UJSM in 55 gal fermenter?

[bobtuse]

I have a 15.5 gal keg boiler, and thinking of getting a 55 gal fermenter to cut down on waiting time. Also about time to try a UJSM run.

I understand the principal of adding the backset and more sugar to keep fermentation going, but can you do this in a 55 gal fermenter? I can only pull out 12-13 gal at a time to strip, even with back to back strip runs, thats half a fermenter.

Any suggestions on how to make this work for me or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks

Bob

[Dnderhead]

You can make it any size you want but with a 15 gal boiler you will want about 10 gal of wash , so two 20 gal fermenters, staggered whould be better.

[punkin]

Dunder is right. 55 gal say 48 gallon ferment...say 40 gallon of wine (leave room for the grain) that's four runs. Four runs will give ya say 50 litres of strip, that's three spirit runs for every two cycles of your drum

so every month you'll have to do 8 strip runs and three spirit runs and that's assuming you don't want to try your hand at anything else. Work that into hours wathcing your still....

Plus you'll end up with that much finnished booze you're gunna have to find a solution to storage or just tell everyone you know to bring a bucket and you'll fill it up with booze...

a 70 litre ferment (20 gallons) is much easier to plan around and will still keep ya fairly busy.







HopeYouAin'tfiguringOnHoldingAJobDownTooPunkin

[grunger]

for neutrals I'd say go ahead with a large fermenter, but if you're trying to run multiple generations of UJSM you'll be a busy man with that setup just trying to stay ahead the mash.

[bobtuse]

Loud n clear. Was thinking it was a bit much. Need to dial up the patience a bit. Much as my mates would love buckets of booze, slave to the still is not what I want. Thanks all for keeping me in check.

Bob

[Husker]

'Slave to the still', is just what a sour mash like UJSM can do to you, especially if you get 2 or 3 staggered ferments going. When I get enough ahead with backset, I run a longer ferment cycle.

Once I get things going well, I do 5 days on the grain, which pretty much does the 'heavy' fermenting, then about 4 days in a secondary 'clearing' set of carboy's (to semi clear, and finish). I do it in 13 gallon tub and get about 10-11 gallons of wine. That I split into a 5 and a 6 gallon carboy, and start the next fermenter going. Then 4 days in the carboys. I do a strip after 4 days in the glass, then prep that backset. Then the next day, wrack off the wine from the grain into the clean carboys, and start the next batch fermenting right from the start. That way, I am doing a boiler about every 5 days, but finishing and clearing a little more. Works out great with a 15gal keg. That 10-11 gallons of wash is just about the right load. Can run it pretty hard, and not boil over. Also, running that extra 4 days off the grain drops most solids, along with gets the wine pretty dry, thus outputting what I think is a crisp clean strip. Then every other weekend, a good full sized spirit run.

But trying to do that on a 50gallon scale, hell no. That would end up being a full time job.

Once I get running, I get MORE than plenty to keep ahead of my consumption, thus, I can stash away some of it for good aging. Once I get running, I get about 6-8 gallons of prime product a month, from a staggered 13 gallon fermenter. That is plenty for me, family, and a few select others.

If you were gonna ramp up to a 55 gallon fermenter, then you dam sure want a 65 gallon boiler in your still, and some pretty decent power, to strip it in 4 or 5 hours. Also, running that much, you will likely start attracting a little more attention than you really want. But if you are doing a 'community' still (say 4 or 5 farm families), then a still of that size, might be just the ticket. A good 15-20 generation go during the warm season, and everyone is set with product for the year. Well, looking back on what I just wrote, 20 runs of a 45 gallon 10% wash, would get a gross of 180 gallons of 50% or probably 120 gallons of 'good' 50%. That might be a little more than 5 families would consume in a year's time

H.

[bobtuse]

Thanks for the numbers Husker, gives me an idea of how to run it, just more appropriately sized. And all this cause some guy had cheap 55 gal drums for sale on Craigslist! I like the idea of rotating out into carboys, its a lot of transfering etc, but keeps everything going. Id need to get a few more carboys tho... more $ than the damn 55 gal drums my problem so far has been having something to do while waiting for ferments to finish. trying to climb up that learning curve and improve product more than trying to put out a lot of it at once.

