Not such a great first batch. Help

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:18 pm

I have had my first mash fermenting for like 5 days. I put in a little water, mixed the 13lb. of sugar, the packet of 48 hr turbo yeast, and filled it up to 24lt. After about 12 hours I put the bung and the little funny looking thing (drunk right now, can't think of the name of the contraption)...has something to do with the CO2.

Anyway, after all this time, my whole bucket still looks yellow. I didn't really know what to expect (people don't include pictures of what it's supposed to look like on this site), but anyway...How could I have screwed this up? If I use the clearing agent will that do it? After all this time I thought it will all settle to the bottom and I would syphon out the good stuff. Please advice.

Loki from Muskogee

CoopsOz · Post by **CoopsOz** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:33 pm

You didn't screw up, the wash will have a slight yellow tinge. Don't worry about the colour, it won't come over in the distillation.

rangaz · Post by **rangaz** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:17 am

as long as its been bubbling and foaming and such till now it means you got some alcohol. All washes have a colour and distinct smell, often quite unpleasant

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:21 pm

Good to hear. Now I need to figure out what will be my best bet for heating my still. It's pretty tall. What is most common?

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:51 pm

there are plenty of options. what kind of heat sources ya got layin around in the garage/shed? what kinda boiler ya got? how big is it? etc.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:57 am

It is a 32lt still with a 40" reflux column. The container looks like two buckets welded on top of each other. It's the grande from milehidistilling.com. What is a good heating source to get this going for less than $80 dollars? What's my best bet?

Second question, (excuse errors as I am hammered on some fine kentucky bourbon at the moment), I don't completely understand the concept of what the leef's are? Whatever I leave in the fermenter? I'm still weak on my lingo. I need to syphon my mash to the still but I don't know what to leave in the bucket. Please advise and I will be doing this in the next 24 hours.

Loki

CoopsOz · Post by **CoopsOz** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:02 am

Most of your expended yeast will have settled on the bottom, it is fairly visible. If you leave the wash for a bit longer it will get clearer (or use a clearing agent or some egg white.

jake · Post by **jake** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:28 am

Loki dont make your run while hammered.
I have the smaller version of your still; dont know how tall yours is but mine fits fine on top of my stove top in my basement.
need a step ladder to get my temp probe in (im not real tall anyway)
last run I did took about 7 hours from set up to shutdown.

msrorysdad · Post by **msrorysdad** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:27 am

I use a turkey fryer as a heat source, off one propane bottle I get five to seven runs, or more

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:10 pm

yes, as msrorysdad said. you can pick one up at home depot/lowes/walmart for around 50 clams. and the added bonus is you can deepfry a 15 pound turkey in about 40 minutes if ya want to. or you can use the pot as a mash pot for grains and such (although Im not all that keen on usin aluminum).

ditto what jake said, youll have plenty of opportunity to get lit up, pardon the pun, if you dont pay attention to what you are doing.

Safety first ya know.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:48 pm

Ok. I just got back home after being gone a couple of days any my mash has seperated. Now, what exactly are the lees I am trying to avoid transfering?

Also, is a turkey fryer easily adjusted to achieve the perfect temp (78.15 deg. c?)

Thanks.

Loki from Muskogee

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:15 pm

Well, for starters, youve barely missed 14 hours between postings, so I call BULLSHIT. Aside from that, let it sit for another day, screw this, I aint spoon feedin ya.

as Tater says, its time for you to read, read, read. sounds like you got a turbo sugar wash goin and it dont get much easier than that.

Is there an emoticon for a fisherman? There should be!

Post by **Tater** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:45 am

loki -Don't expect us to do your homework for you. You came here to learn, so study and learn! We're not here to hold your hand, We are not your mother, and the distilling world doesn't owe you instant answers because you don't care to do a search. We spent hours searching to learn more about the art of distilling , and we don't expect someone to hold our hand, and neither should you.

Post by **theholymackerel** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:51 am

Loki wrote: Now, what exactly are the lees I am trying to avoid transfering?

They are the sediment on the bottom.

If all ya needed was a quik definition, there ya go... but if yer not understandin' mashin', fermentin', or distillation as a whole then ya need to go back to the mother site ( http://homedistiller.org onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) and study up till ya feel familiar with the whole thing.

I praise you on yer desire to leap in with both feet, but suggest that more readin' and studyin' will help immensly in yer future efforts.

I wish you luck.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:47 pm

Sorry about the dumb questions. After reading the last few days I understand why they were a little dumb. I have read everything on the parent site about the process, and how important it is to take it slow..and that the drip should take a couple of hours to start, but is that due to heating it up at a slow pace? (e.g. What is the average time it takes to raise the temp of the column for most?)

Loki

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:10 pm

I gave my still it's first run and managed about 2.5L of 180P alcohol. The only issues I ran into, were a yeasty smell in the alcohol, and a small problem with maintaining the correct temperture. I adjusted it by lowering and raising the amount of cooling I had running through it to keep it close, but I was fluxuating between 169.5 and 175F, and producing about 4 drips per second. I tossed the first 100mL, so I don't think that is causing the off taste and smell.

I have packed my column with 4 SS scrubbers. I had trouble figuring out exactly how high I needed to pack it (40 in. column) so I may stick a couple more in there if advised.

