Long Intro from Gippsland.

[Mimsy92]

Evening All, (TL;DR: Hi. Was a stalker, now I'm not.)

I have been a long time stalker and learner, quietly hiding in the shadows.
I first signed up for this site in an effort to look at some photos.
However, that caused me great pain.
As now I realise that there is so much more to this site than just some pretty pics.
*From what I have seen, you guys have some skills in the way of building. I dont even know what I'm looking at sometimes.
Guess that learning curve is steeper than I had originally thought.

Anyhow, since lurking in the shadows I have a confession to make.
I was/am one of the gullibles that got caught into the turbo 500 HBS kit and subsequently the turbo packs.
Now don't get me wrong, she does me proud and keeps my belly full of alcohol.
But damn isn't there more to it.

Wasn't until last Thursday that I decided to put down my first TPW.
Sick of the rocket fuel taste from Turbos, so much glycerine used to hide it. Never enough in the bottle. Haha

I've changed up my standard set up a little bit from the HBS fermenter.
I bought a 30l water container from bunnings (has a handle) {I now know the feeling of women having pockets}, and a $12 50w aquarium heater from Kmart.
Fitted them all, no leaks (thank you silicone), happy days.

Replaced the ceramic packers to ss scrubbers from bunnings along with some copper bits for a bit of "hey how ya doin".

From someone who wanted to make rum with a pot still, to me who all of a sudden hasn't been doing anything correctly until I joined this group.
I still have a massive learning curve ahead of me.
Shit.. Shotgun, see it everywhere, for some reason I can't wrap my head around it.
All in time I guess.

Question time, I guess for anyone who has actually read this beast of an intro.

Put the TPW down last Thursday.
5kg coles home brand sugar, homebrand paste, 80g premium bakers dried yeast and the 1/4 tsp citric acid.
Temp has stayed at 20° for the life of it.
Have checked it again tonight.
Not bubbling, no visual fermentation going on (think nice calm pond), Hyrdo is @ 1.010 (forgot to check original reading - noob) and Alco is @ well below 0 mark, just bounces around.

No idea what I have done wrong.
Do I re-pitch again in hopes of bringing her alive?
Is she just dead weight now and there is something to learn here?
Is this just how TPW is? My thoughts are no.
She has that nice pink hue to it and tastes sweet, so I know the paste and sugar is in there. Haha

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. As I will no doubt try the same thing again and possibly get the same result which is insanity.

Cheers Guys.

[The Stig]

Welcome Mimsy.
I would warm up the fermenter to start with, 20’s a little low try getting up around 25 or 28
Could also be the seal on the lid isn’t all that great , try pushing the center of the lid down with one finger, if the water in the airlock moves the seals ok if it didn’t move it’s leaking .
And an alcometer doesn’t work in a wash situation

[Professor Green]

Welcome Mimsy.

+1 on Stig's advice.

Many people here started out with one but out grew it's capabilities and there are a number of folks that do still use them and are happy with them. Whilst there are better stills out there, T500 will make you some very drinkable spirits if you run it right.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Mimsy92]

Cheers for the welcome guys.
And for actually reading the monster intro.

Stig:
Will crank the heater up full. Set for 24° and only getting 20°, so I'll crank it and see if that helps.
100% fully sealed.
For the first few hours it wasn't, but that's where the silicone came involve to seal up the excess in hole i had to make for the heater.
The alco test was more of reading to give if it helped at all.

Pro Green:
Yea cheers. I'm happy with it. And for what my knowledge is at, it is perfect for my experience level.
Get some nice alcohol that cost next to nothing.
Yes its turbo and has a shotty after taste, but drink enough and you get used to it.
But its time for better..

Reckon I just keep going and monitoring it?

Cheers.

[The Stig]

Wrap an old doona / blanket / yoga mat around the fermenter to help build the temp

[Lowie]

Welcome mate. A cupla things for you to think about...
1. an airlock not bubbling is not a sign of no fermentation, in fact can be quite the opposite. Take a look at the Coopers brand fermentors - they have a collar set up with no airlock device. If your fermentor has a ring of "gunk" around the top, that's called krausen which is caused by fermentation. I would guess that your original gravity was somewhere around 1050-1060. Your final gravity of 1010 means it's finished. You can still it now or leave it for another week to let the yeasties clean up after themselves (will give you a better end result).
2. As Stig said, an alcometer won't help you here - that's for the stilling process.
3. 20C. is ok for a bakers years, although it's bare minimum temp. Bakers yeasts like to operate in the high 20-30's.

Good luck, keep experimenting! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Tesla101]

Welcome mimsy.

I run a T500 and have been doing TPWs for about 6 months, haven't had one not work yet. I use 4 of those 30L blue water containers from the big green shed too.

With 5kg of Coles sugar and cheapo tomato paste I get a OG of 1.075 - 1.080. I run it at 28C with the same Kmart aquarium heater and it takes about 7-8 days to ferment dry for a FG at about 0.990 - 1.000. 20C will work, but will just take longer to ferment dry - probs about 2 weeks. Bakers yeast does like to run in the high 20s, low 30s.

I then leave it for a few days to clear before stripping it with the alembic pot still head. I collect about 6L from a stripping run. Each stripping run takes about 4 hours from switch on to clean up.

After I have about 25L of low wines of 35-40% (results of stripping runs) I do a spirit run low and slow, takes about 14 hours. I toss 700mL of fores/heads and then collect about 10L at 94%. Then let the jars air for a day and then take cuts, ending up with about 6L of hearts. The heads and tails that didn't make the cut go in with the next stripping run.

The trick with the T500 when doing a spirit run is to run is slow. I take the fores really slow, about 1 drip/second, to let the column reflux for about an hour. Forget any of the instructional videos that you might see on running it too fast. After fores, you want a drip, drip, dribble coming out. On mine the coolant exit temp is around 45C, but don't use the temp as a guide, use the take-off rate. The temp is just a guide and will be different for everyone depending on what you use for cooling, the ambient temp, the water temp, :teasing-blah:

[Sam.]

Welcome mate, also this might help find the meaning of shotgun viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2857

[Mimsy92]

Morning All,

Thanks so much for the support in assisting with my questions.

After talking last night, walked through the mud to get to my barn. Cranked the heater, wrapped in an old dog blanket.
Checked it this morning and she was sitting on 24c (not bad considering it got cold last night). Will check again after work tonight to ensure she is getting to temp.

The Alco reading was more of a just in case it did help.
Figured it would be as useful as Anne Franks drum kit.

As for the Glossary page. I keep that open in a separate tab as soon as I open up this site.
Has fixed a lot of my queries, and worth its weight in gold.

Cheers Guys.