Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

We have plenty and you can use the code in the donors area

The Stig wrote:We have plenty and you can use the code in the donors area

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

harold01 wrote:Get another air still and run them both at once to cut your run time down

Got another Airstill last weekend locally pretty cheap.
I now run 2 at the same time for stripping runs .
Cheers,
Bucket .

The Stig wrote:

howard wrote:

BUCKET wrote:Added the juice of a Lemon just in case .

Bucket .

it's probably best to adjust the PH a bit more scientifically :smile:
get to know your water/wash PH, then adjust as necessary after everything is mixed.
i adjust with McKenzies citric acid (woolies/coles) because i can accurately measure it in grams.
not forgetting that dunder & backset can be a bit acidic to start with.

Lemon is probably not what you would want to add doing gen's , chances are your going to be too acidic and will need a dozen oysters to help lift the PH
Oh and one of these will be great help: https://5stardistilling.com/product/ph-test-meter/

Well i finally did a PH test on this wash using the 5 Star digital meter .
Came out as 2.65 PH .
This wash stopped fermenting about 2 1/2 weeks ago .
What should the PH level be ?
Can i distill at 2.65 PH .
Cheers,
Greg

BUCKET wrote:

harold01 wrote:Get another air still and run them both at once to cut your run time down

Got another Airstill last weekend locally pretty cheap.
I now run 2 at the same time for stripping runs .
Cheers,
Bucket .

Imagine if you get a 3rd air still, increase production again.
:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

WoodyD40 wrote:

BUCKET wrote:

harold01 wrote:Get another air still and run them both at once to cut your run time down

Got another Airstill last weekend locally pretty cheap.
I now run 2 at the same time for stripping runs .
Cheers,
Bucket .

Imagine if you get a 3rd air still, increase production again.
:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

:D Maybe i will . :-B :happy-partydance: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

BUCKET wrote:I got my Oak Dominoes this morning .
So i had my 1000mls of hearts then 4 x 100mls of tails i guess.
The first 3 smelt alright , the fourth smelt a bit funky .
I don't know if i should have done it but i added the first 3 x 100mls of tails to the hearts , still smelt good and tasted nice .
I now have 1300 mls of 65% ABV aging .
Go the mighty Airstill . :D :clap:
Cheers,
Bucket .

I added another couple of stripping runs to this batch and ended up with around 2.8 litres of 58% ABV .
Oaking was 20 grams per litre for about 3 1/2 months .
Couldn't wait any longer so watered it down to 40% ABV and ended up with 4 litres .
Man this is fn smooth and tastes great .
Will try and leave the next batch longer .
Cheers,
Bucket .

Hi Bucket, what was the outcome of the ph level? Was that at the start of the wash or as it progressed?
I have been aiming for 5-5.5 for my ph level when I put a wash down. I have 3 x 23ltr cornflake washes just about finished fermenting, they ranged from 5 to 5.4 I think it was before I added yeast.
I love my air still takes longer yes but keeps me amused longer as well.
Rob

RobMichelle wrote:Hi Bucket, what was the outcome of the ph level? Was that at the start of the wash or as it progressed?
I have been aiming for 5-5.5 for my ph level when I put a wash down. I have 3 x 23ltr cornflake washes just about finished fermenting, they ranged from 5 to 5.4 I think it was before I added yeast.
I love my air still takes longer yes but keeps me amused longer as well.
Rob

Rob
I have only just started testing the PH level as per a few posts up .
That was at the end after it had stopped fermenting , second generation .
I didn't do the second generation right but i have done some stripping runs from it .
Collecting around 1250 mls or when the ABV reached 20% at the parrot .
This has only came out at 40% ABV .
I have yet to do mt Spirits run from the 6 litres at 40% .
Will let you know the outcome when i get around to it .
Cheers,
Bucket .

Hi all,

I did a spirit run of this wbab recipe yesterday. Now have the jars on my kitchen table wearing their Yasser Arahats. A bit nervous about doing the cuts.
Should I treat this recipe like a sugar wash, and be very conservative with the hearts cut, or can it be treated more like a whisky wort, where it will a)benefit from a bit of extra heads and tails and b) those heads and tails will soften a little over time being aged (in demijohn with oak balls or chips)?

I did 3x ~23L ferments, and ran the spirit run with 19L of low wines at about 39%abv. Through an alcoengine pot still.

