My first sugar wash is on its third day. It is in a sealed container with an airlock (so only air can get out and not in). The equipment was staralized with boiling water before I started the wash. Something important is that the wash is only 2L. I did this because I just wanted to make a really small batch for the first time. I reduced the quantaties of each ingredient porpotionately.
The ingredients I put in it are:
Water(it was bottled) 2L
Sugar 450g
Grape Juice 50ml
Orange Juice 50ml
Yeast 6g
Centrum Vitamin
Boild Yeast (that was cooled back down when I put it in) 1g
The recepie is supposed to be pretty close to the one on homedistiller.org under Preparing Wash->sugar based->neutral alchohol
it is the "wine for distilling" recepie.
The reason I added the multivitamin was to give the yeast its Iron, potassium, and phosphorus requirements. If you want to see everything that is in the multi-vitamin please go to the link http://www.centrum.co.uk/products/centr ... tional.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
----------------
Anyway, from what I have read, I don't think you are supposed to let oxygen get to it once the yeast has been added, but I opened it up today to check the PH of the wash. Its around 4.5 .
My question is that around the rim of the waterline for the wash there are small red specks of stuff. I am guessing that this is the yeast with the grape juice? I was just wondering if this sounds like something that is ok or should I be concerned about the specks?
Also, I was wondering about the smell of the wash. It kind of smells like beer and a trashcan. Does this sound right? The wash is also a brownish color.
Thanks for any replys I get.
1st sugar wash questions
Moderator: Site Moderator
-
linw
- Swill Maker
- Posts: 372
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 2:10 am
- Location: Wellington, NZ
Dunno about the nutrient quality but the PH is about right. Also wonder about your "boild yeast". What yeast can be boiled and still survive? Others might comment on whether scaling down like this is OK.
You won't harm anything by opening the vessel. It should smell beery but not nasty as your description, trash can, suggests.
But how is it going? Is it fermenting? How much CO2 is burping out of your airlock? Are there lots of small fizzing bubbles?
Maybe safer to start with a Turbo as you know all necessary ingredients are there.
You won't harm anything by opening the vessel. It should smell beery but not nasty as your description, trash can, suggests.
But how is it going? Is it fermenting? How much CO2 is burping out of your airlock? Are there lots of small fizzing bubbles?
Maybe safer to start with a Turbo as you know all necessary ingredients are there.
Cheers,
Lindsay.
Lindsay.
-
Brett
- Swill Maker
- Posts: 381
- Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 6:31 am
Not to sure on the boiled yeast myself either,, boiling a yeast kills it.
When adding juices and (multivitamins) you have to be sure they dont contain preservatives and things that will kill off the yeast, also im not sure, i could be totaly wrong but the vitamin is porpotioned for human consumption and the little yeastys are a lot smaller than a human (not sure if to much can harm the fermentation). The smell will be like beer or with fruits a smell verry slightly resembling the smell of the fruit, but when i first open my vesel the smell which always gets me the most is that of the co2, all that airspace in the vessel is filled with co2 and it comes accross as a sort of sharp burning dry sensation n smell. (dont breathe to deep)
When adding juices and (multivitamins) you have to be sure they dont contain preservatives and things that will kill off the yeast, also im not sure, i could be totaly wrong but the vitamin is porpotioned for human consumption and the little yeastys are a lot smaller than a human (not sure if to much can harm the fermentation). The smell will be like beer or with fruits a smell verry slightly resembling the smell of the fruit, but when i first open my vesel the smell which always gets me the most is that of the co2, all that airspace in the vessel is filled with co2 and it comes accross as a sort of sharp burning dry sensation n smell. (dont breathe to deep)
-
Guest
I read on the site somewhere that most important vitamin for yeast is Vitamin B. Most of the all-in-one vitamin tablets don't have much B since it costs a lot. And gotta tell you boiled yeast certainly smells like dead cat. That could be the smell you get mixed with the fruit.
My apricot and peach washes all had light brown color. So maybe orange juice gave the color in your case. Also any vitamin can get oxidised easily and turn brown during the first stages of fermentation. I get red specs too, but I believe that is because i use tomato paste in washes.
As long as it doesn't smell too bad, i guess it's good for distilling. Just watch the temp and make sure it doesn't go above 32C/90F. Because then yeast makes interesting things that smell and taste very flammable.
My apricot and peach washes all had light brown color. So maybe orange juice gave the color in your case. Also any vitamin can get oxidised easily and turn brown during the first stages of fermentation. I get red specs too, but I believe that is because i use tomato paste in washes.
As long as it doesn't smell too bad, i guess it's good for distilling. Just watch the temp and make sure it doesn't go above 32C/90F. Because then yeast makes interesting things that smell and taste very flammable.
-
Guest
Thanks everyone for the information.
The recepie that I am following that I refered to in my first post calls for a certain ammount of boiled dead yeast to give the rest of the yeast protien.
Also, the multivitamin that I used containes all the neccessary ingredients that the "econo wash" recepie called for to supply the yeast with.
In terms of actualy fermenting, the sucker is still giving off quite a bit of gas after four days.
The trashcan smell I mentioned isn't that strong at all, its mostly beerish type smell, which is probably the co2.
By cutting down my ammounts so much, I'm only going to get like a cup full off of this right? If you guess I get about 15% alchohol in the wash, then 15% of 2L is .3 L or less than 20 ounces.
The recepie that I am following that I refered to in my first post calls for a certain ammount of boiled dead yeast to give the rest of the yeast protien.
Also, the multivitamin that I used containes all the neccessary ingredients that the "econo wash" recepie called for to supply the yeast with.
In terms of actualy fermenting, the sucker is still giving off quite a bit of gas after four days.
The trashcan smell I mentioned isn't that strong at all, its mostly beerish type smell, which is probably the co2.
By cutting down my ammounts so much, I'm only going to get like a cup full off of this right? If you guess I get about 15% alchohol in the wash, then 15% of 2L is .3 L or less than 20 ounces.