW got to 990 before the FFV. Did them both on a Sunday by the following Sunday the FFV was still at about 1000 and the TPW was at 990.

Just wondering why it would have taken so long, I think I used about 2.125Kg of sugar, maybe that is why?

You got it. The sugar you used is almost the equivalent of 5kg in the 23l wash.

You have a starting SG of around 1.083 vs the recommended 1.065
It is the lower level helps with the speed and has been discussed.
You get a slightly lower yield but with the time can get more done over a given period.