my first 20gl ferment

[bronctoad]

Being almost completely out of drinkin stock, looking for sweet feed without pellets(with absolutely no luck{the right stuff is not sold in New England} ), almost ready to jump to AG , but not quite there. I finally decided to pull the trigger on a "big"ger ferment than my usual 2x 5 gal ferment. looked at an easy wash, and couldn't decide if I wanted Odins corn flake wash or Rads all bran flake wash flipped back an forth a few times, and came to the conclusion that... I'd make a 60/40 Odin/Rad combo don't know if anybody else has done it or not. scaled both to 20 gls cut'em back to 60/40. inverted 28#'s of sugar in 3 1/2 gls of H2O. boiled 3 boxes of cornflakes 2 boxes of all bran and 10 gls of H2O for 1/2 an hour. mixed it all together. the OG came out at 1.090 so I added all the water I could for the size of my fermenter(a 20 gal brute) that wound up being 1 1/2 gls, that brought the OG to 1.080. cooled all that down to 90 degrees with a wort chiller. pitched a mixed fliesh/dady yeast 60/40 buttoned her up with a suspended aquarium heater set at 80d in a box lined with blue board an old comforters. then had a sip offen my last cornflake run, last bottle closed up shop and came here . there's no emogy for a big sigh or I'm to tipsy to find it. any way its good to try and catch up with ya'll , yeah! I know I'm a yankee but "you all" sounds like there"s a stick in your ass, an I had mine removed eons ago. fair winds and following seas
bronctoad

[Jes2xu]

Cool idea to split it man!

Keen to hear the result

[Truckinbutch]

We are all good and you are cool .
A suggestion that I took from SpiritRunDave that I found to be bulletproof :
Get a 44g Brute , a 32g Brute and some 55g clear trash bags to line the 32g with .
Run clear water in the 44g and nest the 32g in it . Dump your wash or mash in the 32g lined with the clear trash bag . That will get you about 30g of wash/mash with enough neck left to tape a vent hose to and support with a staff to keep it from puking into the vent . Make the hose long enough to loop it to make a low point for co to settle in to keep contaminants from backflowing into the ferment . Insulate the top to hold heat .
Put your immersion heater in the water jacket in clear water . It won't get crudded up with ferment .
You can lift the insulation at any time to peek at the clear bag to see what the ferment is doing without exposing it to contaminants .
If you want to test a sample for fg : cut a small slit in the bag above liquid level and use your wine thief to pull a sample and then seal the slit with duct tape .
When it is done ; just rack and bail and then lift out the bag . Put a new bag in and start another ferment while the last one is settling in other vessels .
SRD has has ferments rest undamaged for several months when his work would not allow him to get to them .

[bronctoad]

Wow what a Homer "doh!" moment TB thanks for some of the most common sense Ideas that I've seen or heard lately that instantly make sense. I'll put these to use in my next ferments. The double can was one that I read in one of your threads, I think, but unfortunately my 34gl barrel(not a brute) leaked when I test filled it. The liner??? DOH! man! what a boat load of time/aggravation/elbow grease saving that will be On another note. I've tracked yours and SRD's all grain venture with hopes of following in ya'lls footsteps, and hope to cross that bridge soon once again thanks to you, and SRD

bronctoad

[Truckinbutch]

Wow what a Homer "doh!" moment TB thanks for some of the most common sense Ideas that I've seen or heard lately that instantly make sense. I'll put these to use in my next ferments. The double can was one that I read in one of your threads, I think, but unfortunately my 34gl barrel(not a brute) leaked when I test filled it. The liner??? DOH! man! what a boat load of time/aggravation/elbow grease saving that will be On another note. I've tracked yours and SRD's all grain venture with hopes of following in ya'lls footsteps, and hope to cross that bridge soon once again thanks to you, and SRD

bronctoad

We are just paying it forward and adding what we can , brother . Those that came before us brought us to this point and we owe them .

[bronctoad]

quick update.
my ferment smells... heavenly just did a SG check, it came in at 1.005 with some solids still in suspension. should be done by tomorrow morning then I'll cold crash(not hard to do here in my home state ) give it a couple days to clear, and run'er off cant wait. I wanna give this whole site, even the parts I haven't read a huge THANK YOU I couldn't have done any of this with out'cha.
bronctoad

[Truckinbutch]

I always like to hear good news .

