advise on my ujssm

[noknife]

ok well i am on 3rd generation now. kinda running out of time lately, this is the third week of this gen. gonna get it ran by the weekend but was wondering if it anyone breaks up there runs into different days. i did it last gen ( if course making sure the last run is big enough for backset ) do you think i'm doing something dumb or being paranoid? also how long do you think it's safe to let it wait?

[Bushman]

If I understand the question you should be alright. People make double batches and run one at a time especially if they have a small still. Just make sure you follow the instructions on the recipe and get water over the corn so as not to kill the yeasties if its going to sit for a day or to before adding backset.

[noknife]

yeah i didn't explain very well. i see that now. i have a 17 fermenter. last time i pulled 5 gal out one week and ran it. then the next week i ran the remaining 10, then restarted the ujssm with the backset from the second run.

[CuWhistle]

Yes I do it that way.

I got sick of playing with 23 litre ferments so I've been making 160 litre ferments and racking it off into cubes when it's done. I'm then running a 40 litre boiler charge whenever I can. This takes 4 runs to get through it, which gives me about 40 litres when diluted to 40%. I then do a spirit run from this so it takes me 5 charges to do the lot. This is giving out about 20 litres of good drinking UJ at 40% once cut and diluted to drinking proof. Soak on some wood and it is the best.

The current batch which is a 4th gen has taken me a good 5 weeks from ferment to finished. The cubes sat under the bench for nearly 2 weeks before I could start stripping.

I've got a 100 litre keg that I'm putting the strips into after bringing them to 40%, a 50 litre keg which is nearly full of already flavoured product, the fermenter is nearly done on the 5th gen, my cubes are empty and I've got 2 15 litre soaking pots for adding wood and sitting. I can now have a drink any time I want and there is no urgency for me to get stuff out of the fermenter and into the boiler. I do it all at my leisure now. Wonderful.

[noknife]

thanks for the responses. felt better, but got the day off and got all day so was gonna just run it all off. but getting ready to rack it i noticed the sides of the fermenter got sucked in. what is this. it still smells good but what the heck.

[junkyard dawg]

I bet it just got cool and the alcohol 'shrank'

Thermal expansion is one of the fun properties of ethanol...

Is there an airlock on it?

[noknife]

not a airlock but hose grommet from the lid down to a one gal jug. i think it would have sucked the water up first, it's a pretty tuff container.

[junkyard dawg]

yep, that rules out that theory...

sorta makes one leery of plastic fermenters....

[noknife]

yeah i never used to be. now...

[noknife]

i just realized something. this is the first time i took it out of the closet, and had a chance to see it. i drilled the hole for the airlock after my first ferment. so like you said jd it was prob just the temp change. oops