Wineos Plain Ol Sugar Wash

[LWTCS]

SMITH, that sounds pretty much spot on for your ~10% wash... Perhaps even a bit high if you were running a reflux column at high purity... If you made proper cust, and it blends well after airing, then I'd consider it a very successful run...

+1

And prolly better for it because your abv was lower.

[SMiTH]

awesome, thanks guys! ill let you know how it turned out after I let it air out this weekend and blend on monday

[SMiTH]

okie doke, did the blending of cuts today, got 1.5L of keepers at 93% and 1L of not so good smelling i think ill just throw it into the next run stuff.

[SMiTH]

Stuck Ferment?

I have 2 batches of WPOSW going at the moment, started them two days ago, one is bubbling away happily the other not so much, I'm watching the airlocks of the two and in comparison one is pretty much not bubbling at all...

I did use a little too much water in the one that is not working, about 2L too much, is that enough to have this much of an impact on it?

Cheers;

Smithy

[Dnderhead]

if the sugar the same it should not make a difference.
smaller amount of sugars will finish faster
to much sugar can slow your wash to the point of stalling.

[Oxbo Rene]

OK, got two 6-gal washes started this weekend.
One with ten lbs sugar, the other with eight lbs sugar.
10 lb.sugar = SSG = 1.080
8 lb. sugar = SSG = 1.065
Have noticed that as evening temps drop, so does the burping (CO2 release)
However, they both are doing fine during the day, burping right along.
One thing I notice, PH tends to drop, have been adding Calcium Carbonate to keep it up, etc......

[SMiTH]

if the sugar the same it should not make a difference.
smaller amount of sugars will finish faster
to much sugar can slow your wash to the point of stalling.

sugar levels are the same, 3.6 kg per each 22L wash,

checked again at lunch time, they are both burping away, there is still a noticeable difference in the speed between the two, Time will tell how they go I spose.

[Oxbo Rene]

Had a scare yesterday.
I been taking the tops off (more so with the 10 lb sugar wash) checking the PH and adding Calcium Carbonate, stirring etc.
Then, it stalled, left it alone for a couple hrs = dead......
Read, read, read, study, study, study, put more DAP, yeast and another pinch of Epsoms salt in, stir = nothing.
More reading, studying, came across the "yeast bomb".
Decided to try a couple "B" vitamins and bout a teaspoon more of Epsom salts, more yeast = Started burping again.
Was doing fine this morning, and when I got home from work awhile ago, she was going (both were)
along real fine = relief.
So, I think I'm just going to quit messing with em till they finish ........

[Oxbo Rene]

OK, looks like the 10 lb sugar wash has finished today = 5 days ferment.
FSG = 0.999
PH = 3.9
No sweet taste, but did seem rather chalky.
Gave it a good stir and am now going to let her sit for a few days, then rack it, etc......

[Oxbo Rene]

And, right on time, 8 lb wash finished,
I think I'm going to let em sit till next sat, that should be plenty of time to clear, etc.......

[Twinnie]

After ditching turbo yeasts I'm only on my second proper batch, it's still bubbling after six days and I only just got round to checking it and it's gone from 1.080 to 1.050. This kinda bums me out because my previous attempt (Birdwatchers) got stuck at 1.010 and I never managed to restart it so I just had to distill it in the end (it was still cleaner than any turbo). I'll try to be as detailed as possible as I'm hoping someone can help me out:

6kgs of white sugar dissolved in hot water
Juice of one lemon (didn't have citric acid on hand)
1tsp DAP
Bakers yeast (put in at 95f) almost as per the recipe but I was about 50g short.
Epsom salt went in the next day.
Didn't bother with gypsum, tricky to get hold of and I live in a hard water area.

This was all put in a fermenting bucket and heated and maintained at 25c using an aquarium heater and an old duvet to wrap it in, stirred on the first and second day.

