Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi,

I have a strange result which I cannot explain and hope you can provide insight.

2 days ago, on 14/6 at 21:00 I've pitched 25g EC-1118 to 100L of AG mash.
SG was 1045

Yeast was hydrated as per manufacturer instruction.
In 250ml filtered water @ 37c, then waited 15m and added about 50ml of mash at 40c.
After 10m, pitched in. Mash was @ 42c.

2h later is started bubbling and continued to do so at extremely high rate until this morning 16/6.

I checked gravity and it's 1012.
All gravity readings were adjusted for 20c.

Ambient temp is 18-20 during day and gets as low as 9 during night.
My fermenter is temp controlled, but I don't think heating belt was even active. Every morning that I checked, temp was in mid 20s.
I tasted mash before and after, before was very sweet and sticky. After I detect absolutely no sweetness and it's clearer, so that tells me hydrometer is not lying and my eyes are true.

Can anyone explain to me WHY it took just 2 days to ferment? I expected a week at least, probably more like 2.

EC-1118 is a known fast fermenter, and your OG was very low so the yeast didn't have much work to do. Also had a high temp which makes yeast pretty active.

It might not be completely done yet, so test it tomorrow as well. If it's the same you're good to go.

Any reason for the low OG? The ABV will only be around 4%, which would be fine for a beer but a lot of work for not much reward for a whisky.

Thanks tubbsy.

I don't know why OG is so low. It's my first time doing AG, so I probably messed up a few times :-D

My recipe is:
4kg marris otter
750g manuka smoked
250g gambrinus

Water 24L
Strike temp 67
Mash 90m
Mash out 74 for 15m
Sparge @74 6L

Total: 25L

And I did that 4 times to fill a 100L drum.
Expected higher OG, now not so sure I will have enough final product for a 5L barrel

I use the calculator here all the time for my recipes. Plugging your recipe in (not sure what gambrinus you had - asssumed Honey) the OG comes out at 1.047 with the typical 75% efficiency. So it looks like you did everything well enough, just didn't use enough malt or used too much water. For that much grain, 15-18L would have been better.

Hmm, yes I think you are correct about the water. Oh well, live and learn :)
And yeah, gambrinus I meant honey.