Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Short answear no you wouldnt. I would be looking carefully for a leak and checking fg of wash. Either a leak or a stalled wash. I use to do 25l down to 20% and get approx 5l per strip. Hope it helps. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

In an effort to stop burning out the Mrs stick blenders I’ve bought one of these

Damm Stig what size wash do you put that in.
About the only upgrade from that I can think of would be an outboard motor and doing your wash in a small dam lol

Wellsy wrote:Damm Stig what size wash do you put that in.
About the only upgrade from that I can think of would be an outboard motor and doing your wash in a small dam lol

:teasing-neener: :laughing-rolling:

Hi all, after a shitty lockdown period that really got me down for a while I've finally pulled my finger out & started to get back into it all. For anyone that monitors the discussion threads you'll see this mssg in 3 different ones as I've put down one of each of them (CFW, Nutrigrain & BWKO).
I've just put down a 60L wash of this but cheated a little to get some upfront flavour on the first gen. I used 920g of cornflakes & cut the sugar back significantly + used a few kg of LME, well actually it was mostly LME & only 3kg of sugar to bump up the abv a bit. Yep it was a bit pricey but I had some extra cash to splash from recent overtime at work & I'm hoping it will pay off for the first gen flavour & also increased flavour for subsequent generations. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out & how it will impact the future generations flavour wise. First gen for all 3 will probably taste the same but what I'm hoping for is a kickstart of flavour for subsequent generations.
If anyone has done something similar or made whiskey from just straight LME I'd be interested in hearing anyones feedback.

Hi guys, I think I have a stuck CFW. It’s been fermenting for 9 days. Starting gravity 1.053. It hasn’t been fizzing for a few days so I checked the gravity. It’s now 1.023. Ph is at 3.4. Last night I mixed up a couple of table spoons of yeast and stirred it in. Still no action this morning. I’ve tried to source some calcium carbonate but could only find it in tablet form from a chemist. Crushed up a couple of tablets and stirred them in. Doesn’t seem to have raised the ph much. I’ve read of ppl using builders lime. Is this ok to use?
Ohh, the fermenter temp has been in the mid to high 20s throughout but we have had a couple of 34 degree days. Could the temp have got up to high and killed the yeast.
Fermenter is out in the shed, where it does heat up on hot days?
Don’t think it’s fully fermented as it still has a slight sweetness taste.
Wash is 50 litres with ingredients adjusted accordingly.
Any suggestion muchly appreciated.

Can you get shells or shell grit to bump the ph up. Dump a handful in . Mid 30s for yeast is ok, how much hotter than that could it have got to ?

Definitely not finished, shouldnt be any sweetness when done.
Using the AD calculators 7kg sugar in 50L wash should give 8.2% alc. You are currently at 3.87%

BigRig wrote:Can you get shells or shell grit ?

Mid 30s for yeast is ok, how much hotter than that could it have got to ?

Don’t think it would got up to 40 but not sure. It does get hot in there when closed up.
Only shell grit I can source would be egg shells. Might have to have eggs for breakie tomorrow. :))
Been looking online for calcium carbide locally but not having any luck. Pet stores apparently sell food grade, I presume for animals.

Hick1960 wrote:

BigRig wrote:Can you get shells or shell grit ?

Mid 30s for yeast is ok, how much hotter than that could it have got to ?

Don’t think it would got up to 40 but not sure. It does get hot in there when closed up.
Only shell grit I can source would be egg shells. Might have to have eggs for breakie tomorrow. :))
Been looking online for calcium carbide locally but not having any luck. Pet stores apparently sell food grade, I presume for animals.

Calcium carbonate :angry-banghead:

Get the pet store stuff. If u are concerned you could always boil it first but i dont think you would need to.

BigRig wrote:Get the pet store stuff. If u are concerned you could always boil it first but i dont think you would need to.

Thanks BigRig. That’s what I was thinking.
If nothing happens do you think it would be worth running, or should I start again?
Or maybe mixing up some sugar /water and trying to get it going again?
The gravity reading tells me there is still fermentable sugar in the wash, or am I reading it wrong?

Hick1960 wrote:

BigRig wrote:Get the pet store stuff. If u are concerned you could always boil it first but i dont think you would need to.