[bronctoad]

been off line for a couple days with puter issues, but happy to report after three more days of waiting for my ferment to cool down , it finally finished at .998. I now after my stripping run have 2 1/2 gals of 44% waiting for mixing with a gal of extra ferment(that should bring it down to under 40% -a little more) ehh. no worries, then runnin it off. here comes that patience thing again thanks all
bronctoad

[bronctoad]

Huh?, May 5th
I finally got two concecutive days off, (need one just to turn the garage back into my stillin spot ) This morning I got my old still set up for the last time, loaded it with my Odin/Rad 60/40 strip and wash, and distilled it off. I got 32 8oz jelly jars raging from 76% to 20% It's all under coffee filters to air out (hopefully for not as long as it took to get back to my strip run ) unfortunatly I can't smell the wetdog or cardboard in the run so I had to taste jar 25 smells good but has a after taste like ??? pure yuck??? I can't describe it just yuck. we'll see in a couple of days if it moves up or down the line.

The only Questions I came upon, being this is my first strip/spirit run, is do ya'll save "backins" from both the strip run and spirit run? Is one better than the other for ferments later on?
I saved it just because I didn't know I already have 3gls saved from the strip.??

thanks again to all the HDian's that move our hobby forward
bronctoad

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Backins from the strip run are good for the next ferment to make a sour mash. Backins from the spirit run are trash (in my opinion, maybe someone has a use for them, if so enlighten me).

[dukethebeagle120]

hey bronc.go to ur local grainery and get ur grain mixed the way u want.
most places that bag grain will mix the style of grain u want.
u just have to tell them how u want it mixed and at what percentage

[RedwoodHillBilly]

hey bronc.go to ur local grainery and get ur grain mixed the way u want.
most places that bag grain will mix the style of grain u want.
u just have to tell them how u want it mixed and at what percentage

What is that in English?

[Truckinbutch]

hey bronc.go to ur local grainery and get ur grain mixed the way u want.
most places that bag grain will mix the style of grain u want.
u just have to tell them how u want it mixed and at what percentage

What is that in English?

That was English . Even I unnerstood it . Any custom miller will understand if you tell him that you want 400# of 60% corn 10% wheat , 10% oats , 10% barley ,and 10% rye . He will grind the appropriate weights of the grains and mix them .
Ain't ya never been to a grist mill ?

[Truckinbutch]

Backins from the strip run are good for the next ferment to make a sour mash. Backins from the spirit run are trash (in my opinion, maybe someone has a use for them, if so enlighten me).

Yep . What he said .

[dukethebeagle120]

hey bronc.go to ur local grainery and get ur grain mixed the way u want.
most places that bag grain will mix the style of grain u want.
u just have to tell them how u want it mixed and at what percentage

What is that in English?

was it my poor english
funny seeings that i`m 100 percent english
but don`t talk about me in french or spanish or
GOTCHA
hehehe

[still_stirrin]

Reading and smiling here...

Duke, when I read your "texting shorthand", I immediately read your age through it. Then when RWH commented that he (jokingly) had difficulty understanding what you'd said, I read his "age" as well (most likely very close to mine, in fact). And when Butch chimed in, it made it very apparent the regional, age, and cultural diversity we all share on this site.

So, with that, thank you all for this smile today. Ya' just gotta' love this place.
ss

[dukethebeagle120]

its easy to get offended at anything.
take shit out of context
i don`t worry about that.
i`m here to have fun.
hell,shinin is fun.
and have met lots of people on here
good people
people are to sensitive today
can`t take a joke
i can though
thanks for the kind words still

[bilgriss]

+1 SS !

[bronctoad]

thanks for the replies guys I'm glad this stuff is junk, it smells funky even in a carboy plus I can think of lots of other uses for a 3gl carboy
Duke, I've been to the grainery and got more grain than I showed up for but I haven't pulled the all grain trigger yet It's coming, just slower than I want. life is in my corner.
thanks all
bronctoad