My wash has nearly finished fermenting and my fingers are getting itchy.
Does one let the yeast settle just like an ordinary sugar wash or does one distill with the yeast still present ?
molasses wash
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Pieterpost
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ahhhhh, that's better news then I thought it would be! 
However, I have experienced that letting the yeast settle first does help to eliminate nasties from my sugar wash.
However I can imagine with molasses that the yeast cells are full of flavour instead of nasties and it would therefore be favourable to also boil the yeast together with the wash.
I will see If I can take the suspence and sit it out or ..........
However, I have experienced that letting the yeast settle first does help to eliminate nasties from my sugar wash.
However I can imagine with molasses that the yeast cells are full of flavour instead of nasties and it would therefore be favourable to also boil the yeast together with the wash.
I will see If I can take the suspence and sit it out or ..........
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Fourway
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I second that.
Fermentation happens on a sort of a curve... the best alcohol and the fastest fermentation takes place in the first 12 hours.
Most low gravity washes generate 60% to 70% of their potential for making alcohol in the first 24 hours... the next 24 gets you another 10% to 15% and it's dirtier. another 24 for 3% to 5% and so on...
there are virtually no (non fruit) traditional processes that wait the weeks that might be needed for no bubbles in the airlock at all.
in fact for the vast majority of whiskey, rum, schnapps, peasant vodkas, mezcals... the stuff has always been fermented in open or loosely covered containers for well under a week and poured into the still fizzing with live yeast.
the standard for whiskey(and whisky) is a mash with with sufficent potential alcohol to produce 5% to 7% abv in 72 hours or so.
Fermentation happens on a sort of a curve... the best alcohol and the fastest fermentation takes place in the first 12 hours.
Most low gravity washes generate 60% to 70% of their potential for making alcohol in the first 24 hours... the next 24 gets you another 10% to 15% and it's dirtier. another 24 for 3% to 5% and so on...
there are virtually no (non fruit) traditional processes that wait the weeks that might be needed for no bubbles in the airlock at all.
in fact for the vast majority of whiskey, rum, schnapps, peasant vodkas, mezcals... the stuff has always been fermented in open or loosely covered containers for well under a week and poured into the still fizzing with live yeast.
the standard for whiskey(and whisky) is a mash with with sufficent potential alcohol to produce 5% to 7% abv in 72 hours or so.
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Pieterpost
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thought you might want to what i decided .....
couldn't wait anymore so I distilled my wash ! Next time I will let it ferment some more because the overal strength was lower then I had anticipated.
The highest concentration that came off the still was 68% but the overal strength was 60%. Discarded the first 50 ml from a 18 liter wash which was quite hard because it smelled great and continued to collect everything until 92°C was reached. Then the strength in taste started to go down and because I didn't want to get too gready I stopped collecting.
Now I have about 2,2 liter of 60% rumlike alcohol. I diluted one bottle to 40% and added some oak essence. Now it is sitting in the cellar to age. Also I used some of the rum to mix with a whiskey I was making, to add complexity (see tony's website).
The next step it too compare and let it be compared to some commercial rum because I am not a rum drinker but I do like to experiment.
Improvements for next time:
more mollasses (used 1,3 kg)
more fermenting time
The highest concentration that came off the still was 68% but the overal strength was 60%. Discarded the first 50 ml from a 18 liter wash which was quite hard because it smelled great and continued to collect everything until 92°C was reached. Then the strength in taste started to go down and because I didn't want to get too gready I stopped collecting.
Now I have about 2,2 liter of 60% rumlike alcohol. I diluted one bottle to 40% and added some oak essence. Now it is sitting in the cellar to age. Also I used some of the rum to mix with a whiskey I was making, to add complexity (see tony's website).
The next step it too compare and let it be compared to some commercial rum because I am not a rum drinker but I do like to experiment.
Improvements for next time:
more mollasses (used 1,3 kg)
more fermenting time
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Grayson_Stewart
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Re: thought you might want to what i decided .....
What yeast were you using? An initial concentration of 68% sounds like you had about a 17% alcohol wash. You aren't going to be able to get a whole lot higher than that. With a 20% wash you might get close to 70% initially on a potstill.Pieterpost wrote:I will let it ferment some more because the overal strength was lower then I had anticipated.
The highest concentration that came off the still was 68% but the overal strength was 60%.
If you are going to run a single time through a potstill, it sounds like you did the best thing by running it when you did (read Fourway...nasties at end of fermentation). If you were going to run it through a reflux column then it wouldn't be nearly as much of a disadvantage to let a fermentation run a little longer.
Last edited by Grayson_Stewart on Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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First I tried a batch of (dried) super yeast from my local homebrewshop which is supposedly able to reach 17%. Unfortunately the batch was dead (it had been sitting 2 years on a shelf) and I had to resort to bakers yeast which I luckily still had lying around.
Unfortunately I can't run it twice through my potstill because I only had a volume of 2.2 liters and this is a bit little for an 80 liter vessel.
If my calculation are correct my wash had an alcohol concentration of 7.3 %. Assuming I didn't get all of the alcohol the concentration will have been something between 8-9% I think.
I think I need a smaller vessel so I can also run smaller batches, the silly thing is that those vessels are more expensive then the bigger ones.
Unfortunately I can't run it twice through my potstill because I only had a volume of 2.2 liters and this is a bit little for an 80 liter vessel.
If my calculation are correct my wash had an alcohol concentration of 7.3 %. Assuming I didn't get all of the alcohol the concentration will have been something between 8-9% I think.
I think I need a smaller vessel so I can also run smaller batches, the silly thing is that those vessels are more expensive then the bigger ones.
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Pieterpost
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Anonymous wrote:First I tried a batch of (dried) super yeast from my local homebrewshop which is supposedly able to reach 17%. Unfortunately the batch was dead (it had been sitting 2 years on a shelf) and I had to resort to bakers yeast which I luckily still had lying around.
Unfortunately I can't run it twice through my potstill because I only had a volume of 2.2 liters and this is a bit little for an 80 liter vessel.
If my calculations are correct my wash had an alcohol concentration of 7.3 %. Assuming I didn't get all of the alcohol the concentration will have been something between 8-9% I think.
I think I need a smaller vessel so I can also run smaller batches, the silly thing is that those vessels are more expensive then the bigger ones.
This was my post, forgot to login
Anyway, holymackerel if I do a next batch I will keep your (and the others) advice in mind. Hopefully I can get some molassas cheaply next time and by then a smaller vessel ........