Can you hault a fermentation?

[GnarBacon]

Hey, everybody. I'm new to the forum and also new to the world of distilling. I'm looking forward to learning from you guys and hearing about your experiences. Anyways, here's my issue I'm having- three weeks ago today I started fermenting a 5 gallon batch of "honey shine" which I made from a popular recipe I found online. I followed the instructions perfectly and have maintained a consistent 70 degree temperature. The recipe called for a two week fermentation with an additional few days to allow yeast to settle. It has been 3 weeks and my airlock is still bubbling like crazy and the ABV continues to rise. I am growing impatient and want to distill. Is there any way to stop the fermentation process and force the yeast to settle?

[firewater69]

we need more info, what was your recipe? and for what it's worth, the ferment will be done when it's done. so just let it roll. if you don't have patience to wait you should stagger your ferments so you always have something to run. edit: if you stop a ferment early your still may not like it very much.

[Pesty]

patience my friend.. wait it out

[True North]

What is the sg? If it's nearly finished you can still run it. You'll be sacrificing a bit of alcohol but for convenience sake it may be worth it. Also 3 weeks seems like a long time. I'd bet it's pretty much done.

[moosemilk]

Honey tends to take a bit longer to ferment. Don't rush it, she be done when she done. If you have too much sugar left and try to run it, you'll find out what puking is all about. Have a taste of it. If it's still sweet, you still have sugar left. If it leaves your fingers sticky, it still has sugar in it (but don't put your fingers in there, take a sample out with a clean jar or something like that).

And what others said, your SG would be helpful.

[GnarBacon]

Well, I followed your guys' advice and I waited until fermentation finally finished on its own. Total time was about 4 1/2 weeks! That'll be the last time I use honey in a wash. Anyways, I ran it through my all copper pot still(my very first still run) and yielded about 3/4 gal of "honey shine", ranging from 110 proof down to 70 proof. After I finished I took a good swig from one of my hearts jars and just about vomited. It actually had me dry heaving it was so bad. I might as well have dumped a packet of bread yeast into my mouth because I'm guessing it would have tasted about the same. Not even a hint of honey flavor either . I opened up most of the other jars to smell and take a tiny taste and they were all nearly identical. They all smelled and tastes like yeast/burnt rubber. Anybody got any ideas as to what I did wrong? Because I'm totally lost. I did weeks and weeks worth of research and reading before my first run so I feel like I had a pretty good understanding on the basics of running a pot still. Oh and btw, I auto siphoned the wash into my boiler being very careful not to stir up any trub on the bottom, and I left about a half gallon in there so I wouldn't suck any of it up.

[der wo]

We still are waiting for more details. The exact recipe of the wash. Details or better pictures of your still.

[pfshine]

Your first run eh. I bet that flux tasted awesome. Well try and do some cleaning runs and make sure when the still is ready and you have done a tried and true from this forum let it settle for a while then rack it OFF and let that sit then rack that one into the boiler. What kind of still do you got? Can ya post a pic or at least describe it in detail?

[GnarBacon]

"Honey Whiskey Recipe
Ingredients:
1 gallon of wildflower honey or honey of choice
5 gallons of water
Super Start distillers yeast or yeast of choice
Procedure:
Heat 2.5 gallons of water to 160° F and stir in 1 gallon of honey until completely dissolved.
Add an additional 2.5 gallons of room temperature water to the honey solution.
Cool to 70F using an immersion chiller.
Aerate by pouring mash back and forth between two buckets.
Add yeast of choice
Add 2.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (Follow the directions on the label)
Transfer to a glass carboy, install air lock, and allow to ferment around 70 F for at least 2 weeks or until it is finished fermenting.
After fermentation is finished allow to settle for several days
Siphon (do not pour) into a 5 or 10 gallon copper pot still. Do not fill vapor cone with liquid.
Distill, making sure to toss foreshots, heads, and tails.
Make extremely tight heads and tails cuts if you plan on drinking un-aged.
Be tight with heads cut but more liberal with tails cuts if you are planning on following aging instructions below."

