Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

peterhobit wrote:Its pretty close to neutral (I'm on tank water stored in a 100,000 liter concrete tank) With a litmus paper test it is pretty close to 7. The TPW wash I have is 4.0 but still tasting sweet.

Have you taken a hydro reading? It should still be working at 4, what temp has the wash been sitting at?

I have done it before with bakers yeast but not EC1118. Yep It should be easy but this is taking forever. Have even added more activated yeast. Tempted to chuck in some bakers yeast to finish it off

Are you 100% sure there is no activity? Not even the slightest fizz? EC1118 doesn't ferment very rapidly and it can be hard to see any action some thimes

OK it is fizzing slowly, SG is 1030, temp is 20.1C and pH is 4.1 so I just got to be patient I guess. I made the wash on 27/9/14 so I am just getting impatient. However I did add Calcium Carbonate yesterday and do think there is ore activity today. Hmmm!

Good recovery there Peter,

temp won't stress it let it run it's course and you'll end up with a cracker.

bt1

Yeah mine take ages. Now I set up the fermenter forget about it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Based on results from recent EC1118 purchases, lower SG needed and lags starting to wonder if it's a slightly different strain of yeast or they've altered the product in another way that effects it's performance.

I've had the group buy and two other packets over many washes and it's slower than the same wash I have notes for up to 2 years back.

Just an observation

bt1

Mine was not from the group buy either it had an expiry date of 09/2017 . Pretty sure it was a 250 gsm pack. Didn't keep the batch code.

I have just finished a 200 litre EC1118 TPW that slowed down and got stuck. I tried a little more DAP and Epsom salts which perked it up a bit but it died down after a week. The barrel has had an electric blanket around it with an eiderdown around that. The wash has only been at 20C due to Winter down here in Vic.
After trolling around various forums I found nothing but guesses about the problem. The wash had started at an SG 1.085 and was currently at 1.050.
As the DAP and MgSO4 had worked I'd looked at my records and found that I'd used about 100g of DAP so I took the punt that if I more than doubled the DAP and MGSO4 I might get a result.
It turned out to be correct. I added another 150g of DAP and 40g of MgSO4 and it fired up beautifully and took another 10 days to where it's at now at .995. Adding to that the wash is drinkable as it has with a slight ginger taste to it. :handgestures-thumbupleft: The first stripping run will be tonight. :-D
I have heard that it is best to not put all the DAP in at once, so for my next TPW it will have 250g of DAP and 70g of MgSO4 for a 200 litre TPW. Half of each will go in initially with the remander about 7-10 days later. I'll post again if it works or not.

Thanks RefluxEd. I have three identical washes (60l) Gave one a table spoon of DAP and a pinch of epsoms salts yesterday and it was much more lively than the others this morning. SO I gave the other two a top up of DAP and Epsoms.

The results are in.
I did 4 stripping runs on Saturday from the 200 litre TP wash and ended up with about 45 litres @ 50%.
Early Sunday morning that went into the reflux still which resulted in 20 litres @ 90%.

Comment: So much for EC1118 giving a higher alcohol content. It started at 1.085 and finished at 0.991. From the online calculators it should have been at least 16% which should have got me at least 25 litres even with allowing for losses. :handgestures-thumbdown:

As vodka it was the smoothest yet but had a rather yeasty flavour which was very off putting. :handgestures-thumbdown:

Hmm. should I have allowed it a week to settle before stripping?

I figured making a gin from it that the juniper and coriander should mask the yeasty flavour, so I mixed up my favourite gin recipe.
For 40 litres of spirit @ 40% in still:
100g juniper
10g orris root
40g coriander seed
3g dill tips
5 cardamom pods crushed
1.5g black peppercorns
1.5g pink peppercorns.
Pinch of carroway
1/2 tspn lavender flowers
1 big basil leaf
1/2 tangello zest
1/2 lemonade zest
1/2 lisbon lemon zest
1.5 stick cinnamon
3g Rose buds

Result! The best gin yet! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
It was very interesting in that the rose flavour (ala Hendricks gin) came out at the very last. When the ABV dropped to %50 I started making cuts. The 30-40% cut started tasting of rose buds. The 20-30% cut was really strong with rosebuds. The 10-20 % cut looked oily and was really strong. Below 10 percent everything dropped off and started to taste watery.

