Where is my accolone

[Boda Getta]

Last Mon I started 15 gal of UJSSM sour mast wash. When I ran my last stripping run of UJ sweet mast scooped about 4 qts spent corn and replace with fresh cracked corn, I added 2 gal water to the fermenter, took 3 gal of back set and dissolved 25 lbs sugar, let it cool and added that to the fermenter then topped up to 15 gal of total wash. By that evening it was working good. By Sun it had almost stopped bubbling and by this morning it had cleared real good. I was out getting to make my first sour mash stripping run in the morning. I did not measure t5he SG when I put the mash up but checked it a few moments ago. My SG shows .990 at around 86' F, even if corrected for the temp that show my wash has 0 alcohol! Where has my alcohol gone. Where could I have gone wrong or am I all crossed up? Is there any need to run this wash?

Help Please

BG

[blind drunk]

So, is the time line a week? If so, then the alcohol is in the wash and ready to be run.

[rad14701]

What makes you think there is no alcohol in the wash...??? Obviously, if the SG is now measuring lower than 1.000 there is alcohol to be had... Use the calculators on the parent site to guesstimate your OG based on sugar and water, and then use that figure with your FG of .996 to get an estimated %ABV of the wash... An alcometer won't provide you with the answer...

[WalkingWolf]

I've been in situations where I'd lost my alcohol. I didn't mention it the next morning when I woke up cause I was missing my wallet and my car as well.

The specific gravity simply measures how much change has occured from your starting point. For all intents and purposes hydrometers register 1.000 for water. When you add sugar the reading goes up. When the yeasty beasties eat the sugar and make alcohol the gravity of the liquid goes down. The reason the gravity will go below 1.000 is cause you now have alcohol in the mix and it has a lower specific gravity than water. You still need to do as Rad mentioned and hunt up the tools that will assist you in your measurements. It'll get there, but in the beginning you feel like it'll never happen. Take a deep breath grass-hopper.

[Braz]

Let me take a guess here. Your hydrometer has two scales on it, one is the specific gravity scale and the other is a % alcohol scale. Right?

The % alcohol scale will give you a "guestimate" as to the potential alcohol when you FIRST mix up the wash - before any fermentation takes place. After that the % alcohol scale is useless. From then on you just want to read the SG number.

[junkyard dawg]

where is my accolone

are you sure ya didn't drink it?

[KY1792]

According to the sites calculator 25lbs of sugar and 15 gallons of make-up water has a starting SG of 1.077 yielding 11%abv when dropping to 0.990 SG.

[ArkyJ]

Your wash is done!
Distill it.
ArkyJ

[Boda Getta]

Just completed my stripping run of 5 gals and was very pleased. This is my first sour mash wash (1st gen sour) and I am very impressed with the taste over the 1st gen sweet mash I ran first. I estimated a middle "cut" and separated about 8 ozs; I believe this middle cut after airing overnight would be drinkable. I ended up with 102.5 oz of 100 proof singling. I have two more stripping runs to do and should end up with around 2.5 gal of sour mash singling. I will do a 3rd gen sour mast next and are wondering if I should should do a spirit run using only sour mash singling and not mix the 2 1/2 gal sweet mash singling I have. If the next gen sour mash wash has as much improvement as the 1st gen sour mash did over the sweet mash wash I am a believer of what I have been reading on this forum concerning UJSSM later gen sour mash results.
What would you guys do?

BG

[Smokehouse Shiner]

Glad you found your alcohol Boda Getta. It's always in the last place you look ain't it?? Don't worry it has a tendency to disappear around my place too. Ok, to your question. If it were me, if I had enough low wines for a full spirit run of the 2nd gen. I would run it by itself. If I didn't have enough for a full run I would mix it with the 1st gen. and run it. Or mix the 1st gen. in little by little in my subsequent spirit runs. It starts getting better by leaps and bounds after the fourth gen. so I would try to have all the first gen. ran by then so as not to be mixing it in with the really good stuff. Or just throw it in the feints jugs. But in the end the decision is yours and I'm sure it will be great no matter what you decide.
Cheers