Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:02 pm.... how long do I let it ferment? With wine I stopped it by adding sulfites when jt reached 1.0 sg. For my malted barely do I measure when to stop fermenting or do I just let it go until it's done bubbling?
Until it’s done. If it’s still bubbling, it’s still consuming the sugars. Let it keep going until it stops. And then wait another week for the yeast to flocculate and settle out.
With spirits, we want to ferment all the sugars out, unlike wine when you want to retain a little sweetness.
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:02 pm.... Also, to get water temps as high as I need them for the strike, I'm guessing I need to fill my keg with water and heat that up and pour that into my ss tanks for fermenting. I can't really think of another way to get that much water that hot for this big of a ferment.
Well, your processes need to adapt to your equipment. And that may require “creativity”. So, “use your hat rack”. Get’r done.
ss
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:02 pm
Thank u all for responding and thank you subbrew for the long write up I truly appreciate it.
I'm going to do my mash this Monday and get it fermenting in my basement for a week or two. I cannot wait to make myself a single malt whiskey, it's going to be epic.
Questions.... how long do I let it ferment? With wine I stopped it by adding sulfites when jt reached 1.0 sg. For my malted barely do I measure when to stop fermenting or do I just let it go until it's done bubbling?
Also to get water temps as high as I need them for the strike, I'm guessing I need to fill my keg with water and hest that up and pour that into my ss tanks for fermenting. I can't really think of another way to get that much water that hot for this big of a ferment.
I'm excited.
If you are doing a large ferment you may have to do multiple water and grain additions. I use a 50 l pot on propane for my mash. But if I am shooting for a 130 l mash I have to do three runs. I heat 1/3 of my strike water, add 1/3 of my grain, wrap it up and let it mash for an hour to 90 minutes. I then use a 6 l bain marie to scoop my mashed grains into a 5 gal bucket and dump into the fermenter. I don't want to try and lift a 50 l pot filled with 146F grain and water. I do that process three times to fill my fermenter. I can then drop in my wort chiller to cool everything to pitching temp.
I’ve been playing with feed corn recently and I’ve been doing what I call my 10/10/10 method to keep everything chartable. That’s 10 gallons of water, 10 pounds of corn and 10 pounds of 2 row barley. My process is to bring the water to 190, add the corn and keep the boiler at 180 for two hours. Then I reduce the boiler temp to 160, when it hits 160 I add the barley. I reduce to 150 and stir occasionally until it starts to thin out well and then I cut the heat and let it slowly cool down over night to about 100 and I transfer everything to my fermenter.
Using ground corn meal from a grocery store, and barley I ground in a Victoria mill, I get 1.068
Using cracked feed corn left cracked. No additional grinding. And malt that was not cracked, I got 1.050
Using cracked feed corn left cracked with no additional grinding and malt that I ground in the Victoria mill, I got 1.060.
Shaking it up
10 pounds cracked corn, 5 pounds torrified wheat and 5 pounds ground malt yields me 1.050
10 pounds cracked corn, 5 pounds oat meal, 5 pounds ground malt yields me 1.060
*I had to add an extra gallon of water to these last two because the wheat and oats soaked up a lot of water at first.
So for me, the difference between grinding the corn and leaving it cracked was .008 and I’ve basically decided it’s not worth the work
Your findings may vary.
I’ve done the 10/10/10 as a stand alone a few times. Recently I did several batches like this for testing and to be a larger recipe that goes thusly. Haven’t run it yet but I’m looking forward to it
Total bill is
30 pounds of cracked corn
15 pounds of light 2 row malt
10 pounds of torrified wheat
5 pounds of oat meal
34 gallons of water
S.G. 1.058
And I added 160 grams of yellow label to it for good measure to work anything I left in the grains.
Whole thing added up to 40 gallons.
My new and improved setup, I bought this column off of ebay and when I was trying to charge my boiler as fast as I could the top of the column popped off. Should I keep it slow and steady for every run? Everything is working but I could push it a lot faster with this propane burner....
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:11 am
I have no idea why the pic is inverted
Operator error.
IMG_3054.jpeg (27.84 KiB) Viewed 13175 times
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 3:38 pm
I could soilder a cap to my column, but obviously that would build up pressure, any thought?
It’s a potstill. Therefore, the copper riser from the boiler is NOT a column …. it’s a RISER. Columns are on reflux stills and columns MUST HAVE a reflux condenser. Yours doesn’t. The cap holds your thermometer (which you don’t need in a potstill anyway).
And yes, potstills do build a little pressure to overcome the pressure drop in the piping (riser, lyne arm, and worm). It may not seem like much, but it is enough to blow off your rubber cork. But, as it does it may become a danger (explosive) concern.
One source of pressure build up is the worm. How big is the worm, ie - length and tubing diameter? Also, the lyne arm is small diameter as well. All this is aggravated by heat input power and vapor production rates.
ss
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 3:41 pm
I just google moonshine column.
