Gidday m8s/general questions/TPW issue

[mrchicken]

Gidday. Here's an introduction and a couple questions about a (maybe?) stuck wash I've got.

Salutations
First up I (like many others) have to say that this forum is great. Good onya to everyone who has been putting time and energy into sharing info here over the years, the past few weeks of lurking has dramatically broadened my horizons, or (given that I haven't actually put anything into practice yet), at least shown me that there's some other horizons somewhere around the place which look pretty good.

I've had a number of goes at the TuRbO yEasT shtick over the years and produced a lot of great hangovers. This was done using a mate's Pure Distilling mini reflux still (which appears to be an LM still (?), a distinction lost on me until I walked straight into a (rather useful) wall of text on different still types in the newbies corner). No cuts were made (other than fores), everything goes into the jar until the temperature goes up a bit in the still, or until it goes up a lot because I wasn't paying the correct amount of attention, resulting in some TURBOCHARGED FLAVOUR. It was truly the best of times.

In case you can't tell, I (really) like and (over)use brackets in my text. Good Times. I also use way more words than are necessary to explain even anything and everything :teasing-blah:

I have another friend who has gotten into the idea and grabbed a T500 kit (copper condenser, looks like the combo of SS and copper saddles), well before either of us had the time to look into this info on the interwebs about what would be a good still. Oh well. I've grabbed some 1/2" copper tube from Bunnings and will be replacing that offtake tube for him, although it seems to be a bit more tricky to replace the plastic cap bits... Maybe I'll get to that later.

Overall, I'm probably looking at starting out with some (actually good, non-turbo) neutrals, more than likely with a few of the ol' HBS cordials to spice up my life a touch. I'm pretty big on my gin, recently become a fan of heavily peated Islay whisky, definitely love some rum. It's pretty much most things, aside from bourbons and anything aniseed.

I've heard some good things about the Still Spirits Whisky Profile Kit, and was considering giving it a go (as well as the gin one, perhaps). I have also heard many bad things about all store-bought flavourings, so some more opinions would be good before I decide to fling the $80 (or whatever it is) to the local HBS.

Moving forward from the cordials, I had a chat to FSD today about a pot still and will either go for a 2" or 4" depending how much I want to fork out now (although with some kind of dodgy support/hanging string for the weight of 4" if I go that way, due to the 25L boiler). Seems like a good idea given I will be able to pump out strip runs faster, whip up some homemade (non-cordial) gins through steeping/boiling, and maybe have a crack at some rum/whisky. I also like the idea of the 4" owing to the idea of adding in more components later.

Having decided that the Turbo was now a chapter of my life that I put behind myself, I put down some TPW on Sunday, which brings us to a couple of QUESTIONS!

My life problems
I'm not sure if I've got myself a stuck ferment on my first TPW. I'm also not sure if I'm second guessing myself/the speed at which this wash will be running.

First up, here's what I did - for 3x 30L drum style fermenters, filled to 28L mark each (still got a bit of headroom so I think the actual volume of the fermenters is a bit higher).

Ingredients:
6kg raw sugar in each
0.5tsp Citric Acid in each
~220g Leggo's No Added Salt Tomatozza Paste (in each)
2 multivitamin tablets and 2 B-Complex vitamin tablets, split across all three.
5g EC-1118 yeast in each.

Method:
Clean using sodium percabonate soak overnight (they weren't that dirty, previously used for turbos and a partial mash XPA I did)
Sanitise using phosphoric acid solution
Add sugar, citric, tomato paste, and vitamins into each of the fermenters
Hot tap water to dissolve this up a bit.
Whip out the stick blender, give her a good whizzin' (brrrrrrrrrrrrt)
Alternating hot/cold/warm water up to 28L, ending up with temperature around 30-32degC.
Whacked the yeast straight in there
Stick blender part 2 (brrrrrt-brrrrrrrrrrt).
Close it off and wait for something fun to happen.

Probably dodgy stuff I did in the process
Now, probably the first thing to note is that I didn't follow the packet instructions on the EC1118. It reckons I should have rehydrated at 35-37degC for a little bit first, then (presumably after adjusting temp to within 5-10C of the wash) putting it in. I realised at the end of the process that I had not done this, but my energy levels were dropping and I figured I'd just wing it.

I checked the SG of little piggy number one, sat around 1.082ish on number one, same thing for fermenter number two, here comes fermenter number three- wait, huh? It's sitting at 1.05. This was truly a mystery, since I had whacked in the same amount ingredients into each, unless I somehow failed to count to six (as I used six 3kg bags of sugar - two in each fermenter). Not entirely sure what was going on there, but whack the lid on anyway.