The gin? The yeasty flavour gone, beautifully smooth, aromatic and a fair dinkum leg opener with the rose buds. The girls don't realise that it's an acoholic drink until it's too late. :text-lol: :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

I started another EC1118 TPW while doing the spirit run so that will be rested for a week after reaching 0.990.

I use residue (backsets) from each ferment in the next wash of sugar. It is taken after stripping so is sterile and is used to provide nutrients and balance pH.

Bicarb is an excellent biological buffer as it has the capacity to either absorb or release H+ ions (acid). I have noticed that Turbo yeasts and their ilk seem to have a great deal of bicarb in them so you're paying a premium for the bicarb.

My last ferment stuck and wouldn't budge for a week. I used a 'slow restart' with bakers yeast. I put about 30g of the yeast in a large container with some sugar, covered and left to work. Each day I transferred 1L of the yeast starter to the brew and a similar amount of the wash to the yeast. After 2 days the wash started to ferment again and was 'boiling' after 3 days. I continued this yeast starter transfer until the SG was as desired and the ferment was finished.

I have never used TPW but am curious to try. I simply use sugar (sucrose) from the cheapest source with excellent results.

As for the MAP/DAP/TAP nutrients addition, urea is cheaper and does the same thing - it provides nitrogen for the yeasts to produce their own proteins which are needed for reproduction. (I am not suggesting you pee into your brew, but I suspect it would work just as well!). I have not added phosphates and have always had successful ferments - maybe the backsets are adding the nutrients needed as intended.

Great first posts nuns, we encourage new members to introduce themselves in the Welcome center just so we can better help you. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'll add my recent observations for EC1118, mine was bought in the group buy.
For UJSM/BWKO , I find that EC1118 is "slower" than bakers yeast. I don't think it likes corn/sour lactic environment.
I've observed this for fresh washes and into the generations. Won't be using EC1118 in future for UJSM/BWKO.

I've got a fruit plum wash on atm, and its going strongly with EC1118, unless a wild yeast took over.
I discount the wild yeast thought, as EC1118 was rehydrated well (foaming over my jug) and the wash was quickly bubbling away.
EC1118 goes fine in Weetbix/Allbran washes and produces a nice result. My vodka drinker (SWMBO) preferred to bakers.

I had the same problem a few weeks ago in a EC1118 200 litre ferment, measured the pH and it was 3.4. I added 100g of Calcium Carbonate (chalk) a desert spoon of Mg SO4 (epsom salts) and 100g of DAP and it took off like a steam train. It finished last weekend with an Sg of 0.985. With a week to settle out I'll be stripping this weekend. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

RefluxEd wrote:I had the same problem a few weeks ago in a EC1118 200 litre ferment, measured the pH and it was 3.4. I added 100g of Calcium Carbonate (chalk) a desert spoon of Mg SO4 (epsom salts) and 100g of DAP and it took off like a steam train. It finished last weekend with an Sg of 0.985. With a week to settle out I'll be stripping this weekend. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

What was your wash Refluxed?

nuns wrote:urea is cheaper and does the same thing

Nuns, Urea should NEVER be used in in the fermentation process.

SBB wrote:

nuns wrote:urea is cheaper and does the same thing

Nuns, Urea should NEVER be used in in the fermentation process.

:text-+1:

bluess57 wrote:I'll add my recent observations for EC1118, mine was bought in the group buy.
For UJSM/BWKO , I find that EC1118 is "slower" than bakers yeast. I don't think it likes corn/sour lactic environment.
I've observed this for fresh washes and into the generations. Won't be using EC1118 in future for UJSM/BWKO.

I've got a fruit plum wash on atm, and its going strongly with EC1118, unless a wild yeast took over.
I discount the wild yeast thought, as EC1118 was rehydrated well (foaming over my jug) and the wash was quickly bubbling away.
EC1118 goes fine in Weetbix/Allbran washes and produces a nice result. My vodka drinker (SWMBO) preferred to bakers.

I don't think it's not one for a sour wash blue... I have used it in non ph adjusted fruit washes and it goes hard n fast. My mullberry schnapps was done in 4 days :scared-eek: it had quite low ph too.

Maybe it needs more nutrients than bakers?

1 2many wrote:

RefluxEd wrote:What was your wash Refluxed?

TPW using EC1118.