Note: I used fleischmann's active dry yeast


I'm trying to get a picture of my still on here but I can't seem to get the file small enough to upload

[cranky]

I know we are asking a lot of questions but these are necessary to figure out your problems.

The yeast taste can be from using too much bakers yeast or just using bakers yeast in general. a mead yeast or EC-1118 would probably help that.

Long ferments are common with honey and bakers yeast prefers 80F or a bit higher. You need to match your yeast to temperature or vice versa, too cold for the yeast and the ferment will go slow, too hot and you will get off flavors, too far either way and the ferment can stall altogether.

Not seeing a picture of your setup is another issue that leads to questions.

Are there synthetic seals in your setup somewhere?
This often causes the burnt rubber taste novices run into.

Is this the first run ever or did you do all the mandatory cleaning and sacrificial runs?
This is another mistake first timers make that cause undrinkable distillate and even illness. These cleaning runs are very important.

Now, I personally recommend when you are ready to do another ferment you do one from tried and true section and especially recommend All-Bran, it is easy and tastes good right off the still.

[der wo]

The recipe and procedure sounds not bad. 70 F is a little low, probably because of that it finished so slow.

Is it possible, pfshine is right and you did no cleaning and sacrificial run?

You can resize pictures with every free download picture software. 800 x 800 is the limit here.

[cranky]

That's Clawhammers recipe isn't it?
Is your still one of their kits?

[GnarBacon]

[quote="pfshine"]Your first run eh. I bet that flux tasted awesome. Well try and do some cleaning runs and make sure when the still is ready and you have done a tried and true from this forum let it settle for a while then rack it OFF and let that sit then rack that one into the boiler. What kind of still do you got? Can ya post a pic or at least describe it in detail?

http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr14 ... vwm7o.jpeg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Hopefully that link works for you guys. It's a 10 gallon copper pot still built from a clawhammer kit(minus the 4' drip arm that's not in the pic). I realize these stills may not be the best, but I felt it was a good starting point for me. And yes I know I don't need the thermometers but I ordered them before I knew. At least they look kinda cool

I also did several cleaning runs before I distilled the honey shine. First time with vinager and water for a few hours, then I did a sacrificial run with a couple gallons of Carlo Rossi. I would hope that it would have gotten all the flux out by then.

[pfshine]

Anyways, I ran it through my all copper pot still(my very first still run) and yielded about 3/4 gal of "honey shine", ranging from 110 proof down to 70 proof. After I finished I took a good swig from one of my hearts jars and just about vomited. It actually had me dry heaving it was so bad.

When you said that ya got me confused because you said it was your very first. Now then. If that's not the case. Ya probably got some trub in it and scorched. Ya also might have ran it to fast for a single run, but that's OK put it back in and run it slow.

[GnarBacon]

Sorry, I should have been more specific on that. It was my very first time distilling a drinkable product. I did all the proper cleaning runs prior to distilling the honey wash

[der wo]

Did the fermented mash also have this taste or smell?

[GnarBacon]

Not at all. I sampled it several times throughout fermentation when I would check the gravity and it was delicious. Towards the end I was actually half tempted to just let it age longer and drink it as mead wine. That's why I was so shocked at how horrible it tasted after distilling.

[GnarBacon]

I know we are asking a lot of questions but these are necessary to figure out your problems.

The yeast taste can be from using too much bakers yeast or just using bakers yeast in general. a mead yeast or EC-1118 would probably help that.

Long ferments are common with honey and bakers yeast prefers 80F or a bit higher. You need to match your yeast to temperature or vice versa, too cold for the yeast and the ferment will go slow, too hot and you will get off flavors, too far either way and the ferment can stall altogether.

There's actually one major mistake I made that comes to mind about the yeast. I didn't add any sort of nutrient to it, as I would later find out that honey has virtually no naturally occurring nutrients in it. The fermentation went well though, the yeast were very active the entire time. And since the wash tasted really good I figured that there were no off flavors being produced from stressed yeast. Perhaps you can only taste those off flavors after it's been distilled?

[der wo]

But why you wrote, you added 2.5 teaspoons yeast nutrient?

Perhaps it fermented slower and not dry without nutrients. Did it taste still sweet after fermentation? Residual sugar can cause off flavors and it is more likely, that it scorches. Did it scorch?

