Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Wellsy wrote:Check the PH of the wash mate.
I have never had an issue with stalled washes until 2 died a couple of months back.
Turns out the local water board were doing a pipe cleaning run that week and dumped a truck load of chlorine in the water.
Both washes restarted fine but only lasted 12 hours. If you dont have a ph meter you can always grab some ph testing paper from the home brew shop. It is usually a few dollars for about 100 strips so not expensive and always handy to have. I check the water now before I put it in the wash.

Thanks Wellsy, I checked the pH with the paper strips and it was around 4.4 so I added some calcium carbonate and bought it back to around 5.0.

The wash hasn't started bubbling yet...would the yeast still be alive or should I add more?

I would add more but I am impatient lol

More yeast won’t hurt

Wellsy wrote:I would add more but I am impatient lol

More yeast won’t hurt

I waited about 5 hours to see if there was any action happening before I added more yeast. There was the occasional bubble but nothing much so I have added another 50gms of yeast...I presume the low pH would have killed the previous yeast?

Fingers crossed that this takes off!

Stillworkin wrote:

Wellsy wrote:I would add more but I am impatient lol

More yeast won’t hurt

I waited about 5 hours to see if there was any action happening before I added more yeast. There was the occasional bubble but nothing much so I have added another 50gms of yeast...I presume the low pH would have killed the previous yeast?

Fingers crossed that this takes off!

Dammit, the wash didn't take off...wondering what I should do now?

have you tasted it ? can you detect any sweetness or is it dry / sour ?

Ok, good news, looks like the correcting of the pH and adding more yeast did work...I was just about to hydrate some more yeast but checked the sg, to my surprise it was about 900!

Problem solved, thanks for your advice Wellsy :handgestures-thumbupleft: :text-thankyoublue:

It was a pure guess mate, great if we can all learn from others as it makes life so much easier.

Hi all just a quick question.
I've got about 20ish litres of FFV wash leftover & im going to be running my first UJSSM soon (about 40is litres). What I'm curious about is since the first UJSSM doesn't really have much flavour to it can I mix the leftover FFV + first UJSSM wash & run it through reflux for vodka then still use the backset for the first gen UJSSM without any repercussions to the UJSSM ?

I would do it. Uj doesnt get good until around gen 3 to gen 4

Stillworkin wrote:Ok, good news, looks like the correcting of the pH and adding more yeast did work...I was just about to hydrate some more yeast but checked the sg, to my surprise it was about 900!

Problem solved, thanks for your advice Wellsy :handgestures-thumbupleft: :text-thankyoublue:

Slight correction. That is 0.990

Hey all,

So I’ve read the large majority of this thread, and have 25L of completed TFFV wash ready to run. I’ve read, including from Teddy, that a stripping run then a reflux run of low wines is the preferred method. I’m wondering what benefit the stripping run(s) provides, and why I couldn’t, or shouldn’t, just go straight to a single reflux run of the wash? I’d have thought that a reflux run would strip most of the flavour anyway?

I really don’t have the time to put down multiple washes and strip them all to collect enough low wines do a refluxed spirit run, however if there is clear benefit, I will try and suck it up and follow the advice.

Thanks in advance.

The stripping run will separate a lot of water and flavour out of the wash.

A spirit run done from a low wines charge @ 40% will produce an higher abv OR run faster, depending on how much power and reflux you need to use to hit 95% out of the spout.
It will also be cleaner tasting than the single run - checking your posts, you have an alcoengine, 1000% do the stripping runs.

Its hard as a beginner to equate the time taken, but the end results are more than worth it given the price and quality of even the cheapest store bought these days.

If time is that much of a factor, start saving for a bigger still

Thanks heaps RC.

I’ll strip it then, and put another two TFFV’s down for stripping when I can find the time.

Your advice is very much appreciated. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Definitely worth doing stripping runs & then a spirit run with a 40% abv charge in your boiler. It'll take a lot longer but you'll get a very clean final spirit.

Teddysad wrote:

Stillworkin wrote:Ok, good news, looks like the correcting of the pH and adding more yeast did work...I was just about to hydrate some more yeast but checked the sg, to my surprise it was about 900!

Problem solved, thanks for your advice Wellsy :handgestures-thumbupleft: :text-thankyoublue:

Slight correction. That is 0.990

Thanks for the correction, so if the liquid line was at say 80 that would be .980?

I believe that is correct

Calcium carbonate to raise PH?? I thought that lowers PH and sodium bicarbonate raises PH? :think:

Cheers

nope
If the pH of the mash is too low (too acidic) the addition of Calcium Carbonate will raise it.
i have never had PH problem with FFV, in fact i always have to add a little bit of citric acid to drop the PH with my filtered water, which is usually around the PH of 6-6.5 before pitching yeast.
thankfully i have a filter, the other day the tap water smelt very chlorine-ish

Hi Howard,

So calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate will both raise PH? :think:

Cheers

iOnaBender wrote:Hi Howard,

So calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate will both raise PH? :think:

Cheers

there is lots of stuff to raise and lower the PH apparently.
raise - pickling lime, CC, SB etc etc
lower - citric acid, lemon juice etc etc.
my filtered water is about 7.3
TBH i'm not quite sure how anyone loses a FFV to low PH if you know or check the starting PH.
maybe things like Wellsy getting a surprise chlorine hit from the water corp? (get a filter wellsy :)) )