Bob

[punkin]

Get lots of 40 litre fermenters and put down lots of different recipes.

I fiind four 60 litre fermenters filled to 40 for 1 charge of different things like rum and sugars and allgrains etc and a large ninety litre one filled to 70l for two ujsm strips keep me going and don't interfere with my homely lifestyle.

[Tatt2d]

I fiind four 60 litre fermenters filled to 40 for 1 charge of different things like rum and sugars and allgrains etc and a large ninety litre one filled to 70l for two ujsm strips keep me going and don't interfere with my homely lifestyle.

How many sheng you fermenting at a time?!?! How much sugar you go thru in a month?

The (2) 5 gallon buckets i got keep me entertained.

[Dnderhead]

Id have two . fitted to the size of still,(a little larger,as room for whatever+water) one will always be waiting for you, some take longer than a week to ferment.if it sets a couple of days it will just be "clearing". after you've done afue you will git into a schedule.

[punkin]

I fiind four 60 litre fermenters filled to 40 for 1 charge of different things like rum and sugars and allgrains etc and a large ninety litre one filled to 70l for two ujsm strips keep me going and don't interfere with my homely lifestyle.

How many sheng you fermenting at a time?!?! How much sugar you go thru in a month?

The (2) 5 gallon buckets i got keep me entertained.

I told you how much i ferment at a time. I use one or two bags of sugar a month i spose, but people often give me sugar. My mollasses is all free and i get free fruit sometimes. Grains get dropped off here sometimes or sometimes i buy some.

Don't drink much of it, i just like making it, most gets stored and a little gets given away. I plan on my kids and grandkids having a LOT of very well aged brown spirits that are beter than the average store bought to sip on if that's what takes their fancy as they get older.

Not much good at too many other things (sides fishing, fighting and charming women and kids), so a man's gotta leave some sorta legacy...




KeepsMeOutaThePubPunkin

[pro65]

I have 4 containers that are 8gallons each. I keep 2 going with UJSM. 1 with sugar wash and one with fruit or UJSM.
The way I do UJSm is I start both containers at the same time, after fermintation is coplete I syphone into my clearing containers and then start a new mash. After it clears I syphone it into the keg and do a stripping run until I get almost enough to fill the keg again then I delute it to 40% and do a spirit run.

And yes this keeps me busy.

[Usge]

I'm using a 5 gal pot so I had two 8gal fermenters going. They always seemed to get too full even removing corn that I was replacing. Being so full also increased fermentation times, and I ended up having to add less/sugar water cause I just couldn't get everything below the corn/lees as it got much thicker over time. This also reduced my output/collection of low-wines. So, I bought a 30 gal plastic barrel and started a 10gal UJSM in it to give it a shot. It gives me plenty of room for the UJSM and lees to grow over time/multiple gens using full recipe amounts without worrying about it getting too full. If it's anything like all the other UJSM I've run, it's going to slow over time anyway (as to the time it takes to ferment). The same thing happened to the smaller ones as well, and getting full, too much sugar (for less water), etc., all took its toll on fermentation times.

It "is" a double strip run on each load, but I've also found I an take half out, recover it, and even if I don't get to it that week, the other half will sit fine. The same thing can happen to you with 2 separate (smaller) fermenters as well. I had a staggered ferment going until one got too full, and slowed way down. Then they caught up with each other and I ended up in the same situation (ie...2 runs worth ready to go at the same time). I just left one, till I could get to it, and restarted it later. But, as I said, the bigger problem was that the fermenters would just get too full and I had to reduce the recipe amount accordingly (which also meant I wasn't collecting a full gallon of strip every run and meant one additional strip run before spirit run).

There are any number of ways around these issues (as pointed out). I think the key is just finding one that works best for your situation. Having multiple small fermenters makes plenty of sense for having multiple different recipes going at the same time. With that much going on, the bigger issue for me would be storage of all the various recipe low-wines until I had enough saved up for a spirit run. I reckon everything has it's on advantages, disadvantages. Just a different perspective on things.