I went shopping today and bought some more bakers yeast and some vitamin B (not sure why but I've heard it's useful and I'm trying to build and arsenal), and I still have plenty of epsom salts and DAP.

Not sure what to do now, the first thing I would do is add some more yeast but should I add any more DAP or epsom salts? If so how much?

[rad14701]

Twinnie, if the wash is still bubbling away then just leave it alone and let it work at its own pace... Trying to make it ferment faster may stress the yeast and result in a real problem instead of an imaginary one... It could easily take three weeks or more to ferment to dry... This wash is not intended to be super fast... Patience...

[blind drunk]

Hey Twinnie, it's the old hurry up and wait in this hobby. Cheers, bd.

[Bayou-Ruler]

Hey Twinnie, it's the old hurry up and wait in this hobby. Cheers, bd.

That it is, but it is well worth the wait

[Twinnie]

Thanks guys. I don't mind waiting but I didn't want to sit on my hands if something was broken, especially after I left my last one on 1.010 for two weeks and nothing happened. Like I said I was short on the yeast to begin with so I just topped it up plus a little more to try and kick it off a little. I'll give it some more time now and see what happens.

[bgrizzle]

So obviously there is no need to invert the sugar, as there is no mention of this anywhere in this thread... BUT, if one were to boil the sugar in some H20 for 30 minutes, how would it affect the wash? I'm guessing it would run faster, but would it change the taste at all???

[bgrizzle]

OK, so I never heard a response about inverting the sugars... I went ahead and made my first WPOSW. I have 2 six gallon ferments going. I added pounds of sugar to a pot of hot water. I turned on the stove and heated for about 5 minutes while stirring. Sugar was nice and disolved. Never really boiled... I filled the fermenter hald full of cold water, then added the hot sugar water to the fermenter... I didnt want to add hot sugar water into a plastic fermenter, so thats why I had to cold water in there first. i then topped it to 6 gallons... added dap, citric acid, and gypsum... let it cool, added 1/4 cup distillers yeast. Waited twenty minutes... stirred well... then aerated using aquarium aerator for 20 minutes. Put top on fermenter and inserted air lock... Now we will wait and see! I will post updates... starting sg was 1070. I do not have a pH meter (its in the mail)... but next time I will keep an eye pH...

[Sir Hosis]

I did what wineo said at 80 degrees for 19 days. Was surprised how well it settled without an additive. I got 1 qt 92% that tastes great, 3/4 90% that tasted less great and 1/4 86% that tastes somewhat ok. I am in it for the fun, but I find it much cheaper than buying turbo and a clearing agent, time isn't to big a deal to me. I will dilute and flavor the first quart, but am thinking of putting the last one in the next run.

I have a question, please.

Can I place a non-carbon filtered run from turbo into my next batch of wineo's and save the filtering without tainting the taste?

PS, I am using a Milehigh 40'' 2-piece 2" with 1/2 copper and the other in 6 mm rings. I like the rig and for a store bought, I think I couldn't do better, except I would have preferred Brewhaus's three clamp boiler.

[braemar]

Hello Hosis,
You would be treating the turbo spirit as tails putting them in with the wposw but if you run it fairly slow and maybe carbon filter the whole thing when done i reckon it would be ok. i have done a similar thing and it worked out ok.
Regs
Braemar

[Oxbo Rene]

OK, have 5L of 62% abv.
Did 4-stripping runs of 5 gal ea.
Was really in a tizzy trying to make it go according to approx figures given (for spirit runs I finally deduced).
Finally read about temps and re visited the wash/temps graph, and found I was doing OK.
Was crazy watching temps go right by 148F deg, then on buy 172F deg, but I just kept going thinking
I'd figure it out later, etc.
I threw out the first 300ml (getting rid of first of heads too) of each wash, collected down to 54% abv (50% abv = decided cutoff point).
So, according to calculator/and my thinking, I need to do 8-more washes of 5-gal to finally end up
with a total of 6 gal 0f 40% abv for my spirit run, but, have some pretty nice product as is.
It does have an orange beard when burnt, so, ain't good enough yet.
But, it don't smell a bit, did till I aired it out for awhile, then = no smell at all.
That is all ...........
Oxbo

