Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I prepared a molasses wash in a 60 ltr fermenter about 7 days ago. I left it to ferment in my shower at my farm as I had to travel to Sydney for a week. I arrived back yesterday and the fermenter had sprayed a fine mist of molasses wash over most things within a mtr of it. There had obviously been a violent fermentation, however in checking SG it was still 1.065 from a start of 1.090. There was no bubbling and fermentation looked like it had stopped.
This morning checked again and fermentation stuck at 1.065. I split the wash into 2 60 ltr fermenters and topped up with water and pitched more yeast. By adding more water SG was down to 1.045.
I guess the answer will be to monitor, but does the "brains trust" think I can save this wash, or should I throw and start again?

With a violent ferment mate the temp can be driven high just due to the fermentation. If it was in your farm shower there is a big chance the whole thing got too hot.
Repitching the yeast should get things sorted, wait a day and see what happens as you have nothing to loose

Hydrometer readings in molasses wash’s aren’t always accurate.
Molasses has heaps of unfermentables.
Run it and take what ya can get

Sg readings taken with refractometer. Recipe was 14 kg Bundaberg Molasses 9kg raw sugar + couple cap fulls yeast nutrient + 50 ltr water. Had aquarium heater set at 23 degrees but checked with neighbour and a couple really hot high 30's days + high sugar yield is where I think I fucked up. Thanks for replies.

Most my rums finish betweenn1.010 and 1.020 strangely volume is pretty similar. At 1.065 i think its safe to say it's stuck. Some alkaline may help hydrated lime or calcium carbonate may help.
I have had plenty stuck washs and is usually ph. I have been having better luck with lime then calcium..

forget the tech stuff,stick a finger in and taste it,will immediately know if ferment finished.

finnwolf64 wrote:Sg readings taken with refractometer.

Refractometers aren't accurate for SG measurement once fermentation is underway. They are usually only good for the initial SG. You can use them to check FG, but you'll need to use an online calculator to adjust for the alcohol content.

I reckon it's probably done. As corrymeela says, taste it.

finnwolf64 wrote:Sg readings taken with refractometer. Recipe was 14 kg Bundaberg Molasses 9kg raw sugar + couple cap fulls yeast nutrient + 50 ltr water. Had aquarium heater set at 23 degrees but checked with neighbour and a couple really hot high 30's days + high sugar yield is where I think I fucked up. Thanks for replies.

That's a lot of sugar mate. Bundy molasses is around 50% sugar so that's 16KG of sugar. Even at 60 litres that's probably a 15-16% wash. Is that what you're going for?

timboss wrote:

finnwolf64 wrote:Sg readings taken with refractometer. Recipe was 14 kg Bundaberg Molasses 9kg raw sugar + couple cap fulls yeast nutrient + 50 ltr water. Had aquarium heater set at 23 degrees but checked with neighbour and a couple really hot high 30's days + high sugar yield is where I think I fucked up. Thanks for replies.

That's a lot of sugar mate. Bundy molasses is around 50% sugar so that's 16KG of sugar. Even at 60 litres that's probably a 15-16% wash. Is that what you're going for?

I was following a recipe I saw on internet but have since seen recipes for rum that call for a lot less sugar and molasses. My thoughts are too much sugar/molasses have caused the violent fermentation . Your comments confirm this. I've tasted wash and it doesn't taste as sweet as 14kg molasses and 7kg of sugar should. Might give it a run tomorrow if no change in SG. Thanks again for replies.

Just like I said :pray:

OK, so after a few days the SG dropped from 1.045 to 1.035 and stalled again. I ran both 60 ltr fermenters through my 80 ltr pot still as a stripping run. I then ran this stripping run through my 36 ltr column reflux still with pre condenser. Results were good with 5 ltr at 86% and 3 ltr at 78% together with 1 ltr of 50% which I will keep to add to my next run. The higher abv were mixed and diluted to 65% which perfectly filled a 10 ltr oak barrel.
Thanks for replies and I learnt not to trust refractometer readings of fermented wash. While I was running my still today I mixed a 60 ltr fermenter with a sugar, tomato paste "bird watchers" mix which I will double distill into gin in a weeks time.