Failed wash x 2!

[Fierymac]

Hi folks,

Very new to this hobby and so far have only tried one wash with the stuff that came in the bundle with an Airstill, i.e turbo yeast and carbon / turbo clear. I wasn't too happy with the original finished product so only then did I do some digging online and found that the Airstill isn't all it's made out to be by the retailers - no surprises there i suppose. I'm usually more cynical but got excited at the idea of making my own gin!!

So...next up was to try a kale wash to get something more neutral. Used Googes recipe but after 4 weeks nothing was happening. There was a collection of fruit flies in the wash so i assumed they had introduced nasties that killed the wash, so it was poured away. Take 2 was the same again - Googes recipe with 20 litres of water, 5kg of sugar, Allinsons dried active yeast (yellow tin), and an aquarium thermometer at around 23C. Bubbled up nicely for two days, then seemed to stall. Gave it a good stir to aereate which seemed to get it fizzing away again, but after 4 weeks it's still nowhere near alcoholic, reading only 1.018.

I'm kind of lost now and would appreciate any sound advice as to how can rescue this batch, and/or get my subsequent batches off on the right foot to start with.