[Oxbo Rene]

Started two more 6-gal washes today.
SSG = 1076 (10 % abv) PH = 5.1
Had em on the back porch (shady) seems they didn't want to start.
Put em out in the yard in the sunshine = took off.
Checked back porch temp = 78F deg, so I figure that's about
where they (yeast) almost shut down due to temps.
Cooler weather is finally trying to move in here in Fl.
Cool in mornings/afternoons and nights.
Time to go fishing .....
Oxbo

Edit --> OK, re reading thread I guess 78F deg ain't too bad after all .....
9pm, 70Fdeg = going along nicely .......
4am, 60Fdeg = still going .......

[SMiTH]

What are the max / min recommended PH levels for a wash?

[Oxbo Rene]

What are the max / min recommended PH levels for a wash?

For this wash, Wineo recommends ->
"As far as PH goes,anywhere between 5.0-6.0 is good".

[Oxbo Rene]

Observing my two washes, they have been really slow-to- stopped.
SG still up around 1.050. The one was indeed stopped.
So, yesterday I yeast bombed them (just repeated same start formula).
PH was at 3.1, so dumped a bunch of Calcium Carbonate in em (started out
with tblsps but PH comes up toooooo slowly, wind up putting in absurd amount.
I got this (Calcium Carbonate) at health store, is labeled "Dolomite.
Anyway, the one is going fair, the other is dead.
I did try and get away with 10 lbs sugar each (worked last time).
Am going to dump the one and go with 8lb sugar, gonna watch the other, etc, etc.
Am wondering if the cool weather start affected them, it warmed up last few
days but washes have never really kicked ass as far as burping goes........

[rad14701]

Oxbo Rene, I don't think the amount of sugar in the wash is the culprit here... A 6 gallon wash with 10 pounds of sugar is gonna have an SG of ~ 1.077 and ~11.7% potential ABV... Most any yeast should do fine with these proportions... I'd be leaning more towards nutrients, temperature fluctuations, the pH issue you mentioned, or bad yeast...

[Oxbo Rene]

Tx's Rad,
Only thing I did diff from Wino's original was to use 10 lbs sugar,
didn't use any Calcium Carbonate as, used Citric acid to bring down PH to 5.1
from around PH 7.
But did put in (3) vitamin B tablets (crushed) as opposed to just (1).
Have been using "Distiller's yeast".......
The one that's dead, I opened it up and smelled and it didn't smell of alcohol
but more acidic to the point of burning my nose, wanting me to pull away
before I got too much (strong).
Well, there goes another $6.00 ....

[rad14701]

So, did the wash turn to vinegar from infection or was it fully fermented...??? What was the SG of that wash...???

[Oxbo Rene]

SSG = 1.076,.......... Stuck at SG = 1.050
I would think that's possibly what happened (turned to vinegar).
I haven't been disinfecting, just washing out my containers real good and keeping them sealed when not in use.
So, probably, my-bad .......
The other one is going right along after I bombed it.

[Oxbo Rene]

OK, dumped that dead wash, disinfected fermenter, started new wash =
Outside temp = 86F deg
PH = 5.7
SSG = 1.078
Pitched yeast = 95F deg
Chugin like a locomotive ! ! !
( 10lbs sugar),
(1) vitamin B tablet (crushed)
Oh, went to hardware store and bought paint stirrer for drill motor,
really oxygenated now ! ! !

[crunchman]

Just trew a WPOSW together, I'm wondering why my SSG is always 1.075 with 5gals total before adding the yeast, I thought this was a 6gal wash??

I'm going by the recipe exept for the gypsum, Could it be our softened water ?? or does it really matter ??