12 month old newbie

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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:16 pm

Sorry -questions coming thick and fast.

My TPW in the 50 litre container is stuck. I’ve read the newbie post. Water PH would be good as we have excellent water in MELBOURNE. Temp is sitting at 24 degrees.

Any tips? Should I heat it up to 30 to give it a kick?
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Doubleuj » Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:54 pm

Nothing wrong with questions rolls, that’s how we all started, good to see you’ve tried searching for your own answers too :handgestures-thumbupleft:
How do you know it’s stuck, do you have sg readings from a hydrometer?
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:58 pm

It’s not percolating. Temp is 24 degrees.

It was bubbling nicely then it stopped after the third day. Keen to not open the lid unless I absolutely have to. Any thoughts on how to kick start it?

Using bakers yeast In a TPW.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby db1979 » Wed Jan 24, 2018 9:17 pm

Open it up and have a taste (or use an hydrometer). If it's dry it's finished. Lots of us don't put lids on our fermenters but use glad wrap or a tea towel instead. So don't stress about opening it up. It's not going to be bottled until it's passed through your still so don't worry too much about infections.

If it's not dry then maybe it's still going but you don't notice any bubbles because your fermenter has a slow leak. If that's the case, when the wash was fermenting away full steam ahead there was more co2 than the leak could handle so the airlock showed activity. If so, taste it again tomorrow and if there is a difference then its still going.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Doubleuj » Wed Jan 24, 2018 9:27 pm

:text-+1:
By dry dB is describing like a dry tomato flavour Chardonnay, if it’s sweet it may have stalled, but, put your ear against the side of the fermenter, if it’s fizzing then she’s still active and you’ve just got a leak in your seal, which isn’t a problem :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Last edited by Doubleuj on Wed Jan 24, 2018 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:07 pm

So no fizzing. Hydro is reading 11%. So given she’s dead I’ll strip it in the pot.

Thanks for the tips
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Doubleuj » Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:10 pm

Are you sure your using a hydrometer and not the alcometer, should be a reading of .990 or so. 11% sounds like an alcometer :-B
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby woodduck » Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:16 pm

11%?? Are you using a hydrometer or an alcometer?

An alcometer is usually white and have a scale from 0% upto 100% this tests your alcahol % after distilling, no good for fermenting.

Hydrometer is colored and has numbers from .990 (or there abouts) to 1.300 or somthing, this is the one you want to use for your ferments. 1.000 or below and your good to go.

Or have you used the sg and fg from the hydrometer to determine the % of alc in your wash? Wasn't sure so thought I'd check :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:47 pm

Sorry - I should have said alchometer.

I’ve done a lot of reading on the forum but I can’t locate any info on the difference between the two apart from the scales and the colour. I have one somewhere - will fish it out and have a closer look. I was under the impression they both used specific gravity. Is one for ethanol and one for water? Is it because the wash is thicker and the pipet floats differently? Why can’t one use an alchometer in a fermented wash if it has ethanol content? So many questions... now I’m curious, amd interested! :shock:
Last edited by Rolls912 on Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby hillzabilly » Tue Jan 30, 2018 10:13 pm

Try putting both in pure water,the alcometer is calibrated for pure ethanol and ethanol water solutions at 20'c ,the hydrometer is calibrated for wash's and sugar content and the alcohol content expected from the wash,that is were you will get accurate readings from them,and not vise versa,its just the way it is .cheers hillzabilly ;-)
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby db1979 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 6:36 am

The alcometer has a lot of error at low % abv. Just look at the scale, it will have a very short part of the scale for the 0 to 10 readings compared to the 90 to 100. This makes it very difficult to make an accurate reading.

If you consider the fact that water based solutions (which our washes and distilled products are) will have a meniscus at the edge of any vertical boundary then this makes reading the alcometer even more difficult at low % abv. Did you take your reading from the top of the meniscus or the bottom? It needs to be read at the bottom of the meniscus.

Otherwise an alcometer and a hydrometer do the same thing but with different calibration, just as hillz said.

Additionally, a hydrometer will be affected by unfermented components of the wash and these may make it float higher. So a hydrometer should be used by finding the difference in sg and fg. An alcometer (when used for distilled product) shouldn't be affected as badly (unless there are a heap of tails or heads in your sample, which affect density differently) and so only the one reading is necessary.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 4:52 pm

Thanks for the replies.
Put the hydrometer in. It’s reading at at .900
:?
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:06 pm

6B8EFC5C-5948-4017-B59A-980121D47FF5.jpeg
Here is the reading at 21 degrees. Water temp in vat is usually 24 degrees.
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Last edited by Rolls912 on Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby bluc » Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:14 pm

Looks like 0.900 to me
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Sam. » Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:24 pm

Looks like 0.990 to me, they are all 0.010 increments on the numbers :-B
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby bluc » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:19 pm

Wouldnt .990 be down one line above/ (towards top of hydrometer) 1.00 in the green section :-B isnt the line below the number equal to the displayed number?
Edit lol all this time I have thought that was .090 oops :oops:
Last edited by bluc on Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby db1979 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:41 pm

Fire up the still and run it :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:18 pm

Ok. Roger that. It weird because this 50ltr puppy fermented in 6 days. The 25ltr took more than 2weeks. Similiar temperature exposure. Willl report back with the results.
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Re: 12 month old newbie

Postby Rolls912 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:14 pm

Few things:
- I’m stunned how quickly the TPW fermented. Only took a few days.
- 1 x pot. Now running the reflux. Again - very clean taste
- I’m intending to run the reflux x 2 runs then carbon
- any newbies reading this. Ditch the turbo and use the TPW. Significantly better IMO
D9B6929B-BA78-4AF7-9117-852E3B762520.jpeg


Thanks for all the tips :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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