TXB's UJSSM Thread

[TxBrewing]

This will be my adventures with the UJSSM.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 14&t=50167

I will be running two different 11 gallon ferments so I can build stock for final inventory and aging.
All ferments will be stripped and collected for a spirit run using my simple elbow pot still (fores will cut on all runs)
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=63442

all ferments will be labeled as followed:
Fermenter 1 will be called Batch 1
Fermenter 2 will be called batch 2
Generations will be noted as G#
When I start with a fresh yeast pitch the batch will be given a .#
Example Fermenter 2, 3rd yeast pitch, 2nd generation
B2.3-G2


B1-G1
14 pounds Sugar
14 pounds Corn
11 Gallons water
3tbls Bakers yeast (proofed)
SG: 1.053
OG .999
ABV: 6.9% (+/-)
Final Collected: TBD

TXB

[TxBrewing]

Just ran Batch one. First true run on the gear. What an amazing hobby.

This was just a stripping run so after tossing 250ish ml of fores I collected about a gallon of product. Tested the abv at the separation of the 1st and 2nd thirds it was at 65%. Will test the whole thing tomorrow. Wife said it tasted pretty good

[bitter]

Cuts are one the hardest things to learn for your first few runs, make narrow cuts.. Will get you drinking it faster.

B

[Truckinbutch]

65% is a good place to sneak a drop . If you followed the T&T that would put you about in the middle of hearts .

[TxBrewing]

Overall proof for the gallon was 110. This includes heads, hearts and tails

[jb-texshine]

Now we gotta talk about fermenters.
Have you seen the big grey rubbermade brute trashcans? Or the big blue 55gallon hdpe barrels? since you will not be drinking the mash or wash as is sanitation is not as important as with beer or wine making. Meaning a large,loosely covered fermenter can be used and a bit or infection aint necessarily a bad thing. A bigger fermenter dont take up much more space than two smaller ones either. With a fermenter around 45-50 gallons you can get three 12 gallon strips and some leftover wash to dilute the low wines with for a spirit run and pull 2-2 1/2 gallons at ageing proof.
Just some food for thought
Jb

[TxBrewing]

I like where your head is at

[Truckinbutch]

I like where your head is at

He be tellin you right . Put those fermentors on wheels , too . You can move them with ease to wherever you want them at the time .

[TxBrewing]

My 10 gallon ones have a trolley they roll around on

[Truckinbutch]

My 10 gallon ones have a trolley they roll around on

So you understand the concept . The advantage is multiplied when you escalate to 32 , 44 , or 50 gallon ferments that need to be moved .
SRD also introduced me to another large ferment concept .
Line your large ferment vessel with a clear industrial thickness(4-6 mil) garbage bag . Gather the top of that bag and tape it around a small bleeder hose with headspace supported by a stick or somesuch so it can't puke into your bleeder . Loop the hose with a low spot for co to pool in .
You can look through the clear bag to monitor progress of the ferment . If it gets done before you are ready for it it is still isolated by the co barrier in the bleeder tube . SRD has held washes for 2 1/2 months with no negatives when he got called out to work 16/7 shifts on outages .
When you get to it : rack , dip , squeeze and pull the bag . Fermentor is clean and ready for a new bag and a new ferment .

[jb-texshine]

SRD is now my hero. My grain goes to the pig but i was scooping it to the wheel barrow to get it there.
Jbt

[Truckinbutch]

SRD is now my hero. My grain goes to the pig but i was scooping it to the wheel barrow to get it there.
Jbt

My hero , too . We got together a year back and the results have all been positive . Coalminer is joining in now and we think he is going to be an asset .

[TxBrewing]

I got to brew a batch of Irish Red beer soon. Guess what will be part of my next UJ

[jb-texshine]

The grain after lautering?

[Hank Reardon]

The grain after lautering?

I think a layer of moss.