Probably the very best way to find all of the wrong advice......its not a column just for starters.
Anyone that is dishing out information on "moonshine columns" more than likely doesn't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to stills.
Other than that , that's a nice little still there.......get it sorted and it will make you some good spirt.
Doing my first mash of malted barley and boy it is ever taking a long time to get down to pitching temp. I'll have to look into wort chillers in the future or set a lot more time aside to do this entire process.
Also when I go to pitch my yeast I plan on doing it on the grain, do I stir it in or just leave it on top. And do I go from fridge to mash or put it in room temp for a bit before the pitch?
Let your yeast come to room temp. If it is dry yeast proof it in some 95F water for 15 to 20 minutes before pitching.
The top of your grain bed should be liquid so you can just pitch it there. It will propagate out.
Once the mash is cool enough, be sure to aerate it well before pitching. Those yeast cells need plenty of oxygen during their first few hours to grow and multiply. I use a paint stirrer on a cordless drill.
Thanks for the response, I Pitched it last night and this is what it looks like today, I'm thinking I should leave it alone but maybe I should stir it?
Once it stops boiling, do I scrape this top gunk off, or does it disintegrate into the mash? Or do I stir it all together at the end before taking some for distilling?
With wine, it bubbles and ferments, but there's not a thick film at the top, so this is weird to me.
That "gunk" is the mash cap. It is bits of grain and yeast being held up by all the CO2 produced from the fermenting mash underneath it. Once fermentation slows enough it will sink into the mash. It takes some days for this to happen, I think there is sugar held up in the cap and as it sinks in it keeps providing some new food for the yeast estending the fermentation. Don't mess with it...just trust it will fall in. This is from my vast experience of 3 all grain batches so I appreciate your concern. First time I saw it I tried break it up and stir it down into the mash. Never seen anything like it brewing beer this was quite odd to me.
Separating the wash from the spent grain once it finishes was also new to me. Not too hard to siphon off the relatively clear liquid above the grain but that will leave behind a lot of wash. Look around here and you will find quite a few threads discussing how to manage. Paint strainer bag and a big mop wringer seems to be a popular approach but I've not tried that yet.
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:49 am
Once it stops boiling, do I scrape this top gunk off, or does it disintegrate into the mash? Or do I stir it all together at the end before taking some for distilling?
With wine, it bubbles and ferments, but there's not a thick film at the top, so this is weird to me.
Hasn't been ten days yet. Keep looking for something else to worry about. Perhaps take up knitting.
Lol I'm working on finishing my basement and I'm working right beside my mash. Not doing anything dirty or dusty so not worried about anything getting into my mash but this is just a lot different from wine making. When I first saw it, I thought I fd up.
Patience is the best thing you can put in the bottle, yet the hardest to find. One of the best bits of advice I received here was to make much more than you can drink. Much easier to be patient when you are sipping a two or three year old spirit with plenty more aging in the shelf.
That's what I did with my wine and that's what I want to do with the whiskey too. I'll be fermenting many many times this year, cooking and fermenting just to be able to stock up some and age it.
Soooooo, another question, and I know it hasn't been 10 days yet. It's starting to smell sour and I don't really hear it bubbling anymore is this all normal?
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 4:51 pm
Soooooo, another question, and I know it hasn't been 10 days yet. It's starting to smell sour and I don't really hear it bubbling anymore is this all normal?
Check the SG. Taste it. Could be done.
Some ferments finish fermenting in 3 or 4 days. But, usually take a week or two to clear. Visible activity may be diminished, yet the last of the sugars are still getting converted. Just wait.
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 4:51 pm
Soooooo, another question, and I know it hasn't been 10 days yet. It's starting to smell sour and I don't really hear it bubbling anymore is this all normal?
If you're fermenting at room temp or less, warm it up and see what happens.
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 4:51 pm
Soooooo, another question, and I know it hasn't been 10 days yet. It's starting to smell sour and I don't really hear it bubbling anymore is this all normal?
Check the SG. Taste it. Could be done.
Some ferments finish fermenting in 3 or 4 days. But, usually take a week or two to clear. Visible activity may be diminished, yet the last of the sugars are still getting converted. Just wait.
Patience is a virtue. Practice it.
ss
I'll have to clear a spot on top through all the gunk to check the sg but I will do that tomorrow and reply. I'm kind of afraid to taste it lol
Moonshine31 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 4:51 pm
Soooooo, another question, and I know it hasn't been 10 days yet. It's starting to smell sour and I don't really hear it bubbling anymore is this all normal?
If you're fermenting at room temp or less, warm it up and see what happens.
It's on my basement maybe high 60s low 70s, I could put a heater on it to keep it at low 70s.i opened all my basement vents to warm it up down there before I started.
