Tequila Wash

[cowboy98]

Franks Tequila Run.


56oz 21 Missions Dark Agave
16oz 21 Missions Terpens
688 oz Distilled water (5.3 Gals)
1 pkg Turbo yeast Classic 8 (all inclusive)


At the start Saturday 8/6/20 the PH was 4.18 I raised it to 5.39 using baking soda. The air temp was 78F Degrees outside. The wash started out at 74 Degrees F.

I pitched the yeast after reconstituting in water @ 86 F degrees. The Gravity was 1.40. I aerated the mixture in the Carboy by stirring.
I wrapped my glass wide mouth Carboy in a blanket and set it next to my heater which was also covered by the blanket. The heater was set at 86 F degrees. It was 1:00 pm when I set the airlock and was ready to go.

The mixture was clear, dark brown that had a syrup look to it from the original container. I watch Barley and hops on You Tube so I expect a 7 to 10 day fermentation time frame.

Two hours into the wash, the yeast was forming and frothy on top of the wash. By 4:00 three hours in the mix fermentation went ape shit crazy. I could barely keep water and Star San in the air lock. Co 2 was flying out of the airlock. And the lid was leaking on the carboy. I had a few horseshoes around and used them to weigh down the Carboy lid.

Saturday night 6 pm or 5 hours into the fermentation things were going gang busters. By 9 pm 8 hours in, it was still going gang busters. I left the Wash alone until 9:15 the next morning to check on it.


At 7:30 am Sunday morning I checked on the wash. The temp of the Carboy was 90 Degrees. Something was wrong as the Bubbling was quite slow. I determined that it could be a couple things. 1st I suspected my concentration of Agave to water was too much and my yeast didn’t have enough water. I thought I might be choking out the yeast. 2nd I though I must have a seal leak.

At 8:50 am I added 48 ounces of water, then I Duck taped the lid down to the carboy. Swirled the mixture a little and let it go to see what would happen. BTW, the wash had changed color to a light brown and was very cloudy.

By 10 am it started bubbling back up again about a bubble or two every 15 seconds. The temperature had risen up to 93 Degrees. Which should be ok, by Sunday afternoon the bubbles slowed again. I added the weights back on the Carboy lid and everything was good. So, I had a major leak from the Carboy Lid.

Monday, All seems well, I reduced the temp set on the heater down to 73 from 83 Degrees the Carboy temp was 86 Degrees.

Tuesday, Morning things are Gang Busters again bubbling like crazy. Carboy temp is 86 Degrees.
I will follow up on my progress next Sunday August 16, 2020.

[bluefish_dist]

From my experience tequila like step feeding of nutrients and possibly a second addition of yeast. Also low sg seemed to finish better. 1.05 was what I aimed for. It also goes acidic and needs ph adjusting during the run. Honestly the best tequila I made was a 1.09 og and 1.04 fg. Good but a lot of expensive sugar left behind.

[cowboy98]

Thanks for the input, as his is my first run we will keep an eye on things and see what happens. Weds 12th and fermenting seems to continue as expected. We will make a decision on adding something to the mix if fermentation slows to much before Saturday 15th as that would be 1 week.
So, Thursday day 5 it was super hot at 9 am I checked the wash out, the wash was up to 103 Degrees it wasn't bubbling much at all, I was AFRAID I killed the yeast. I took off the blank wrap, added 16 oz of spring water. swirled the Carboy and I it looked like it was going to bubble, it did but just for a few hours. I decided to see if it was done. The original gravity was 1.40 the wash finish was 1.10 I added the Turbo Clear as directed at 10.00 pm.

Friday 9am Wash has started to settle and beginning to clear up.

