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Started this again yesterday this wash goes off without any problems for me once I learned exactly how to do it

Durhommer wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:27 am Just dont suck up your yeast bed

I dont worry about that.
I triple distill vodka and never tasted yeast
I take it all the way to the bottom

I can get right down to the yeast layer with a pump

Ok so I've reached 1000 even after my nutrient mishap I'm going to let it clear a week before I go and run it I cant wait to gather the spirit run so I can collect more heads and tails. I'm close to having enough for an all feints run

Put my 4th wash thru yesterday, easy as recipe with a very neutral result. Just stick to the instructions, show patience and add an oyster shell for insurance

I haven’t done a Shady’s Shine to compare to Wineos but this recipe has produced the goods again for me.
210L of wash waiting for me at home for me to return in a week for I guarantee a superb result

Glad your liking Winos recipe Its an oldie but a goodun.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 3:44 am Glad your liking Winos recipe Its an oldie but a goodun.

Do you reckon SSS is any better SBB? I’ve found Wineos is better than BW’S, but that’s as far as I have traveled

Both are good in thier own right....wouldnt like to say one was better than the other.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 4:12 am Both are good in thier own right....wouldnt like to say one was better than the other.

Just to clarify... had great results with Birdwatchers, but Wineos is now my preference

Just started a 70 L batch on Tuesday. Started right away and is bubbling at 21°C in a bubblewrapped fermenter at 18°C room temperature. Used EC-1118 instead of DADY yeast. Will post more about this run in about two weeks. I want to siphon it off after it has finished fermenting and let it sit for a week before distilling. I‘m trying to get the most neutral spirit possible.

You guys think it‘s ok to siphon the wash into new containers after fermenting? Danger of infection if I let it clear for a week in these containers?

Treat it like racking a wine. Disinfect your new container and the siphon first and you should be fine. I use sodium percarbonate which I think I got in the supermarket or a DIY store. Keep it under airlock, with a bit of luck the degassing during transfer will give you a CO2 layer.

Thanks. Will do like you said. I always trying to be as „clean“ as possible

Had a stalled fermentation. Wash tasted sweet. Temps were ok for the yeasties, but in the lower range. So I raised temp to average beloved temp for this yeast and voila, it restarted fermenting. Had a gravity reading yesterday and I think it finished at 1.000, no sweet taste anymore. Will let the yeast settle a bit. It‘s too cloudy to run right now, imo. Still producing CO2, that lazy bastard. Smells great btw.

I hope it‘s ready to be refluxed in a week.

Started a new 80 L batch today

Looking good.
If it's at 1.000 and it's still producing co2 then it probably has a bit to go. It usually ends up ~.994.

If its cloudy its still not done.

So I‘ll wait patiently to let if finish. Thanks for the info.

Almost no change after 5 days. A thin yeast layer on the bottom, so a bit of clearing must have happened, but not visible to me. I tasted the wash and thought it went bad, found a fruit fly . I think it‘s just the most dry stuff I ever tasted, hopefully. Refluxing it right now.

Kindafrench wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:50 am... I tasted the wash and thought it went bad, found a fruit fly …

Fruit flies are alcoholics! And they tend to favor the heads too. And the worst thing … they’re lousy swimmers, especially when they’re drunk!

Resumé of 40 Liters LM refluxed Wineos:

50 ml nasties
500 ml heads (typical sugar wash smell)
2 liters hearts (smells very pure/clean)
300 ml tails (nice apple smell)
I stopped distilling after the sight glas started fogging, which is a sign of tails start to come through.
At least on my still. Well, I tried compressing the tails for 5 minutes before I took them off, but I didn‘t
really care anymore at that moment.

All except tails at about 95+ ish % alcohol.

Stupid me put vitamins in the wash, which has tropical flavour. Wonder how much
that comes through in the dilluted Vodka.
As I emptied the boiler, I found this lovely apple smell again. Made me wanna have some
apple pie, but there wasn‘t any in the house
Have to be better prepared next time.

