My first wash almost

[STILL WORKIN]

Being my first I too used turbo 1 tbl spoon, 5gal water,4kg sugar pitched at 80f. sg 1.07 tried to keep the wash between 75f & 80f. i'm pretty sure
I didn't get enough o2 in to it?. Put the wash into 10 gal vevor sealed with air lock. All done on Jan 29. Jan 30 sg 1.08. Jan.31 bubble pretty steady
1 every 2 or 3 sec. feb.1 sg 1.05 Feb 2 about the same bubble . Feb3 a little slower. Feb 4 sg 1.03 fermentation on going. Tasted sweet and mild.
Feb 7 sg 1.02 still bubbling. feb 9 sg 1.003 alcometer about 1%. Not really sure what happened ? I didn't have a PH meter until after the fact however I did test my well water with a water softener at 6.8.
I have a heat pad and fish tank heater coming. My big plan was to try bird watchers but I think i'll stay on plain sugar wash with bakers yeast until I get this rite. Aside from my errors does the process appear correct?
I'm going to put it in the stiil any way and try to learn the other half. ANY help would be very much appreciated
Thanks
Ted

[StillerBoy]

You better get it to clear some or you'll have some scorching and puking going on..

And using only one tbsp of turbo yeast in 5 gal, no wonder it's taken for ever to finish, if it's finished..

You would be better off and get better result trying recipe from the T&T section as starters..

Mars

[STILL WORKIN]

Well thank you for your time. Perhaps i will try birdwatchers from t&t

[sadie33]

From my understanding (and I'm very new so I could be wrong) you use an alcometer to measure the alcohol AFTER you distill it. I think it doesn't read correct if there is sugar in there. If your fermentation isn't complete you will still have sugar.

[Dee Envy]

I used Wino's sugar wash for the first few times. It is very easy and gives good results.
Give it a shot.

[Dougmatt]

Being my first I too used turbo 1 tbl spoon, 5gal water,4kg sugar pitched at 80f. sg 1.07

Feb 7 sg 1.02 still bubbling. feb 9 sg 1.003 alcometer about 1%.

I did test my well water with a water softener at 6.8.

Ok. Lots to think about here. Yeast needs o2 to multiply, so the small amount of yeast and low O2 could be one culprit, have you stirred the wash a bit? Turbo has a bunch of energizer and food that probably kept the yeast going to a point, but they’ve given up now.

1.02 to 1.003 or do you mean 1.02 to 1.03? If the first, then good leave it alone as it’s still going, if the second, then there are a few things with the most likely being you may have read it wrong on one of them . You also may have had some undissolved elements that dissolved if you stirred between?

IMO Your water ph is too high for a sugar and water only wash. Next time you should follow a T&T as other suggest OR you could boil the sugar water with about a 1/2 cup of lemon juice per 5 gallons of planned wash to reduce the ph (which I do frequently, but isn’t a tried and true here). You may have to find the right amount as the 1/2 cup is an estimate. I use 1/3 cup, but my water is closer to 6.

Your alcometer is useless at this point. Ignore it. It’s for use at the still. They read very inaccurately at low % and there’s still sugars and other undissolved “things” in there like dead yeast that throw it off.

Since you seem to have a ph meter, what is the ph of the wash right now?

If this was me, based on what you’ve said so far, I would test ph and correct it if needed, then stir, and likely add a little more turbo (which I hate, but seems like what you have on hand) to see if I could get it going again.

Edit: btw I don’t think this is going to be a great wash, but taking a minute to try to save it might educate you on things some. If it’s not worth it, dump it and do a T&T.
D