A good tasting mash never would distilled have a rubber smell. I think, there is a problem with your still. Not enough cleaning for the many solder joints perhaps.

Try a simple neutral recipe, tried and true, birdwatchers for example. It should taste clean.

[pfshine]

What did you seal the cap with?

[GnarBacon]

What did you seal the cap with?

Flour paste

[rad14701]

For future reference, figure out how to resize your images for direct upload to this site... I, for one, will no longer visit the external hosting sites because they are riddled with malware and it seems like every time I try going to one my system warns me before I get infected and I just abort... You'll need to learn how to resize images just like everyone else has had to... Or, better yet, if you have a camera that lets you adjust the megapixels just set it to the lowest setting, although that might still be a bit big - but still better... The problem stems from the fact that most camera devices are set way bigger than they need to be as far as the megapixel setting goes... And with Apple products you usually don't have a system setting to adjust... And here Apple is supposed to be the be all end all of technology... Not...!!!

We have at least one topic on image uploading etiquette in Forum Rules, Notifications and Helpful Hints...

[Bigbob]

Honey shine will not taste good for a couple of months. Never had a burnt rubber taste but very headsy for at least 2/3 months.

[GnarBacon]

But why you wrote, you added 2.5 teaspoons yeast nutrient?

Perhaps it fermented slower and not dry without nutrients. Did it taste still sweet after fermentation? Residual sugar can cause off flavors and it is more likely, that it scorches. Did it scorch?

That was big mistake I made. I just copied and pasted those instructions, I definitely missed that step though. Yea, it was still pretty sweet now that I think about it. What exactly does scorched distillate taste like? Other than tasting burnt haha. Would it cause that awful yeast aroma and taste?

[der wo]

If it scorched, you would notice it when you clean the boiler. Did you have to scrub the bottom or could you flush everything out easily?

[GnarBacon]

No scrubbing, everything washed right out easily with some water.

[der wo]

Then do a neutral wash. Birdwatchers is easy. Either it will be a sacrifce run or your first neutral low wines.

[thecroweater]

You ran it once, seeing your proofs tells me you ran it moderately like spirit run. You got low wines there hombre and unless you want to age it for the next decade you best temper that stuff down to say 70 proof and rerun it.

[jb-texshine]

I've been running ALOT of honey.ALOT!!!
What's missing from the recipe guys? Nutrients!
I have been makin mine like so:
15 pounds of honey
Ten pounds fine cracked corn,recleaned
Ten gallons water
Table spoon gypsum
Table spoon Epsom salt
A pint of boiled trub from an ujssm
Then yeast of choice.I used I think D47? A yeast known to produce fruity flowery esters.
Run it as a 1.5 distillation
Add back some of the late Clear tails that have the best honey taste.age it on toasted and chard fruit wood of choice. Follow a sip with a sip of water and all you taste is honey.
Jb-t
Reminds me I need more honey!
I used a

[cranky]

I would suggest a second run too but there really isn't enough product there to make it worth the effort.

I will say when I've used bakers yeast my wife complains about the yeasty taste even after it is triple distilled and refluxed to 96+% neutral (tampered to 80pr of course). I think your yeast may be a problem although it could be flux.

Like Rad I also don't go to the photobucket pix but I am familiar with the Clawhammer stills. They are actually nice stills with only a few shortcomings.

I disagree with De Wo about the birdwatchers because even though most people say they don't taste it, I can taste tomato in it when run through a pot still. Birdwatchers makes a good neutral when refluxed but the tomato flavor comes through in the tails and is easy to miss on blending only to find your final product has a tomato/tequila flavor to it that I don't like and think you may not either. Like I said, All-bran, the recipe on the 2nd or 3rd page is in my opinion the best thing to use for a simple pot still. It's good the first time through and better the 2nd and ready to drink as soon as it comes off the still.

Now, This subject is something that really belongs somewhere besides the welcome center so I would suggest you give that honey some time to rest and make a new wash or 3 and see if the results are better and make a new thread in the novice section.

Welcome to HD by the way

Posting same time as JB who knows more about honey than I do