[TxBrewing]

Now we gotta talk about fermenters.
Have you seen the big grey rubbermade brute trashcans? Or the big blue 55gallon hdpe barrels? since you will not be drinking the mash or wash as is sanitation is not as important as with beer or wine making. Meaning a large,loosely covered fermenter can be used and a bit or infection aint necessarily a bad thing. A bigger fermenter dont take up much more space than two smaller ones either. With a fermenter around 45-50 gallons you can get three 12 gallon strips and some leftover wash to dilute the low wines with for a spirit run and pull 2-2 1/2 gallons at ageing proof.
Just some food for thought
Jb

I am on board with this, truly I am!!!
It would have to be a spring - fall kinda thing, because the winters are too cold to ferment outside my fermentation chamber unless I use an aquarium heater or the like.

My biggest hesitation is transferring from a large trashcan. The size I do now, I can lift the fermentor up so I can use my auto-siphon, with a 30 gallon ferment, that is not going to happen.
Also, using a bucket seems like a lot of work....

How are you guys tackling the transfers?

TXB

[GrassHopper]

I now use a transfer pump and it is awesome. I just put one end of the hose in the boiler and the other end in the fermenter and turn on the switch. Easy peasey and fast. I hold the suck end into the fermenter and follow the level down to the trub and then back off. I can then turn the barrel on it's side and drain the rest for filtering.
Prior to the transfer pump, I would elevate my barrel up on the cart so it was high enough to siphon easily into carboys or buckets. That worked good except then I had to get the carboy up into the boiler and they are heavy when full. Hard on me old back! I haven't had any messes on the floor since I went to the transfer pump.

[jb-texshine]

Pond pump that I use for my Liebig. I got it in a lady's nylon stocking. Took a thick plastic kitchen plate and drilled two holes in it spaced out just wider than my pump. Set the pump on it and run a zip strap around it the hold it tite. The plate keeps the pump on top the grain bed,the nylon stocking keeps the slop out of the pump.

[Pikey]

I now use a transfer pump and it is awesome. ............... I haven't had any messes on the floor since I went to the transfer pump.

What sort of pump are you using GH ? - I know the pond pump type jbt speaks of and there are also submersible bilge pumps which can be quite cost effective, but I'd rather have one which has a "suck tube" and a "blow tube" as yours seems to

[jb-texshine]

I now use a transfer pump and it is awesome. ............... I haven't had any messes on the floor since I went to the transfer pump.

What sort of pump are you using GH ? - I know the pond pump type jbt speaks of and there are also submersible bilge pumps which can be quite cost effective, but I'd rather have one which has a "suck tube" and a "blow tube" as yours seems to

Me too.

[ShineRunner]

Just a warning about the brute trash cans- some are actually now being made in LDPE, which is not food safe at boiling temps. It starts to soften at 176. I got a 20 gallon one and used it for a while and realized it was getting saggy at the bottom. Checked it out and realized it's LDPE instead of HDPE. Now I use it for sugar heads only.

Check out container reclaimer- they deliver to the springs once a month or so.. I got a 55 gallon screw top HDPE barrel from them. Had sausage casing in them before and I'm trying to get the stink out, but I think I almost have it licked.

I keep the barrel on a dolly that I threw together out of a pallet and added wheels. Cheap and makes life easy.

SR

[TxBrewing]

Pond pump that I use for my Liebig. I got it in a lady's nylon stocking. Took a thick plastic kitchen plate and drilled two holes in it spaced out just wider than my pump. Set the pump on it and run a zip strap around it the hold it tite. The plate keeps the pump on top the grain bed,the nylon stocking keeps the slop out of the pump.

JB-T

can you show or link me a pic of your pump set up

I now use a transfer pump and it is awesome. I just put one end of the hose in the boiler and the other end in the fermenter and turn on the switch. Easy peasey and fast. I hold the suck end into the fermenter and follow the level down to the trub and then back off. I can then turn the barrel on it's side and drain the rest for filtering.
Prior to the transfer pump, I would elevate my barrel up on the cart so it was high enough to siphon easily into carboys or buckets. That worked good except then I had to get the carboy up into the boiler and they are heavy when full. Hard on me old back! I haven't had any messes on the floor since I went to the transfer pump.

