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Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:30 am
by howard
Bundaboy wrote:In general it's the other way around, you are more likely to experience a puke (boil over) when doing a stripping run due to the presence of CO2 and particulates, and the fact you are running it flat out. Of course I am saying that without being familiar with your particular equipment, but I doubt it would be any different. Doing a spirit run with 5L of head room seems perfectly reasonable to me.

oh, thanks for that.
just goes to show, despite about 40 hours of reading and copious notes, you can still get the basics wrong :D
i have managed to squeeze a picture of my equip in, but it's still a bit 'work in progress'.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:46 pm
by MartinCash
I just did a spirit run on the weekend and I had my 50L boiler full almost to the top. No puke.

By comparison, I can never give rum washes full power when stripping because they'll puke even when the still is only 1/2 full.

All that said, for me TFFV doesn't puke much, and I've stripped 45L in one go. Just start off a little slower through the fores.

MC

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:21 pm
by RC Al
Depends on the desired results

The 20% headroom actually works for us in a couple of different ways, it's additional insurance vs puking, but it also helps us with purity - in a still the boiler counts as the equivalent to one plate (its the only one a potstil has), a over full boiler won't give you as efficient theoretical plate as one with lots of open area for the vapour to move slowly through and condensate.

So if you have a short column your really making things harder for yourself by over filling and the doubley so if you only have a small boiler, with equal amounts of power applied, the smaller chamber ends up with faster vapour and less condensation opportunity.

I'll admit to trying 10% headroom both ways, but at the end of the day I got lucky. There's plenty of anecdotes of pukes on both stripping and spirit runs with the 20% headroom, but far less than tales of woe from filling past that, safety first hey?

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:08 am
by howard
stripped 4 x 23L FFV washes today.
i remember when i was starting this hobby, another customer in a HBS said to me "do you have a lot of spare time?"
i know what he was getting at now LOL.
ended up with about 18L of 40% low wines.
i am going to throw in 5L of 40% stripped lemon vodka wash (it doesn't taste or smell very lemony at all) for a 23L spirit run.
not too bad, apart from the heat-up/fores and the cut-off ABV, i can still potter around the shed keeping an eye on the still while i collect in 2L jars.
i will obviously pay more attention on the spirit run, where i will only collect 250ml at a time.
i don't suppose there is a lot of use for the backset off an FFV?
could i bottle it and sell it as hair restorer?

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 7:56 pm
by Amberale
I’ve tried searching to no avail.
Is it possible to use a BIAB bag for FFV?
It should make it easier to clean up.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:06 pm
by RC Al
You could, but the tiny amount of grain generally just sits at the bottom in the trub and gone in a single racking

You would have to suspend the biab bag above the trub to stop stirring it up when you pulled it out

Cant help but feel that the grain is better off at the bottom where the yeast lives

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:49 pm
by Amberale
Your right RC, I’m just lazy and looking for a shortcut in cleaning up.
I was thinking along the lines of a big enough bag to line my 50 litre fermenters and then pull the grain & bag out when they finished fermenting and leave the trub to settle before racking.
I’ve got 4 fermenters so no problem waiting a couple of extra days for it to settle.
There’s no point if I have to go tea-bagging the bugger( :scared-eek: ) or stirring it up with a spoon.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 6:16 am
by MartinCash
In my experience TFFV leaves almost more yesast trub than bran, so your cleanup would be not that different.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:06 am
by Amberale
Yes but the trub will pass through my rudimentary sink drain (rural shed) whereas the spent grain will block it.
Again, not a huge problem, just trying to streamline where I can.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:08 am
by RC Al
Powder the grain in a blender

No more blockage problem and it will work better for the yeast

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:08 pm
by MartinCash
I just dump the grain in the garden. The birds love it.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:07 am
by Amberale
My cows would be annoyed if I gave it to the birds.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 10:56 am
by RC Al
My damn ducks wont touch the stuff, spoilt buggers

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 9:41 am
by Teddysad
731A48AD-9C92-437D-A31B-33D5A1DE332F.jpeg


Here is my TFFV just finished. The amount of settled grain / yeast trub is not great it is a 33l ferment

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:15 pm
by stillthinking
I’ve just completed a spirit run of this TFFV and I find it super sweet to taste. Not sure if I’ve done something wrong?

My process was four 23l washes following the recipe, all fermented well over about 5 days and finished around .990. Then stripped this through a 4” pot and then diluted to about 35% with water, run through a 4” column packed with 650mm scoria and 450mm SS scrubbies. Refluxed for 45 mins after hitting temp and took the whole run at 96% on the parrot, 94% corrected. ABV crashed when tails arrived and I stopped then. I collected 23 jars at 300-400ml and discarded about the first 3.5l as heads, kept approx 4.5l hearts at 94% and discarded all tails.

I was expecting a drier taste, Is it just me or have I don’t something unusual?

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:02 pm
by Tesla101
When you say "sweet", do you mean your hearts cut?

I find this recipe does have very sweet heads, but I can tell off the still once they're gone and I'm into hearts - which don't have any taste or smell.

Tails is the usual "wet dog" taste and smell.

From your description I can't see any issues, except 3.5l is an awful amount of heads. Maybe you ran it too fast and had a lot of heads smearing? :think:

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:19 pm
by stillthinking
Hi Tesla, to be honest this was my first attempt at neutral, and my first proper use in reflux. I don’t have anything to compare it to.

I just checked my notes and after a 400ml fore’s cut, I put aside the first 8 jars of 300ml, as these I could still detect what I thought were heads. The sweetness was present throughout the run, the tails had a really nasty chemical taste come through and then wet dog.

I am trying for a gin base, so was surprised at what I call sweetness. Maybe I did smear heads, but I ran fairly slow I thought, at about 2-2.5 litres an hour and reset the parrot three times.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:52 am
by howard
stillthinking wrote:Hi Tesla, to be honest this was my first attempt at neutral, and my first proper use in reflux. I don’t have anything to compare it to.

I just checked my notes and after a 400ml fore’s cut, I put aside the first 8 jars of 300ml, as these I could still detect what I thought were heads. The sweetness was present throughout the run, the tails had a really nasty chemical taste come through and then wet dog.

I am trying for a gin base, so was surprised at what I call sweetness. Maybe I did smear heads, but I ran fairly slow I thought, at about 2-2.5 litres an hour and reset the parrot three times.

i only take off the valve on the bottom of the parrot on a spirit run.
i occasionally close the valve and get a ABV reading just before it overflows, then dump it into collection jar before it overflows.
my parrot holds about 130mls of liquid and i think it would smear.
i have seen the parrot smearing experiment by jesse on still-it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E75rEcijWjQ

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:01 pm
by stillthinking
Yeah I’ve seen that video on still it, whilst I won’t argue that it could be a heads smear the sweetness was throughout and didn’t seem to diminish.

I did a cleaning run of the column packing using nutri grain and rum feints a week earlier and then flushed it out with clean water, I wonder if there was something left behind...

Otherwise the sweetness has got me beat, doesn’t taste bad but not what I was hoping for.

Re: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka (FFV) Discussion

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:18 pm
by RC Al
A quick steam run will sort out any leftovers in the packing