Then, it turns out that little piggy number three (the one with the low SG reading) also has a dodgy rim on the top of the fermenter, which is preventing an airtight seal. Bugger. It's only a slow leak of air, so I figure I'll just seal it up with a lot of tape at a point in the future, and lot the CO2 produced keep it from oxidising as the positive pressure should keep it out until later on in the ferment.

I know I should have been more attentive with later parts of the process (pitching the yeast, taking proper SG readings, etc.) but I have some health problems at the moment and was running out of energy for anything but having a lie down, so I rushed it a bit there.

I also probably should have checked the pH, but I forgot to buy the strips after a visit to my HBS.

Obviously the troublesome fermenter is not producing bubbles out the airlock (as it is not airtight), but the other two started putting out some moderate bubbling about 12 hours later. They're running unheated in my bathroom, which sits about 15-20 degrees this time of year (current ambient temp in there is 17C).

Fast forward to day five (today), one of the two which were bubbling has stopped (as of yesterday), although I get the feeling that the seal on this lid is also not great. The fermenter which is still bubbling is pretty new and has a good seal. Took some SG readings, again, each of them has only dropped by around 0.005, although it is possible that this could be due to my dodgy readings at the beginning, so my margin of error (probably around +- 0.005) means that its possible that it has not dropped at all (or that it is actually dropping, albeit somewhat slowly - not more than 0.01).

Wow, did it really take this long to get to the questions?
What do people think? I'm planning on taking another SG reading tomorrow and the day after to see if there's any change, but I get the feeling it might be better to take an intervention.
I'm thinking of maybe getting some more yeast, actually following the directions this time, and re-pitching? Or maybe just leave it for a week? Are there any other suggestions?

I'm also open to thoughts on things I should be doing differently in general, etc.

Another (unrelated) thing I've been thinking about for the past few days - does anyone here make tequila? Can you even get any/decent enough agave to make that worthwhile?

Otherwise, I'm glad to be here. Seems like a pretty damn good community, and you should all give yourselves a (non-sarcastic) pat on the back for being great.

Congratulations on making it to the end of this wall of text, and thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Chicken

[The Stig]

Welcome chook.
Sorry but I stopped reading at EC1118, it’s probably the slowest yeast you could have used so chances are the ferment isn’t stuck it’s just lazy.
You’ve got 2 choices , leave it and let it run its slow course or chuck in some lowans and let it take over .
Cleaning isn’t needed to the extent of a beer, I use nappy san and water .
Anyway , again , welcome

[Wellsy]

Welcome Chook
I will leave the answer to the experienced guys on here.

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD mrchicken.

+1 on EC1118 being slow; I had a WBAB that took 2 months to complete. Bakers yeast is far quicker and will still yield excellent results.

I wouldn't worry too much about the seals on your fermenters or lack of any airlock activity. To check for yeast activity you can stick your ear up against the side of the fermenter and listen for a fizzing sound. With the slower yeast, I would be measuring the SG every few days and assume it's done when it doesn't change over several consecutive readings.

As Stig suggested, you can either let it go and wait it out or you can chuck some bakers yeast in to kick it along.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[mrchicken]

Cheers for the replies there!

Yep - I had jumped the gun in terms of worrying. They're making slow but inexorable progress down the gravity scale (it's moved 0.04 in 1.5 days). This is yeast after my own heart (putting off what can be done today until tomorrow), so I'll see if I can rustle up some more fermenters for the meantime, in which case I'll let it run, or failing that I'll pick up some Lowans.

Good tip on not cleaning to the same extent as beer though Stig, that'll definitely save me some time!

Ta

[howard]

i find ec-118 can be slow, but i thought it was mainly for wine/cider etc
i didn't realise it could take relatively high temps either.
i just found that the EC-1118 blurb on some HBS is incorrect.
i have a ginger beer in the shed which is 17-20c and it's quite slow.
as opposed to the 2 x rum washes in the fridge at 30c, which usually go off after a couple of hours.(80gms lowans in each)
i hydrate the lowans in 30c water, usually foaming within 10-15 mins.
it does get a bit clumpy around the spoon, but clean fingers and perseverance works.

https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/en/united-states/product-details/lalvin-ec-1118/
the link explains the temp/time, i think.
i will be using my ec-1118 at higher temps from now on (not in rum, tpw or ffv of course)
and the GB will be going in the fridge with the rum very soon.(might turn the temp down to a compromise of 27/28C)