Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Ahoy mateys,

So I have had this puppy fermenting for going on 2 weeks now. It started at 1.09 (I know that's a little high but it's been done before).

Anyway, I decided to take a peek a few days ago and it was 1.03. This morning I went back and stirred/degassed it and took another reading and it was still 1.03.

Assuming that the bakers yeast had failed me. I decided to get some EC1118 out of the fridge and put it in a 200ml of water with 2 teaspoons of sugar at around 35 degrees.

Left it for 15 minutes till it was bubbling and then stirred it into the wash and went to bed. (On night shift at the moment).

Woke up this afternoon and there was froth going everywhere in the fermenter.

So there's a lesson. When Bakers fails you, grab something different.

Frothwizard wrote:Ahoy mateys,

So I have had this puppy fermenting for going on 2 weeks now. It started at 1.09 (I know that's a little high but it's been done before).

Anyway, I decided to take a peek a few days ago and it was 1.03. This morning I went back and stirred/degassed it and took another reading and it was still 1.03.

Assuming that the bakers yeast had failed me. I decided to get some EC1118 out of the fridge and put it in a 200ml of water with 2 teaspoons of sugar at around 35 degrees.

Left it for 15 minutes till it was bubbling and then stirred it into the wash and went to bed. (On night shift at the moment).

Woke up this afternoon and there was froth going everywhere in the fermenter.

So there's a lesson. When Bakers fails you, grab something different.

Aah! so that's why they call you Frothwizard :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Kimbo wrote:

Frothwizard wrote:Ahoy mateys,

So I have had this puppy fermenting for going on 2 weeks now. It started at 1.09 (I know that's a little high but it's been done before).

Anyway, I decided to take a peek a few days ago and it was 1.03. This morning I went back and stirred/degassed it and took another reading and it was still 1.03.

Assuming that the bakers yeast had failed me. I decided to get some EC1118 out of the fridge and put it in a 200ml of water with 2 teaspoons of sugar at around 35 degrees.

Left it for 15 minutes till it was bubbling and then stirred it into the wash and went to bed. (On night shift at the moment).

Woke up this afternoon and there was froth going everywhere in the fermenter.

So there's a lesson. When Bakers fails you, grab something different.

Aah! so that's why they call you Frothwizard :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

I haven't done a molasses wash yet. When I do my first rum. I'll superimpose a picture of a frothing barrel on top of my head and put it up.

So I put this TPW down on the 19th of Nov...it's now the 22 of Dec and it's STILL not finished.

It's still bubbling, hasn't stalled...it's just taking forever.

It's maintained a temperature of between 24 - 32...depending on the day.

What's the s.g. Mate. All comes down to the little glass vial sometimes.

SG started at 1.09 and it's stopped bubbling this morning at 1.02. Doesn't appear to be going any lower.

As I've said previously it started on Bakers and then I added the EC1118 later on which kicked it off harder.

That's coming in at 9.2%ABV which is fine...and I think I'm just going to run it like that tomorrow and that be the end of it.

Hi ya Frothwizard.

Have to agree with you that its time to run this puppy.
Shame its such a big wash and didn't work so well....but shit happens.

I recently thought I would do a TPW with Bread yeast ( Lowans) and an equivalent wash with EC1118 and wine neutrient.
TPW worked out fine.EC1118 wine nuetrient wash stalled at around SG 1.035.
pH was really low . Less than 3. Took about 10 calcium tablets crushed up to get it to fire up but it ws a slow painful ferment ..pH is an important concideration and just because the recipe says add a teaspoon of citric acid , it may actually make your wash too acidic.

Another thing I've found is that not all tomatoe pastes are the same .Stick to Leggos unsalted if possable .
I found "Solaria" brand or something that sounds very similar :violence-smack: did not fully ferment out as well as Leggos.

Yummyrum wrote:Hi ya Frothwizard.

Have to agree with you that its time to run this puppy.
Shame its such a big wash and didn't work so well....but shit happens.

I recently thought I would do a TPW with Bread yeast ( Lowans) and an equivalent wash with EC1118 and wine neutrient.
TPW worked out fine.EC1118 wine nuetrient wash stalled at around SG 1.035.
pH was really low . Less than 3. Took about 10 calcium tablets crushed up to get it to fire up but it ws a slow painful ferment ..pH is an important concideration and just because the recipe says add a teaspoon of citric acid , it may actually make your wash too acidic.

Another thing I've found is that not all tomatoe pastes are the same .Stick to Leggos unsalted if possable .
I found "Solaria" brand or something that sounds very similar :violence-smack: did not fully ferment out as well as Leggos.

Cheers for the words Yummy.

It's entirely possible it's a PH issue but that's enough ABV for me so I'll stick with what I've got.

It's all Leggos unsalted in this wash so we're all good on that front. I have no way to test PH at the moment so I'm willing to be that you're correct.

No worries frothy.
Just curious ..thats a large wash...what will you be running it through ?

Yummyrum wrote:No worries frothy.
Just curious ..thats a large wash...what will you be running it through ?

The Hoochinator!! :D

MacStill wrote:

Yummyrum wrote:No worries frothy.
Just curious ..thats a large wash...what will you be running it through ?

The Hoochinator!! :D

:laughing-rolling: fair call Mac.....blameing Xmas for lack of fully functional brain activity....Bring on the Hoochinator :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Ive got a similar problem with a 180l wash put down before Christmas.....leggos TP , Lowans yeast, PH is 3.1, it appears to be still bubbling after I added another Lowans when it was at 1.02 and is down to 1.15 but slow as...also using the alcohol meter I use in the parrot abv is still 0... does anyone use a different alcohol meter for the wash ? I dunno how accurate these little ones are down this end of the scale? wondering if i should add yet more yeast or PH is too low? Thanks, temp is around 27 atm...

Don't worry about yr spirit alcmeter bloke. It's yr SG meter that measures for you here. Your wash does seem to be a little slow though. However while thers still a little movement it's still working. Going by those bubbles on top, that is the case. No mention of how much sugar you put in. :think:

45kgs of sugar...started at about 1.08.... cheers

The original recipe calls for 5kg in a 25 litre wash. On a ratio of 5 to 1 you would need 36kg for the same result. Just a thought, but your 45kg will quite probably be why it's slow to finish. It's a misnomer that more sugar = more spirit. Less sugar = faster results. In my opinion.

Hi, I've used the recipe a few times without problem but you could be right....I might need to be a little more accurate with my water / sugar quantity ...cheers

would topping up the water do any good?