[cowboy98]

Saturday Aug 15th,
To clear up the final gravity it was 1.110 which gives me a 15% ABV. The Wash is looking good and clearing up nicely. But, Newbie mistake I didn't put in the Turbo Carbon at the same time as the TURBO CLEAR so, what to do now? I decided that since the Turbo Carbon is used after fermentation and before distilling I should stir up the wash and add the TURBO CARBON TO IT, and wait for it to settle and clear up again. When that happens either Sunday or Monday I will transfer and distill it unless it still look cloudy then I will transfer out of glass Carboy, Wash the Carboy and re Turbo clear.

[Oldvine Zin]

OK I'll bite,
Your numbers are all askew and you can't call a ferment by just time fermenting, it's done when it's done.. I was waiting to hear how your carboy exploded when you said " 4:00 three hours in the mix fermentation went ape shit crazy. I could barely keep water and Star San in the air lock. Co 2 was flying out of the airlock. And the lid was leaking on the carboy. I had a few horseshoes around and used them to weigh down the Carboy lid." Glad that it didn't!!

Oh and do a little more reading here, no a lot more, you will find that turbo yeast is not well liked here for the reasons/troubles you are having with that yeast.

Read, read, and read some more my friend.
And stay safe
OVZ

[cowboy98]

Thanks for the information I will take it. Any help I can get from the forum is greatly appreciated.
So things got out of control and have seemed to go from bad to worse. My numbers must have been off from the beginning.
I waited for the wash to settle and distilled half of it today. It was at 80 proof at the start of the run, and ran the still until my proof dropped to 30.
I discarded 4 oz for heads and fore shots. I ended up with 16 oz. of 60 proof.


It smells worse than turpentine, I ran it through a pur water filter several times that did help reduce the odor. Do I pour it in the second batch do I throw it away? Can I fix it?

[bluefish_dist]

Run it again. There is no way to filter out the bad stuff still there.

[cowboy98]

Thank You

[brat]

That yeast you used is not going to help your spirit at all.

[jonnys_spirit]

If you only ran it once that's the stripping run which produces low wines (not for drinking). Normally strip three washes worth of low wines to total ABV of about 30% to then fill the boiler for the spirit run which you collect in fractions of about 25 jars and do your cuts. Removing 100-200ml of fores each time you run it.

It's normal for low wines to be pretty nasty. There's a couple good agave threads around here but the double distillation protocol is pretty standard.

Cheers!
-jonny

[Oldvine Zin]

It smells worse than turpentine, I ran it through a pur water filter several times that did help reduce the odor. Do I pour it in the second batch do I throw it away? Can I fix it?

Ouch! You really need to do more reading here, plastics and ethanol are not a good mix - please don't use that plastic water filter.
As the others have said, and I can only assume that you are running a pot still, this was a strip run. Go ahead and strip that second batch, combine them and re distill for a spirit run. That might clean it up a bit.

Be safe and read
OVZ

[cowboy98]

Thank you, I will do as you said.

[Hectorlandaeta]

Hello Cowboy! Kudos on your experiment. Reading can get you so far, as in this hobby there's no replacing hard won experience. Next time lookup a different yeast, as there's one tequila specific Lallemand that I know of. It comes in a commercialish size but you can get it from Amazon, of all places.
I would also suggest you use a blow-off hose arrangement for your primary fermentation and switch to airlock just when bubbling is considerably reduced.

[zapata]

Any help I can get from the forum is greatly appreciated.

Ok...

I watch Barley and hops on You Tube

Yeah, stop doing that. Other than stillit, youtube is for watching morons do moron stuff, barley and hops is like watching kids break their ankles jumping off roof tops and posting it thinking it's cool.

Ditch the turbos, and all the accessories, good washes don't need turbo clear and turbo carbon and turbo yeast, all that noise only exists so that unscrupulous businesses can sell it.

Review how to use a hydrometer, I'm suspicious of your reported readings.

Always aim for less than 10% abv washes. Even 8%.

Expect to double distill almost everything.

Read till your eyes bleed

[8Ball]

Thank you, I will do as you said.

Well, how did things work out for you?
What have you learned?
What does it taste like now?

