Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

FilthyPhil wrote:So roughly how much bicarb soda or other options would I need to put into a 55 litre wash which has a ph level of 3.7?
It's a 2nd generation CFW with no backset, just the leftovers out of the first ferment, 450g of fresh cornflakes & 10kgs of sugar.
it's been down for about 15 hours with no action in the airlock.

Ok, so just an update on my previous post.
I added 2 tbs of Bi-carb soda on day 2 & that kickstarted the fermentation.
There has been continuous action in the airlock for 25 days now. The original SG was 1.065. After 18 days it was down to 1.018. I checked it 2 days ago & it was 1.012 & today it was 1.010.
It's slowly getting there. Air temp has been between 23-26C most days.

Slowly but surely wins the race mate!

But I must say I've never had one take that long. Each gen slows down a little more than the last but even my recent gen 8 was done inside 14 days. I normally target a starting ph of about 4, have never checked it during the ferment to be honest

Hope it is ready to run for you soon

I'm doing my first ever spirit run today & am wondering what ABV do you collect down to?
I started with about 40 litres of 40% ABV & have collected roughly 15 litres so far & it's still coming out at 75%

Sounds like you are doing a reflux spirit run filthy and I don’t have that gear, 8 believe when the ABV drops off mate it will do so very quickly. So hang in there mate and congrats you are one step closer to drinking your own product.

FilthyPhil wrote:I'm doing my first ever spirit run today & am wondering what ABV do you collect down to?
I started with about 40 litres of 40% ABV & have collected roughly 15 litres so far & it's still coming out at 75%

Depends if you just want to just get the hearts from the run and chuck the rest or keep some of the earlier tails and do a feints run or put in the next spirit run.
Once you're confident your in tails you can just crank still up and strip last of tails out.
The lower abv you go the less reward for your time and effort. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Filthyphil I feel your pain got a TPW on I put on last November and it's still going, it's now down to 1010 and still bubbling but it did start out as 1089 to get the yield, twice I put more bread yeast in and it's getting there :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I do have some aged CFW which I only now for soaking tobacco leaves in for making my own cigars and some saved for sac runs. Since I have moved onto
AG this breakfast cereal sprit is only good for that.

Cheers Bryan

Wellsy wrote:Sounds like you are doing a reflux spirit run filthy and I don’t have that gear, 8 believe when the ABV drops off mate it will do so very quickly. So hang in there mate and congrats you are one step closer to drinking your own product.

Nope, just a 2" copper pot still with shotgun condenser on a 50 litre keg.
I just checked again & it's down to 71% now. I'm not sure if I'm into tails or not because I can't smell wet cardboard or wet dog????

FilthyPhil wrote:

Wellsy wrote:Sounds like you are doing a reflux spirit run filthy and I don’t have that gear, 8 believe when the ABV drops off mate it will do so very quickly. So hang in there mate and congrats you are one step closer to drinking your own product.

Nope, just a 2" copper pot still with shotgun condenser on a 50 litre keg.
I just checked again & it's down to 71% now. I'm not sure if I'm into tails or not because I can't smell wet cardboard or wet dog????

Sounds like your on winner FilthyPhil just remember to do cuts and let the Angels take a share afterall your after a smooth tasting drop and heads and tails can go into feints for another run :handgestures-thumbupleft: CFW used to be my staple and I found aging it for 18 months got a nice drop so keep going mate and expect a long wait for it to be a nice drop

I collect to 10%
Turn the power up when it starts smelling odd.

RC Al wrote:I collect to 10%
Turn the power up when it starts smelling odd.

At roughly what ABV do you notice the odd smell?

Sorry, I dont use abv for cuts or a parrot, I only check towards the end when its hard to tell by taste and after for dilution. You will smell the difference.

There are no magic numbers, every wash will be different. Use small cut jars until you get more experience

I ended up collecting 45 x 500ml jars. Each had roughly 450mls in it so about 20 litres.
Of that 20 litres I tipped out 2 jars (900mls) of foreshots.
10 jars of heads & 9 jars of tails went into a feints container for later & I ended up with 9.5 litres at an average 77% ABV which will be going on toasted American oak for a while before I dilute it down to 40-45%.

Does that all sound right?

I generally oak my spirit a little lower Phil
I read/saw somewhere that at 55% it gets more sweetness from the wood, at 65 % it gets more of the spices. That could be complete codswallop and I have not done any long term experiments to find out .

Sounds like you had a good run Phil, 40-50% of volume as hearts is about right, but as already pointed out this will depend on your still and your taste/smell preferences. On my still the change to tails comes about 70% abv

I test for tails during the run by diluting a small sample down to say 20-30% ABV to bring the oils out a bit. Have a good sniff and swirl around in your mouth and you should notice some off flavour if you are in tails. Then tip the glass out and let it evaporate on the sides, give it a minute or 2 then give the glass a sniff, the tails smell will really come out once the water/spirit has evaporated. Once this becomes noticeable I pull another jar or 3 then crank it up to pull the rest out for feints

62% on oak for 6 months and you are laughing, resist the urge to drink it all before hand, it really does get better

Hi AD,

I've never done wash generations before, so I have a few questions to hopefully set me straight :D

1. If I rack out of fermenter a couple of days before I rack into boiler, will the yeast still be alive 2 days later?
2. Do I add cool water to fermenter (after removing 1ltr crud) straight after racking or doing it 2 days later is still ok?
3. Do i need to keep fermenter (with or without cool water added) at a certain temp?
4. Is it ok to dissolve sugar in hot backset or does it have to be in a fresh pot of hot water?

Any tips, tricks, methods and clarification would be appreciated.

Thanks

Gidday Bender
When I did generations it was done the same day mate but I am sure you will be fine a few days later.
I always dissolved the sugar in the hot backset and added the grains or cereal to the back set as well. I always let mixed the cool water to the backset in a couple of buckets so it was around the 30 degree mark when added to the fermenter. Sometimes I needed new yeast and sometimes not.
I hope that helps mate

Thanks Wellsy,

It does help, all info helps. I was going to go straight to the Capalaba Oracle, but I thought I'd ask here to see how the other distilling verterans are doing this! :D

Also needed to keep the hotline open for you :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers

Call me tomorrow AM or weekend .
NBN cunts are oh forget it , it’s a long story with so much wasted time etc and then there’s the the new site prats that keep extending the time frame …
No wonder I fucking drink :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

Hang in there Stig
I think we have all been there with the NBN, we get through it eventually

Drinking does help, and you are in luck because I think Bluc is up your way and I hear he makes a lovely drop :laughing-rolling:

Hi all, In need of some advice as my yield doesn’t seem right from the strip run of the CFW. I have a Still Spirts reflux still and boiler. Ditched the reflux and popped on an Alembic pot. I ran 40ltrs of mash in 2 runs with the boiler on flat out for a grand total of less than 5ltrs of low wines and collected down to 10%. The amount seems very minimal or would I have been better to use the reflux instead?
Cheers