Also I bought an activated carbon filter, but if I'm reading things correctly, I'm not using it for this type of product?

People use this recipe for whiskey and generation it, and some use it for a nice vodka.
Answer depends on your personal taste buds

slideshowbob wrote:Hi all,

I did a spirit run of this wbab recipe yesterday. Now have the jars on my kitchen table wearing their Yasser Arahats. A bit nervous about doing the cuts.
Should I treat this recipe like a sugar wash, and be very conservative with the hearts cut, or can it be treated more like a whisky wort, where it will a)benefit from a bit of extra heads and tails and b) those heads and tails will soften a little over time being aged (in demijohn with oak balls or chips)?

I did 3x ~23L ferments, and ran the spirit run with 19L of low wines at about 39%abv. Through an alcoengine pot still.

Also I bought an activated carbon filter, but if I'm reading things correctly, I'm not using it for this type of product?

If you did the cuts properly, let the spirit settle and not get greedy with what you keep, you shouldn't need the carbon filter for any spirit you make. However, if you are making a neutral spirit and you already have the filter then it won't hurt to use it.

As wellsy has said, it depends on what you are wanting, a "vodka" or a brown spirit.

Haven't made the cuts yet. Aiming for a whisky ish product. Time is ticking though, so need to pull my finger out and do the cuts today.

Then off to the shops for more weetbix and sugar :cool:

Well a few weeks ago I put down 2 off 60 litre Weetbix ferments, I don't both with the all bran as the weetbix does to the job for me :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now both were 12kg of sugar and a small box of weetbix for each along with 2 oysters shells for the PH buffer.

Well it seem oyster shells aren't all the same :scared-eek: just went and checked both ferments one was down to 1.000 and the other was on 1.015 :scared-eek: now checking the PH on the first one it was about 4PH now the one that was higher was down to 3PH :scared-eek: so put some bicarb soda in to bring up the PH :handgestures-thumbupleft: I do expect these ferments to go down to the low 90's so it does look like after a quick kip on Friday morning I'll be running the first batch :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

Well checked both ferments this arvo and the that one that was lower PH is now down to 994 and still bubbling away where the other one is down to 1005 and bubbling away so no runs this weekend and if we don't get some decent rain pretty soon I'll have no cooling water :angry-banghead:

Currently fermenting a double batch of WBAB.

If you're wondering, it takes exactly 7 weetbix to a cup (after going through the food processor).
A full box of woolies brand all bran will make ~4-4.5 cups (partially processed)

I just had the one box of all bran, so had to settle for 4 instead of 6 cups in the double batch.

I followed the original recipe. Sure was a pain to do the mixing in the kitchen instead of just throwing it all in the fermenter and going at it with the drill mixer...

The double batch looked like this:

Double batch:

10kg sugar
6 cups crushed weetbix
4 cups all bran (should be 6)
3 teaspoons epsom salts
150g lowans yeast
2 teaspoons citric acid
water up to 43 litre mark (should be 42)

SG was 1100 (seems high?)

It was getting late last night and didn't want to wait any longer, so I pitched yeast with the temp still up around 36c. This morning I checked in on it and tightened the lid.

Came home from work and it wasn't bubbling, although there was a slight fermenting smell around the lid. I thought that maybe the 36c pitching may have stuffed it, but I opened the lid and it was fizzing away, so screwed the lid off and back on. Five minutes later it's bubbling away.

I'm already wondering what to make with it. I have enough whiskey to last me a while, so I'm thinking of some liqueurs :think:

You dont really need:
epsom salts or citric acid
Unless your water quality is suspect

I think the water here is pretty basic - ph is around 8 out of the tap

TheShining wrote:I think the water here is pretty basic - ph is around 8 out of the tap

my water is usually about PH 8 as well.
i usually bring my PH down to 5.5-6.0 with McKenzies citric acid (woolies) and i have done quite a few tests where i have measured how many grams of acid i've used & the before and after PH.
so i always suggest that folk don't blindly use the stated citric acid amounts in recipes & do some testing first.
ie 20L of FFV was PH 8, added 2.5gms citric to get 6.0
15L of FFV was PH 8, added 2.8gms citric to get 5.7
20L of FFV was PH 8.3, added 3 gms citric to get 6.0

2 tsp of citric acid is about 10gms (apparently?), so you may be lowering the PH to dodgy levels. :think: