Bubbler giving me the shits

[ticknaylor]

So for the second week in a row my bubbler has flooded with molasses middle of the hearts run. Just filled up with brown shit to the 5th plate. Slowed down the heat and induced more reflux but as soon as I tried to collect so more distillate it flooded again I had flooding at the start of a run because my boiler was to full but never at the end, fucking driving me nuts. Has issues with keeping my plates loaded aswell. and I'm not running to fast because I run so much reflux it knocks everything back makes a draining noise and empties my plates. Only thing that's changed since all my dream runs with whiskey is I soldered my parrot to the column. Which surges even though I got a breather pipe on it. Fucking pissed off I'm thinking of going electric because Im over it. In fact I'm going electric hybrid anyway, Has anyone had similar issues? My bubbler has always run sweet as before this

[MacStill]

Molasses wash's can be a bit funny like that, a spoon full of cooking oil or some anti foam agent will help... as will a fully fermented wash ;-)

[ticknaylor]

Molasses wash's can be a bit funny like that, a spoon full of cooking oil or some anti foam agent will help... as will a fully fermented wash ;-)

Ahhh cheers was starting to think I'd lost the plot because its normally so easy to run tah :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[bt1]

Howdy tick,

+1 mac,

had some issues a while back and put it down to the variation in molasses supplied. In hindsight reckon it hadn't fully fermented, the available sugars being the cause.

Buffering the wash for pH and the old vitamin B tablet fixed the wash issue and issue went away. now use this as std process for rum washes and careful to monitor pH during ferment to give yeast best chance. Dunder pH was/does impact on these washes a lot imho.

btw a EDV493 yeast derived from cane in the first place seems to a far better suited yeast for rum washes and ferments out cleanly c/f std. hot bread yeasts.

bt1

[ticknaylor]

Howdy tick,

+1 mac,

had some issues a while back and put it down to the variation in molasses supplied. In hindsight reckon it hadn't fully fermented, the available sugars being the cause.

Buffering the wash for pH and the old vitamin B tablet fixed the wash issue and issue went away. now use this as std process for rum washes and careful to monitor pH during ferment to give yeast best chance. Dunder pH was/does impact on these washes a lot imho.

btw a EDV493 yeast derived from cane in the first place seems to a far better suited yeast for rum washes and ferments out cleanly c/f std. hot bread yeasts.

bt1

Thanks bt :handgestures-thumbupleft: I used vitamin B but I don't own a ph kit might have to look into that in the future cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Canadoz]

Howdy tick,

+1 mac,

had some issues a while back and put it down to the variation in molasses supplied. In hindsight reckon it hadn't fully fermented, the available sugars being the cause.

Buffering the wash for pH and the old vitamin B tablet fixed the wash issue and issue went away. now use this as std process for rum washes and careful to monitor pH during ferment to give yeast best chance. Dunder pH was/does impact on these washes a lot imho.

btw a EDV493 yeast derived from cane in the first place seems to a far better suited yeast for rum washes and ferments out cleanly c/f std. hot bread yeasts.

bt1

I'd love to know what you use to buffer PH, I've been having a terrible time trying to manage my PH and washes keep stalling or crawling to the finish line because of it. Would love not to worry about it anymore.

[DaveZ]

Jump on eBay, you can get a pack of 50ph test strips from China, delivered, for a dollar. Might not be the most accurate things in the world but good enough I reckon for what we're doing. Then grab some calcium + tablets from the health section of the supermarket and you're away.

[Rumdrinker]

You'll need a digital PH meter for rum ferments, PH strips are useless due to the dark molasses making them unreadable.
Calcium Carbonate for raising PH, can be sourced from your local feed barn.
Citric Acid for lowering PH.


Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional

[DaveZ]

Haven't tried them on a rum wash yet, but have on a very dark whiskey wash and they worked ok, the paper will wick some liquid up that will show the colour up. I'll try it on my rum wash when I get a chance.