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i usually ferment about 10 - 14 days using a simple cornmeal, sugar, bakers yeast,tomato paste mixture that's been passed down by my great grandpappy

Been following Rad's lead and finishing in just a few days.


I can cook (sugar) on Sunday then (with time constraints),,,,,,,,,,,cook (likker) on the following Sunday.

I've had washes finish in 3 days, and others, 3 weeks. Type and temp make a difference.

true, true
Here in the southeast US

indoor summer = 70
indoor winter = 75

My mash usually stops bubbling like 7 - 10 days then I allow a couple days before I freeze settle everything and start my runs

I must be impatient... I'm forever checking on them like a doting mother... I know I should be content with ferments taking a week or so but I'm much more sane when they only take half that, or less... My last All Bran wash was done and cleared in 4 days so I ran it... Fermented to dry and the yeast had dropped... Not looking to get two full runs per week from the same fermenter, but I wouldn't complain if I could do it...

I'm pretty close to that Rad.
But I do like to let mine clear real good.

We don't get cold down here so I bet I could do 2 a week more often than not.

my large volume sugar washes take 2 times as long to clear as they do to ferment. 1 week to ferment and atleast 2 weeks to clear, but that stuff is as clear as water. Apples take a long time!!! I dont recommend apples to the impatient ones. I am one of those, and it sucks! UJSM, i could ferment and strip 2 times a week in one fermenter with that shit, a little backset and that stuf goes crazy fast. Cheers MK

OK...let me please ask about this freezing method to settle and clear. With my creamed corn floating on top and laying on the bottom of fermenter...do I rack first, strain thru T-shirt first, freeze first? Thanks so much................The Village Idiot (Cornbread)

either way, but you do not want to freeze the wash ,, just git it as could as possible, racking is mostly a beer/wine thing .the yeast
are continually being replaced some dye and more grow, by racking you are removing the dead yeast that can give beer/wine off flavors.
if you have floaters, you can just skim those off,

Now if you are doing a UJSM type of ferment ,I whould rack it off as you want to save the yeast and you can start a new ferment
while you are waiting for that one to clear.

if you freeze the wash you you can kill the yeast.

Cornbread, very few folks bother with the freeze method, for various reasons... The main reason being that most washes wouldn't easily fit into a freezer... If anything, simply refrigerating, or setting out in the cold, will hasten clearing... Time, however, is the cheapest and easiest method of clearing... Once cleared, a wash should be racked, not filtered, for best results...

I go 2 to 3 weeks for a lot of my ferments. I live in a constanty cool climate, rarely gets over 65f hear, so i just have a lot of fermentors.

Mine seem to take forever. I am using a standard wine-yeast. My All-bran has been going for about a week and is at 1030 and my Birdwatcher's is now at 1010 after three weeks.

(Birdwatcher's seemed to fare much better for me when it was at 30C rather than 25C.

Like Rad, I am always checking mine. I'm thinking of starting my next batch at 1060 rather than 1090 to get a dry ferment faster... maybe I should learn some patience

My All Bran is typically done in 3 to 4 days. How much yeast are you pitching.

LWTCS wrote:My All Bran is typically done in 3 to 4 days. How much yeast are you pitching.

I'm doing a gallon trial-run at the moment, so I treated it the same as when I make wine. I used wine yeast (standard, nothing fancy) and used about 3-4 teaspoons per gallon.

Next time I'll try baker's yeast bomb (old habits die hard).

3-4 days would be great, especially for a 25l fermenter.

one week. if it ain't finished, i run it anyway. if it is clear, fine. if not, OK too. I do everything on the same day of the week.
I use a lot of backset so if there are some sugars left, I recover some of them.
nothing fancy, though. UJSM or all grain, mostly corn. My yeast are trained now and it is survival of the fittest.
I never had a batch that wouldn't work off in a week, unless the weather is too cold. I might have gained a bit here and there had I waited, don't know.
If I do an experimental batch of something, like a fruit something, it always seems to monkey wrench the system.

Fester

Generally I primary ferment for a week, and then rack to a secondary and let it settle out for a week then run it. But I usually don't dump floaty things into my fermenters like grain (i do the mash first etc.)

This has served me well in the past. But like has been said before, sometimes you have a fast ferment, sometimes a slow. A good thing to have around is a hydrometer, in case you have an idea that the ferment has not completed quite yet.

~bd~

Im with rubber duck, get enough fermenters and it doesn't matter how long It takes.

Im always behind, always got something that needs running... right now I got 2 rums, 2 UJSSM and a single malt I just put on..

My molasses wash's usually ferment right out within around ten days, depending on weather. Currently the temperatures have been warmish (around 35c) so the time taken is probably a week. I don't fuss about it and just let it go until it's finished. There's no rush.
On the other hand, honey washes take months to finish in the cooler weather, but my latest ferment has been going for three weeks and is still fermenting, by keeping the nutrients up to it. Honey is notoriously slow to ferment out.

So, I guess the answer is that fermentation takes somewhere between a week and several months. If you get impatient the answer is to have - as previously suggested - several ferments going at the same time.

blanik

Big thanks to all that posted here yall told me a bunch i did let it stop working but i did not give it time to settle and i am using my corm meal for the second time and it is sizzling this is a lot of fun
good luck to all and happy thanks giving shot