I diluted one bottle and added essence to it, but the yeast overpowered the taste of the essence. What I have remaining I will probably toss in with my next wash and redistill to see what happens.

Thanks for all the great advice. I don't want anyone to hold my hand through this, so if anyone still feels like I need to just keep reading instead of asking questions I won't be offended.

Loki from Muskogee

bushido · Post by **bushido** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:45 pm

Maybe you siphoned some of your yeast into the still? This will give you that type of taste/smell.
Is this the first run in this still? Did you clean the inside of your soldered joints of well? (even though it is store bought!)
I have never had heat fluctuation with a pot, but I can not see that being normal in a reflux either. Are your scrubbers packed too tight? Are you leaving enough head space in your pot? Maybe your wash is boiling up into your column. Did the fluctuations stop as you went deeper into your run?
90% though. That's a nice number.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:16 pm

I could have syphoned some yeast. I will be more careful with my next wash. On the fluxuations, it is very possible that my scrubbers were packed too tight. The bottom of my column has a cross bar, so it was very difficult to get the scrubbers in, and I had little control over them once they were inside. I should have cut them in half, but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. How far up should they go? 2/3? I will try to hook them with something and pull them apart before I do my next run.

There was plenty of head room in the pot, as it holds quite a bit more than my fermenter.

I will do some reading to find the best mixture to wash out the pot with before my next run also, as I didn't think about that before hand.

Thanks!

Loki[/quote]

bushido · Post by **bushido** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:41 am

You could always take the cross bar out Loki, and replace it with a s/s bolt & nut. Make it easier to work with your scrubbers if you could get them in and out easier.
Baking soda is a good safe cleaner. Run a couple of litres water with about 50ml soda. Steam 'er up good.
As for how much packing, I don't know. You have a pretty tall column. I would take a GUESS that 16-20 inches would be more than enough. Time vs quality trade off. But, if are getting 90%, I'd say you are in the ball park. Try taking 1 scrubber out, if you still get 90%, you will have cut down your run time and kept purity. Than try taking another out, until you % suffers. Then you will know for sure. I know there are calculators on the home site also for this, but I know there a lots of guys here who could knock out your optimum packing in thier sleep also.
you'll get 'er dialed in Loki

jake · Post by **jake** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:06 am

loki stretch your packing to get past the bar.
use some copper packing; take a magnet with you, check to see if pure copper.
read up on fillter methods.
now have fun! play around;READ! make more. have fun! read more make more....ect....ect...ect.

Post by **theholymackerel** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:22 am

Fill yer column as full as possible with as many scrubbers as still allows you to breath through the column.

bushido · Post by **bushido** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:27 am

Now there's a good rule of thumb!

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:30 am

don't want anyone to hold my hand through this, so if anyone still feels like I need to just keep reading instead of asking questions I won't be offended.

keep runnin your still. Running is the same slow learning process as reading. Just start running it and do'nt be so concerned with flavor right off the bat. 5 or 6 batches and you'll get it. learn to run your still and you'll have tasty shine in no time...

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:56 am

My first run, as I mentioned before probably got a little yeast in it, giving it a yeasty smell. Is that an off smell that I can filter out by rerunning or is it stuck that way? It's 90%, but has such a distinct smell and taste that it's undrinkable. Should I toss it or throw it in with my run tonight?

Thanks!

Loki

msrorysdad · Post by **msrorysdad** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:42 am

toss it in your next run, Is your heat source fluctuating? I don't get the temp changes, there's a reason it's happening and it shouldn't. With the temp fluctuating I would think you may be gettin some water/impurities in your collumn at times. 90% is pretty good. I sit on my pot still like it's an egg and draw 80%. I've got a reflux extension, I'm workin on 5gal of stripped sugar to test it. As far as using turbo yeast, try a tomato paste wash, they work pretty good That's what alot of people run, I've stripped several gallons, waitin on one last wash, then we'll test the reflux method

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:29 pm

Yes, my heat is fluxuating. I should basically be able to get my heat source to a good level, run my cooling water through it, and once it reaches the right temp, should stay there until the alcohol has disolved out? I have four SS scrubbers in there, which I am going to try to stretch out before I do my next run, as someone recommended.

Thanks.

Loki

msrorysdad · Post by **msrorysdad** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:40 pm

yep, ya gotta get your heat stable, the rising and fallin can't be good, you're teachin your still emergency breathin each time the temp drops the vapor falls out, correct (theoretically)? What kinda heat source are ya usin, correct me if I'm stupid, but some electric hot plates cycle!!! That may be a bad deal, I use propane, Flammable liquid and fire just makes sense to me.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:43 pm

Yes. I am doing propane on a turkey fryer. Not sure about the fluxuations. Like I said I will try to spread out my scrubbers to see if that fixes anything.

jake · Post by **jake** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:35 am

strech your scrubbers to get them past your bar.
ad more than 4; make some of them pure copper.
as some one else stated, as many as you can pack and still blow your breath thru the collum.
I still dont have enough scrubbers about 8in of mine is packed with marbles. ss scrubbers and a few pure copper make up the rest.

mabee! go buy some marbels; you know when its full then no compaction.
my first reflux done with marbels over fryer and I got 190proof.
had to keep adjusting the burner.
YOU WILL LEARN. KEEP AT IT.

Home Distiller

Not such a great first batch. Help

Not such a great first batch. Help

Great!

Not such a bad first run

Yeast infection?