[HolyWater]

Distillamax TQ , or Safe TQ are 2 of the best yeast for Tequila.

[bcook608]

16oz of terpenes is a lot. I think I added half of that to my last batch and it still came through strong in the final product. I'll be cutting it down to probably 4oz/5gal for the next batch

[AmAcDaGreat]

I’ve made a 5 gallon batch with only 4oz. Fwiw, I’d go with 6-8oz.

[jonnys_spirit]

https://www.21missionsagave.com/agave-terpenes.html

Usage "100% Terpene"
0.5% to Craft Beer Mash ~ 100 ml per 5-gallon Mash
0.001% Agave Spirits Wash. ~20 ml per 5-gallon Wash for Agave Spirits

Here's info from 21missions on terpene usage for reference. ~20ml/5g wash for distillation.

Cheers!
-jonny

[Tōtōchtin]

Why does the community correct what people call bourbon, corn whiskey but not Tequila.And I don't mean just because it wasn't made here in Jalisco. An Agave distillate is not Tequila. Its just another type of sugar wash. Its sad enough Tequila now is mostly cut with 49% neutral.
Tōtō

[jonnys_spirit]

Why does the community correct what people call bourbon, corn whiskey but not Tequila.And I don't mean just because it wasn't made here in Jalisco. An Agave distillate is not Tequila. Its just another type of sugar wash. Its sad enough Tequila now is mostly cut with 49% neutral.
Tōtō

I generally refer to my agave spirits as agave spirits

I'd really like to have a more diverse list of ingredients available (like various Pina's) to use but the best I've found so far is 21missions. Do you know of other sources you can share?

Cheers!
-j

[JAMAWG]

Why does the community correct what people call bourbon, corn whiskey but not Tequila.And I don't mean just because it wasn't made here in Jalisco. An Agave distillate is not Tequila. Its just another type of sugar wash. Its sad enough Tequila now is mostly cut with 49% neutral.
Tōtō

Because they know nothing of Tequila and Mezcal! Some education would not be frowned upon. Please correct any thing I get wrong. Mezcal is the actual category of spirits made from Agave. And Tequila is like Cognac, a specific type of agave, from a specific region.

Where you will probably get debate is if agave syrup as a base is a Mezcal. Just like some don't consider LME base a "real" whisky, I can see the same argument applied to agave syrup.

But as this is a fun hobby for some of us. For me, my LME spirits are a whisky, and the agave wash i have going right now will become a mezcal in a few days! Hell I even consider the all corn sugar wash I did a 100% corn whisky.

[Tōtōchtin]

I just reread what I wrote. I meant to say Agave syrup, not referring to the whole plant. The lechuguilla agave is by far my favorite used in making Raicilla.
My remarks were not really meant for this thread at all. I had just read some threads were posters came in and overly corrected people's terminology as a few do here regularly. Just a little cranky from this covid crap a bunch of gueros brought down with their manners.
As far as what you make you can call it what you want,some rules were meant to be broken....
Suerte
Using agave syrup as a base for mezcals would be like saying corn syrup is a base for bourbon. All the agave flavor has been stripped you can add flavonoids and terpenes all you want but you will not get the real flavor .

[Uncle Jesse]

Any help I can get from the forum is greatly appreciated.

Ok...

I watch Barley and hops on You Tube

Yeah, stop doing that. Other than stillit, youtube is for watching morons do moron stuff, barley and hops is like watching kids break their ankles jumping off roof tops and posting it thinking it's cool.

Ditch the turbos, and all the accessories, good washes don't need turbo clear and turbo carbon and turbo yeast, all that noise only exists so that unscrupulous businesses can sell it.

Review how to use a hydrometer, I'm suspicious of your reported readings.

Always aim for less than 10% abv washes. Even 8%.

Expect to double distill almost everything.

Read till your eyes bleed

I agree with this.

