Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey verge
I was looking to get a 200 litre barrel to do a big ferment in. I have had a change of heart though and I will be sticking with smaller batches so I get the generational improvements. A big batch won’t get you that. Not saying it is a good or a bad thing just saying you need to consider what it will to the flavour of your end product.

Thanks Wellsy. I will go with 50l drums then. I guess I can fill each with 10kg of grain and 30L of water in the 50L drum. How many liters of wash do you reckon I can squeeze from it?

virge wrote:Thanks Bluc and EziTasting.
Can somebody with experience in Angel Yeast tell me how much wash do you get from a ferment? I need new fermenters for the 50l keg boiler and I guess I can load only 40L in the boiler and I would like to get at least 40L wash or multiples of it. I am tempted to buy a 100l drum or 2x50l.

I have been fermenting 10kg in 40l water 8l of wich is backset. And it takes up about 50l space. 50g angel. Working on a thicker mash for more alcohol per 40l boiler charge. Also when you runnit be gentle tends to want to scorch..
Oh of 40l original volume water i get 37l back. 1.5 to 2l is unuseable sludge. Leave it in and it will burn :angry-banghead:

Hi Bluc,
Thanks for your valued info. Scary thing for me scorching. I did a lot of fruit brandy over time (55years) but even now I have a small 26L boiler with triple layer bottom, I use gas as a heat source and I tend to have a thick fruit mash that I boil but never burned it. It will be the first time I will run a bubbler with a keg boiler. I have a 3Kw heating element on it and I have a voltage regulator and I should be able to adjust the power from 0 to 100%. If the wash is prone to scorching should I use only 2 KW or less for heating?

virge wrote:Hi Bluc,
Thanks for your valued info. Scary thing for me scorching. I did a lot of fruit brandy over time (55years) but even now I have a small 26L boiler with triple layer bottom, I use gas as a heat source and I tend to have a thick fruit mash that I boil but never burned it. It will be the first time I will run a bubbler with a keg boiler. I have a 3Kw heating element on it and I have a voltage regulator and I should be able to adjust the power from 0 to 100%. If the wash is prone to scorching should I use only 2 KW or less for heating?

What type of heating element do you have is it Ultra Low Watt Density as can regulate the element but the heat up time is going increase and do you have insulation on the keg as that may help to use less power and run element with less power.

The heating element looks like this one, it is 3KW and I have a 10Kw voltage regulator. I do no have a blanket for the boiler keg.

That’s a pic of our FSD 2400w elements , taken directly from the web page
https://www.5stardistilling.com/product ... g-element/
So if it is one of ours , it’s either 2400 or 3600.

Hi Stig,
I wish I could buy from you. Unfortunately I am in South Africa and shipping costs will kill me. I meant to say it looks like yours but it is a 3Kw and has 2" tri-clamp fitting. This is my heating element. The heating tubes are 310 mm long

310x4 = 1200mm. 3000:124cm=24W/cm. 240W/10cm. I think it is a light heat density.

Well to my surprise the refund for that angel yeast order came thru and it did say it came from London in the UK.

So this still leaves me without any yeast so a link to a supplier who actually supplies would be very nice.

Cheers Bryan

mine is in transit mate with no updates so dont know if my option is any good or not.
if it turns up i will shoot you through the details

Mine took a good 3 months but turned up

I have received most of my Angel yeast, 900g from 1Kg. Now looking for grains.
I found these grains at an animal feed store. Will they be ok? Whole barley and crushed maize.

I hope so mate because that is what I intend to use when mine angel yeast gets here.
Unless of course it does not work for you lol.
The cracked maize is great in everything else I have tried my only question is given this is s all grain with no added sugar, would it be worth cracking the barley. Apologies mate I don’t have the answer, I have not cracked the barley in the BWKO recipe so will be trying it uncracked and then cracked to see the difference.
I am hoping to try malting some barley over summer as my niece is married to a barley farmer so I might have to help with the harvest lol.
Good luck with it

virge wrote:I have received most of my Angel yeast, 900g from 1Kg. Now looking for grains.
I found these grains at an animal feed store. Will they be ok? Whole barley and crushed maize.

Whole barley they sell Pearl barley in the supermarket to cook with and use a machine to rub off the exterior and seems is what they do when using to brew with but the price is very expensive because i think the out side does not give good flavours if you cook but probably with not heating up the grain to mash that the Whole barley will be OK.

I lost 20%not grinding fine. Cracked corn malt barley and malt rye. Non malted feedstore grain makes a good drink but cracked corn with malted grains is better. Hope this helps.

bluc wrote:I lost 20%not grinding fine. Cracked corn malt barley and malt rye. Non malted feedstore grain makes a good drink but cracked corn with malted grains is better. Hope this helps.

I can get cracked barley from a feed store for $18 a 20kg bag so a 20% yield loss is acceptable compared to paying $45 - $65 for 25kg malted barley but do you mean that malt barley tastes better Bluc?

bluc wrote:I lost 20%not grinding fine. Cracked corn malt barley and malt rye. Non malted feedstore grain makes a good drink but cracked corn with malted grains is better. Hope this helps.

I can crack the barley. Will malted barley make a difference in this case. Also I could not find rye grains malted or not and I intend to use rye flour.

virge wrote:

bluc wrote:I lost 20%not grinding fine. Cracked corn malt barley and malt rye. Non malted feedstore grain makes a good drink but cracked corn with malted grains is better. Hope this helps.

I can crack the barley. Will malted barley make a difference in this case. Also I could not find rye grains malted or not and I intend to use rye flour.

Rye Malt (Gladfield) but because there is not a big demand for rye malt is very expensive and going by what is reported if get rye can just grind up the rye grain.

Hi Teddysad,
Put my first brew of this down, stirred twice a day for 3 days they sealed it up.
Had a wee look after 4 days of ferment, but it had a big crust on the top.
Is this normal?
Gently stirred it in.
I just can’t see the grain on the top melting in if they are dehydrating on the surface.
Temp is a steady 32’c and there’s plenty of bubbling going on.
Is everything as it should be?
I talked to you on nzdistiller, but that site seems to have gone offline.
Happy distilling..love your TFFV
Cheers
John