Woow
Thats strange . I get apple at the start , not the end

Yummyrum wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:39 am Woow
Thats strange . I get apple at the start , not the end

You‘re right. If I take a sample out of the mid hearts and dillute it down to about 30%, there‘s apple taste. Can‘t smell it in the pure heads.

Just started my second 25L batch. My metric version is as follows:

Put sodium percarbonate into my 32L bucket to sterilise it and the stirring paddle.
Dissolve sugar in 8L of water by heating it until the sugar dissolves.
Add 1 tsp of citric acid, 1 tsp of DAP (Actually a yeast nutrient which also contains ammonium sulfate which is probably responsible for the sulphur smell that came off for the first day or so) and a pinch (I actually have a measuring spoon marked PINCH which looks to be about 1/8th of a tsp) of magnesium sulfate.
I pour this into the now rinsed bucket and then add another 15L of cold water (8L water + the sugar seems to make about 10L of liquid). This conveniently brings the temp down to around 28C, at which point I pitch the 120ml of yeast.

The only issue I have is that the surface area is not great enough to sprinkle all the yeast and have it rehydrate before the first of the yeast starts working and making CO2. I end up stirring in the last of the unhydrated yeast which then has a tendency to clump.

After 2 days I stick in a boiled oyster shell on a piece of string. I have fairly hard water, but I figure this provides some insurance and prevents me from having to drastically change the pH in order to get it back from the brink (I've had to do this once before with a mash that got infected and went acidic fast!).

My first batch has my iSpindel sat in it and has been steadily working through the sugar. This morning it was at 1.004 @ 24C but given the temp, the SG reading is probably not too reliable. I plan to leave it until the SG stops moving for a couple of days then take a hydrometer reading and let it clear for a week or so.

NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:52 am The only issue I have is that the surface area is not great enough to sprinkle all the yeast and have it rehydrate before the first of the yeast starts working and making CO2. I end up stirring in the last of the unhydrated yeast which then has a tendency to clump.

LOL … not a problem . Just sprinkle the dry yeast in… all of it at once ….. it will sink , get wet , start working .

Why wait for two days to add the shell?

NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:52 am 1 tsp of DAP (Actually a yeast nutrient which also contains ammonium sulfate which is probably responsible for the sulphur smell that came off for the first day or so) ....

DAP is Diammonium phosphate and does not contain any sulfur.

NZChris wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 1:32 pm

NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:52 am 1 tsp of DAP (Actually a yeast nutrient which also contains ammonium sulfate which is probably responsible for the sulphur smell that came off for the first day or so) ....

DAP is Diammonium phosphate and does not contain any sulfur.

This I was aware of. I'd looked at my little pot of yeast nutrient before and seen that it contained Diammonium phosphate, but for some reason I didn't notice the ammonium sulfate until after I'd already dosed the batch. I'm not overly concerned right now, the sulphur smell is long gone and I have a reasonable amount of copper in the vapour path. When I next place an order at the brewshop I'll try and get some pure DAP for future batches.

NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:52 am My first batch has my iSpindel sat in it and has been steadily working through the sugar. This morning it was at 1.004 @ 24C but given the temp, the SG reading is probably not too reliable. I plan to leave it until the SG stops moving for a couple of days then take a hydrometer reading and let it clear for a week or so.

Hi mate,
If that is bakers yeast, you can take that temperature up a notch and it will ferment out a good deal quicker.

Some talk here that bakers yeast loves 28C even as high as 30C.

Just a time issue though. I am using champagne yeast (harvested) and going slower at a lower temperature.

CoogeeBoy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 6:05 pm Hi mate,
If that is bakers yeast, you can take that temperature up a notch and it will ferment out a good deal quicker.

Some talk here that bakers yeast loves 28C even as high as 30C.

Just a time issue though. I am using champagne yeast (harvested) and going slower at a lower temperature.

Yep baker's. But I have no temperature control as yet, and won't have until I manage to build a dedicated fermenting / still house. I pitch at a slightly higher temp but it finishes out "cool" (24C is hot for the brewing / wine yeasts I was used to). I'm not too bothered about the time. Given that it needs to clear afterwards a slightly more rapid ferment doesn't buy me much time, and running cooler should (in theory) produce fewer off-flavours.