No reason to use turbo yeast, ever. Hobby distillers should be trying for the best possible spirit, not the highest proof, and agave just doesn't seem to lend itself to high gravities. I too have noticed that agave likes lower SG and is a very slow ferment which requires pH adjustment because it is constantly falling. It is probably the slowest ferment I've ever done, but as we've said for decades, a quality spirit requires patience.

[squigglefunk]

Using agave syrup as a base for mezcals would be like saying corn syrup is a base for bourbon.

I'm sure there's a lot of flavor from the roasting/cooking of the piña

[Tōtōchtin]

Take a sip of a real 100 % blue agave Tequila,then take a taste of your blue agave syrup. What similarities do you notice?
The agave juice is squeezed out of the plant then heated up to convert the starches. Not the process you were were thinking about,I believe.
Not that I give a rats ass, I just would not want someone to buy some cubitas of agave and expect it to be Tequila.
It would be like taking white refined sugar and think you will have a good rum,something you might understand...

[jonnys_spirit]

Using Agave syrup certainly isn't the same as processing pinas but it's also far from the suggested analogy of white refined sugar being equivalent to rum.

https://www.21missionsagave.com/raw-blu ... -dark.html

This company has a few different syrups as well as concentrated terpenes for those that would like to make an agave spirit. If anyone knows of other ingredient sources to share that would be a great resource

I've made agave spirits using 21missions agave syrups in the past and getting ready for another large batch. I'd love to source some actual agave one way or another so will keep looking for additional ingredient sources.

Cheers!
-jonny

[JAMAWG]

Take a sip of a real 100 % blue agave Tequila,then take a taste of your blue agave syrup. What similarities do you notice?
The agave juice is squeezed out of the plant then heated up to convert the starches. Not the process you were were thinking about,I believe.
Not that I give a rats ass, I just would not want someone to buy some cubitas of agave and expect it to be Tequila.
It would be like taking white refined sugar and think you will have a good rum,something you might understand...

Don't disagree at all. Only had a few quality tequilas before. Would live to try more. Me personally, its just the fun of doing it myself.
If you are living where Tequila is from, It would be fascinating to know what you are up to. Have you posted the what and how of your process? If you haven't, please make a post telling us what you are up to! I know I would love to read what an actual home distiller of tequila is doing. I am sure a lot of other members would too. Please share!

[Tōtōchtin]

I didn't mean to lead anyone that I am a distiller. Right now I'm just a part collector. Last year I spent my first time with a still and that was only helping out at the beginning of a spirt run. In a few weeks I'm going up and help with the fermenting and be a still hand. Working for my learning... I did post a pic of the still we will be using. I got flak about a plastic funnel being used so I thought I wouldn't show more. I am not about to fuck with peoples culture bias here or there.
Very little excellent Tequila makes it to the public. Connoisseurs, rich families, and private clubs snag it first. Most of the people who make a good product already have it sold before its made. Now the cartel has its hands in it its being cut in more then one way, All with their 100% blue agave stamp. I saw where about 10 famous brands were taken to a lab, sad is all I will say. I also saw something similar on utube comparing what's real and fools who buy it because Pitts and Kardashians whore their name.
Cooked piña's are damn heavy, shipping cost would make one expensive bottle. The way we are supposed to be protecting our heritage I'll bet it's not legal to export the piña. But a healing cactus fermentation might make it across. I paid 1400 in brokerage fees and shipping to central Mexico using up 38' of a 53" trailer. That should fill up a bunch of mash tuns. If you want just syrup that can be done. I pricing out a 1k liter now for another project. I listed about 7 manufactures in my neighborhood already so that should get you started.
Suerte Tōtō

[jonnys_spirit]

A piña Raw or cooked might be able to be cut or shredded and shipped in a 5g bucket(s)?

Not sure how importing agricultural goods works but I sometimes get frozen grape must shipped which weighs 50#/bucket. I’m thinking a couple three buckets worth would be absolutely great.

Maybe there are southernmost locations in The US that might grow them too?

Cheers,
Jonny