RUNNING FERMENTATION (right away vs. week or 2)

[TITAN]

Question.....Whenever you have a mash or wash that has finished fermenting down to 1.000 or lower, do you normally run it right away or wait a week or longer?  I'm asking this question in terms of flavor to the product.  Do you get more flavor by letting it sit around for a lil while after done fermeting...or do you lose that flavor over that time and in that case you would want to run your still shortly after finishing.   WHATS YOUR EXPERT TAKE ON THE MATTER ?   

[SW_Shiner]

As long as it’s sealed or well covered with co2, I’ve never noticed any difference between running right away or leaving it till a more convenient time.

[OtisT]

I don’t know how a ferment’s flavor is impacted by running it soon vs letting it sit following the active fermentation. I don’t think it would be something noticeable unless something drastic happens to the ferment during that time.

That said, I try to let a ferment sit long enough to clear, but not so long that an infection takes hold. Those are not hard & fast rules for me as I’ve run some early, even before the ferment has finished and I’ve let some finished ferments sit for weeks and months.

If you run soon after the ferment stops, you may not get all the clear beer you could have if you had let it sit a bit longer. That is unless you plan to process the cloudy ferment too, in which case this does not matter. Most of my rum ferments are fully settled by the time the ferment finishes. Not so with the AGs.

Some ferments need to be degassed following active fermentation. May last few batches of rye come to mind. Degassing mixes things up so it will need to then settle again before I can siphon off the clear beer. If I degass something and I plan to let it settle a while, I add more CO2 to the covered fermenter barrel to keep infections at bay.

If you don’t degass a ferment and intend to let it settle, it should still produce enough CO2 to keep your ferment from infecting. This assumes you have headspace in your barrel and a lid, and you don’t keep opening it. If you see an infection start, try adding CO2 or run it soon.

[NZChris]

Depends what you’re making. I mostly run as soon as it’s convenient, rums I usually give an extra six days after they go dead to give time for extra flavor development.

[shadylane]

Depends
On a sugar wash I'll let it sit and settle awhile, on a mash I'll usually run it as soon as possible because there's a race between yeast and bacteria going on in the fermenter.

[Deplorable]

You'll get a variety of opinions/preferences,but I'll add my two cents.
I usually let ferments sit a couple weeks after they finish dry.

[Stags]

I’ve let a UJSM ferment sit for literally 6 months before touching it. Also run it slightly ahead of schedule.

Biggest problem is if you run too soon there’s still suspended proteins and inconvertible sugars. That’s a recipe for a foamy mess.

Big danger of waiting is infection.

I make ferments when I have time to make em and I run em when I have time to run em. IMO don’t overthink it, learn to tweak your equipment/ process depending on what’s happening, and have fun.

[TITAN]

Depends what you’re making. I mostly run as soon as it’s convenient, rums I usually give an extra six days after they go dead to give time for extra flavor development.

Now this was what the main question I had was all about....does it give a more defined flavor. I am trying to make a really nice whiskey. Plus I am fermenting on grain. I'm not worried bout the bacteria part to much. I work in a hospital and my sterilization is pretty spot on...slightly anal lol.

[MooseMan]

Titan if you are fermenting on grain, I'd say it's better to leave the mash settle for a good few days, to let yeast/protein/starches floc out and have a clear beer too run.

You can always squeeze the grain bed to get those last few litres out of the grain, and put that into a small vessel to clear.
That's what I currently do, and I put them in a fridge in gallon glass jugs to clear.
I often then add that very clear beer to the next spirit run and I think it increases the grain flavor for me.

[Twisted Brick]

Depends what you’re making. I mostly run as soon as it’s convenient, rums I usually give an extra six days after they go dead to give time for extra flavor development.

Now this was what the main question I had was all about....does it give a more defined flavor. I am trying to make a really nice whiskey. Plus I am fermenting on grain. I'm not worried bout the bacteria part to much. I work in a hospital and my sterilization is pretty spot on...slightly anal lol.

Titan, can you cite where you might have read this is a viable process to creating a more defined flavor, or maybe it's just a hunch?

IMO, making a really nice whiskey is as much about removing undesirable constituents (yeast) as much as adding them (oak vanillins, caramels, smoke, careful cuts). I have not heard that a rest 'enhances' or develops flavor in a whiskey nor is this a practice employed by distilleries. Like Deplorable, double-distilling twice-cleared AG whiskey ferments rested in a 5gal barrel produces fantastic whiskey.

Chris, can you share what it is that causes the extra flavor development in your rums?

[Homebrewer11777]

For storing wash I've been applying beer principals. Protect from oxygen and acetobacter (usually comes from fruit flies) once fermentation is complete to avoid staling or turning to vinegar. Yeast take care of oxygen during fermentation but not once they are done eating and go dormant. When that happens I try to transfer my wash from the 32 gallon garbage can I ferment to carboys. Fill these right up into the neck. Both the clear beer on top of the spent grain and the squeezings. I add a quarter cup table sugar to the carboy when I fill it so that the yeast can have one more small feeding and scrub the oxygen that got in during the transfer and cap these with airlocks.

All my washes are sour so can expect some bacteria and wild yeast activity and will form a pellicle in a week or so. A pellicle is a good thing..further protection from oxygen and flies in case you let the airlock dry up. I've used beer stored like this out to at least 4 weeks from transfer but would expect these will be good for distilling for months if not years stored like this. (I actually did distill a 5 year old sour beer carboy I found in back of the garage and it came out great).

[Tōtōchtin]

With the rum wash as time goes on more esters are being made I believe because there are more acids being developed and now at the end of fermentation there is a higher abv. Just an novice guess...
Tōtō

[NZChris]

Chris, can you share what it is that causes the extra flavor development in your rums?

It’s a technique that I borrowed from a small Jamaican? distillery that valued quality above throughput More time for the carboxylic acids to react with the alcohol.

Possibly not something that would help whiskey unless it had butyric acid present.