Same from you Mr Hopper!!

TXB

[TxBrewing]

I have now completed 3 stripping runs and have a total of eight 1/2gallon jars of stripped UJSM ranging from 90 to 130 proof. I have 2 more strips to do and think I should be getting deeper into the tails, the 2 I did today I pulled 1.5 gallons per stripping run.

Would 2 gallons be greedy?

[Truckinbutch]

No . I strip down to 20% as a general rule .

[jb-texshine]

I put twelve in and collect 3. By that time its just sweet water. 10-15%
You should be close to enough for a spirit run ain't you?

[TxBrewing]

I put twelve in and collect 3. By that time its just sweet water. 10-15%
You should be close to enough for a spirit run ain't you?

Gonna put down these last 2 stripping runs by next weekend, try to get at least 4 gallons total, then go for the spirit run with that.
I am gonna have a few question in the next few days, but until then.....

[jb-texshine]

Remember to save a gallon or two of wash to cut your low wines to about 25-30% abv to come close to barrel proof hearts for ageing on wood. That way you ain't got to add water to the flavors you want to keep.
Jbt

[TxBrewing]

Will do

[TxBrewing]

Ok, so a few more questions.

Trying to figure out how much I need in my still for the spirit run to ensure that I have enough backset left to cover my element.
I am using a 15.5 gallon keg and need to leave at least 3 gallons but would rather be safe and leave at least 3.5

I have 8 half gallons with an avg. proof of 105, if all holds true, then after the next 2 stripping runs I will have approx 7 gallons of 105 proof total for the stripping run.
So that is 7 gallons at 55% ABV, according to the parent site calculator I should add 2.62 gallons of water, but instead I will add 3 gallons of wash at approx 7% abv.

So far so good?

Where I get lost is trying to figure out how much will be left using the distillate to water calculator. The key issues being at what % does my still collect distillate....
this is where I need help as well.

Last...Cuts.

I know I need to collect in smaller jars, who do i figure out how many of what size.
Also, what size do you recommend, I need to ensure I have enough.

The plan was to collect 1 pint of fore shots (I have collected 1 pint from each stripping run as well) then 1 larger jar of the early heads, then the smaller jars for cuts, and at some point a larger jar for the late tails.

Any help here on how to proceed is truly needed. I am off to read Zymurgy Bob's and Kiwi's guides on cuts...again

TXB

[ShineRunner]

Distillate to water calc?

What I usually use to get a rough idea of things is the pot still purity calc. Input your volume and abv and it'll spit out how much you'll collect. It doesn't help with cuts or anything, but it will tell you roughly how much alcohol you'll pull out. If you cut off your spirit run at 20%, then look and see how much you've collected at that point. Say it's 14 liters. Divide that 14 liters by how many jars you have or how much you want to collect per jar.

It'll also tell you how much is left in the boiler. I have a pretty similar rig to you. I have a slightly lower element, so my element is exposed at 2.5 gallons. I use 3 as my minimum at the end of the run. So, if you start with 7 gallons and, according to the calculator, boil off 13 liters (3.4 gallons) then you'll have about 3.5 gallons left. Should be fine. Then keep an eye on it while you're running. If you collect say 30 jars of 400 ml, then you're at 12 liters and you know you're still good. Figure it out ahead of time and if you run out of jars, be aware that you may be running out of juice to cover your element as well.

As for the number of jars, I'll tell you what I do. I have 30 pint jars (more or less, depending on how many the wife steals) and collect at 400 ml. This leaves enough room in the jar to not spill. I do as you said and collect about a 400 ml of fores and then do a quart of heads. Once I think I'm in the hearts, I'll do a quart or 2 of hearts. That would get you to your 13 liters or so. This is on a 7-8 gallon spirit run. I cover them in a coffee filter and line them up. I mark all the jars numerically with masking tape and if I take a proof reading, I'll throw that on there as well.

I think that answers some of your questions. Hope it helps..

SR