Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all,

Have finally heard about this tomato paste wash idea and am giving it a go.

After doing many turbo washes with the turbo carbons and turbo clears the wash that was going into my still was as clear as water, do I need to worry about getting the TPW that clear? Also can finnings (for beer) or gelatine be used to clear a wash?

It has been sitting in a 50L fermenter for about a week since finishing fermenting and I can see a lot has settled to the bottom but it is no way clear. Should I just run it through the still (reflux) as it is or should I be worried about getting it clearer first?

All advice appreciated.

Sam

G'day Sam,

I never found it to go clear like water and it usually has a bit of a pink tinge to it when it's ready to go, you can clear it with clearing agents to speed things up but in this cold weather a week should be plenty of time.

What kind of still are you going to run it through? I reckon your going to appreciate the difference from a turbo wash ;)

Welcome aboard :)

Cheers.

Just took a gravity reading to double check and it has lost a lot of the red/pink colout it is going almost a pale brown. I don't think I will worry about trying to clear it with anything, the idea is to try it on the cheap.

My still is homemade a 50L keg for a base and dual reflux colums about 4 feet long made from 2 inch copper pipe for the reflux colums and 3 inch for the condensers, I use an italian spiral gas burner for beerbelly for heat.

Am defintely looking forward to the results.

I was thinking about finnings/gelatine for clearing as this would be a lot cheaper than using turbo clear, can you use this?

Your already in front by having 50L fermenter and a 50L still, so dont bother with clearing agents n shit ;)

Grab another fermenter and put your washes on a week apart, that way you'll pretty much always have something to run through the still.

Can you show us a picture of your still? it sounds interesting.

Here it is. Is this similar to what other people are running?

Ha! double barrel.... love it :D
how many L/Sec does it spit out?

If you crank the burner up it comes out pretty quick!

A couple of batches ago I made the fatal mistake of not watching it, cooked off way too fast it was all over in 2 hours.

awesome :D :D never seen anything like it.
Edit to add: Just get rid of the plastic tube on the takeoff

Fuck yeah! double barrel pot still .... I love it :mrgreen:

Do your neighbors know about their excess water usage? :lol:

Edit: just noticed reflux tubes :?

The colums are packed with marbles so it is effectively a reflux still.

I have a sumbersible pump to run water from my swimming pool, works a treat.

The neighbour does't mind coming over for a taste either!

so whenever you run the rig you effectively have heated pool, must be fun in winter :lol: :lol:

What percentage are you getting from it?

I'd need a long long hose to get to my neighbors taps :lol:

If i watch the temp the first couple of litres will come off very close to that magical 96% how close it really is with temperature correction etc. The whole lot will come off above 90 most the time unless I manage to fuck something up badly enough.

The condensers are so much of an overkill the water doesnt even come out that warm either!

I'll just let you know before anyone else does ;)

You really should do away with the plastic tube on your output, wouldnt want anything nasty leeching into all that hard earned likker :)

What's the condenser setup? shotgun, graham?????

This is a really nice rig mate.... fucken awesome :D

the only thing you might notice a bit of a "tomatoe paste" taste, but it is much better than turbo taste IMO

i strip mine then do a slower spirit run and it is nice and clean

the worst thing that can happen is you dont like it :) and you "waste $10"

out of interest you using the adjustable reg on that italian spiral ? i have one but need a HP reg to really get it thumping heat

I have only recently used the plastic hose and haven't noticed any taste coming from it, might toss it anyway.

For the condeser setup not sure what the different ones are this just has the pipe coming from the reflux side running through the middle of the 3 inch pipe that is flooded with water only the top couple of inches get hot, way unneccesary but looks cool 8-)

I have always used a low pressure adjustable reg but was taking about 45 min to get up to temp, got a medium/high pressure reg off ebay (same as what beerbelly sell, the red ones) It pumps the flame heaps better and it is adjustable but you can also use the knob on the actual burner to adjust I have found.

Will be cooking off this friday with the new reg and the tpw so see how it goes.

Thanks for all the positive comments, I have always liked this still but will probably upgrade to a slightly longer one with ball valves on top of the columns for easier cleaning.

Best way to clear any wash is when finished fermenting is to get rid of settled yeast immediately by transferring to another container . Save yeast at bottom and pour into a couple of 3 l juice bottles put into fridge and will settle . Clear top can be poured off in to a second bottle let settle again repeat and will be clean. No need to waste any of the wash or risk disturbing yeast at bottom and if siphoning can have siphon high enough in fermenter as to not draw up yeast .