Thanks BigRig. That’s what I was thinking.
If nothing happens do you think it would be worth running, or should I start again?
Or maybe mixing up some sugar /water and trying to get it going again?
The gravity reading tells me there is still fermentable sugar in the wash, or am I reading it wrong?

I would say there is still sugars in the wash definitely. I wouldnt run it, you will get bugger all from it. I would split the wash and get the sugar and water parameters right then re pitch yeast to both.

Thanks mate. Much appreciated.

catch.com.au
https://www.catch.com.au/product/gen-pack-calcium-carbonate-animal-feed-grade-powder-5kg-5089927/?sid=Product%20page%20Recommendation&st=82&sp=2

It's 5kg for $15.89 but did cost me another $12.95 postage.

Cheers

gad wrote:catch.com.au
https://www.catch.com.au/product/gen-pack-calcium-carbonate-animal-feed-grade-powder-5kg-5089927/?sid=Product%20page%20Recommendation&st=82&sp=2

It's 5kg for $15.89 but did cost me another $12.95 postage.

Cheers

Thanks gad.
Will see how I go. Crushed up some egg shells last night and that got the ph up. I think there is a slight fizz now so hopefully that’s done the trick.

Gonna try a tweak of this, aiming for a rounded- out bourbony flavour:

700g box woolies brand CF (has a hint of malt extract I noticed)
500g box woolies brand High fibre bran (wheat and malt extract)
250g box ryvita original (pure rye flour version, not the multigrain ones)
6kg raw sugar inverted
35L total.

will do subsequent gens at half amounts of cereal.
Can't wait to try, love a good cereal wash!

2ltr Cornflakes - is that to be 2KG?

Cheers

Justillit wrote:2ltr Cornflakes - is that to be 2KG?

Cheers

Litres mate. Just get a litre jug and fill it up twice.

Hi all,

Just wanted to check something here:

From original recipe:

------------

Run it hard and fast through the pot, and collect 7 or 8 litres of low wines down to 20%. Put the low wines aside for later.

After the run, collect 7-8L of backset. I tip it into my mixing pot straight after the run, while it's still hot.

For generation #2, #3, and on and on, you'll need:

• 1L of Corn Flakes
• 7 or 8L of backset
• 7kg of sugar
• Water to top up to 40-45L

• Crush the Corn Flakes and add them to the pot of hot backset. Sit on the stove/burner.
• Cook for 5 minutes (or until you've got cornflake porridge) and add it to the fermenter
• Throw the hot water with the crushed Corn Flakes into your fermenter;
• Bring another 10L of water to the boil, and dissolve 7kg of sugar in it. Tip it into the fermenter, and you should be somewhere near your 40-45L... If not, top up with water.
• Check the temp: it should be somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees. Give it a good stir.

All things going well, your yeast bed should still be alive from generation 1... Leave it for a few hours and you should start to see some action in the airlock. If you don't see anything happening after 12 hours (it has happened to me, I threw hot backset straight onto the grains and cooked my little yeasties :sad:)

• Add another good sprinkle of yeast, give it another stir and pop your airlock back on. It should start bubbling away in an hour or so.

Once you strip 4 or 5 generations through the pot, you should have enough low wines collected to water down to 40% and do a nice slow spirit run...

----------------
I wanted to make sure I am not missing something obvious here.

Questions:

1) the "collect 7-8L of backset" is from the still boiler after a stripping run and getting down to 20%?
2) the 7-8L of backset is added back to the fermenter (minus the 1L of grain), add new ingredients and run as a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th etc batch?
3) and the end of all this all of the low wines collected from all batches are watered down to 40% and run through as a slow spirit run? You would need a pretty big boiler right?
I only have a 30L boiler so this might be a problem.

4) I am guessing that you discard the first 150ml X (no. of batches) to get rid of acetone etc

Thanks everyone. This recipe looks very promising!

Regards,

Stillts

1. Yeah mate. It's what is left in the boiler after a run.
2. Yeah mate. Add it to the fermenter to dissolve sugar and soften corn flakes.
3. If you strip down to 20% off the spout you should be around the 40% mark anyway. You shouldn't need much dilution. With a 30L boiler you would only strip 3 washes then 4th run would be your spirit run. You only have to strip enough for a spirit run.
4. Not necessarily. After your fores cut you will take a couple heads cuts which would capture the rest of the crap you don't want. On a spirit run I would collect 250ml fores.