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I just rack into my boiler... No filtering, no baking soda, no nothing... Just rack, stripping run, spirit run, and done...Spriit Tisler wrote:My new batch looks brilliant. I put it last wednesday and today I opened it up and it was all cleared and settled and ready so I racked it to buckets with vacuum cleaner ejector and poured it into boiler. Got full 40 liters of it, from total volume of maybe 50 liters incl. solids. Gonna strip it tonight.
You think I should actually leave the carbon filtration off and just add some baking soda and reflux it directly? Does it really pay off with this recipe for making as neutral vodka as possible? Not otherwise but since my filter has some issues with the funnel part I mind not using it before I get it fixed.
Shouldn't need the boiled yeast as there's plenty of nutrients in the cereal, but doesn't hurt to have it in there either. Should be ok.FMJ wrote:Any thoughts on this? My first 10 gallon wash. Twenty (20) pounds of sugar, 10 cups of All Bran approx. one 18oz box, 5 teaspoons of boiled yeast, 1.5 teaspoons of Epsom salts and 20 tablespoons of bakers yeast. I'm looking for a more neutral spirit vs flavor. I'm a bit concerned the % of alcohol may be a bit high. I will be doing a strip run first then a spirit run on a reflux still. Thanks FMJ
You really don't need to charcoal filter this recipe. I promise.Spriit Tisler wrote:Stripped, got something over 5 liters of about 70% stuff and broke my ABV meter at the go. Now it's flowing through carbon at 40% which I decided to do because I've got time and it goes into bucket that has plenty of soda in it. I tasted the outcome from the filter and it was quite fancy tasting even it's just strippings. Should make some good spirit.
Spriit Tisler wrote:It's fancy how carbon filter works. At the top the strippings have quite strong smell that originates from the all bran probably, not excactly bad to say, but at the bottom it has very clean and straight smell. I have feeling this one is gonna be super neutral, my best batch this far. I think this recipe is really The Knockout. It takes a week and two days to complete and clear at 30C, so it can be racked directly to boiler and stripped, filtered and then refluxed with plenty of soda to get super neutral azeotropic alcohol.
Thanks Rad, and for all you other folks, you should have bashed me big time at the very beginning when I banged my head to the turbo wall.
If it ain't broke... don't fix it.Bert13 wrote:... turned out great...
So your added efforts to further clean your spirits backfired and made the taste worse...??? Sounds like you've found your problem... Should have left well enough alone and not added sodium carbonate... Most distilled spirits, even low wines, don't require the added efforts some members keep subjecting their spirits to... "If it ain't broke, don't break it...!!!"Spriit Tisler wrote:My most recent outcome is strange.
I did everything the same except for few things, and my stuff turned out to be having a bit sharper taste and having a very slight pungent odor similar to turbos. The only things I did otherwise was using sodium carbonate instead of sodium hydroxide, and dry yeast instead of fresh yeast, and I did not clear the ferment to almost transparent but instead of had it racked "homedistiller clean", aka all solids settled. I might use bentonite again with my next batch to make it truly clean, and replace the baking soda with lye, which just chemically erases everything unwanted and neutralizes all acids and stuff. But now I've got maybe 5 liters of potable alcohol lying around and this amount should last for rest of the year at least, even with my friends.
Funny thing is that the strippings had all smell and taste removed by the carbon and all that was left was the sweetish, straight smell and taste of ethanol, but after reflux distillation the slight pungency appeared from somewhere. It couldn't have been the still because I cleaned it with dishwashing detergent(=lye) between strip and reflux.
Sounds like a plan...Spriit Tisler wrote:You think sodium carbonate adverses the product?
The next batch I'll do I'll use fresh yeast as before since it seems to work better and it's cheaper even. I'll strip it as usual, but I'll split it to two: one with lye and one without any further purification and reflux them.
Bert13, check out this thread. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =15&t=5753Bert13 wrote:Spriit Tisler wrote:It's fancy how carbon filter works. At the top the strippings have quite strong smell that originates from the all bran probably, not excactly bad to say, but at the bottom it has very clean and straight smell. I have feeling this one is gonna be super neutral, my best batch this far. I think this recipe is really The Knockout. It takes a week and two days to complete and clear at 30C, so it can be racked directly to boiler and stripped, filtered and then refluxed with plenty of soda to get super neutral azeotropic alcohol.
Thanks Rad, and for all you other folks, you should have bashed me big time at the very beginning when I banged my head to the turbo wall.
Hi Mr Tisler (or indeed anyone who may know), I wonder if you can please help a novice?
I've run 1 bran wash through a reflux and, apart from using an anti foaming agent in the still, I ran it without carbon filtering or use of baking soda. I turned out great, I've really enjoyed it but I'm hoping to do better next time and I'm considering adding baking soda to the reflux in the hope it helps but I don't understand the science so need some advice.
Is it that the baking soda helps in the production of a more neutral spirit and, if so, how does it do that and how much should I use?
Thanks in advance
Bert13
Give it a shot and see what happens... I've used a number of different wheat based cereals with equal success... Of course a lot depends on whether you will be pot stilling or refluxing for neutral spirits...FMJ wrote:Is there a difference between Flake Bran and Flake Wheat? I found a cereal subistitute for the Kellogg's brand that has almost the same ingridents and vitiams. The only difference is one is flake bran vs flake wheat.
Hi ST and thank you for your kind advice.Spriit Tisler wrote:My most recent outcome is strange.
For Bert13, if you think your stuff is good, don't try to make it any better. You achieve 99% efficiency by your way and gain extra .5% by doing several hours of work and investing up to a hundred extra bucks.
My concern is that the wash is still very sweet, should I just let it clear for a week then run although its still sweet?rad14701 wrote:1.004 over several days is an indicator that the wash is done... You can play with it all you want but you're wasting time and ingredients for a very small potential increase in %ABV... Let it clear and run it...
Sweet is a subjective term... There could definitely be some unfermentable sugars or other components that give the sweet taste, but there should also be a dry alcohol taste in there too... And you're talking less than 2% potential increase in alcohol, at most, if you can get the wash to ferment down to .990 and you could wait forever and not get down that low... This won't be your last batch that doesn't ferment to dry according to your hydrometer...C2H5O5 wrote:My concern is that the wash is still very sweet, should I just let it clear for a week then run although its still sweet?rad14701 wrote:1.004 over several days is an indicator that the wash is done... You can play with it all you want but you're wasting time and ingredients for a very small potential increase in %ABV... Let it clear and run it...
Yeah, I went higher than I wanted with the OG but was even more upset when I found out there was a temperature correction as well, I like to keep the washes at 1.070 - 1.075. My concern is problems stripping because the wash is still very sweet.still_stirrin wrote:Interesting stuff C2H5O5.
You didn't crush the egg shells...I use chicken feed (crushed oyster shells) from TSC to stabilize the pH. Crushing them gives more surface area of the calcium exposed to the acidic solution. That makes them more (even slightly more) effective. You probably would not have needed to add the baking soda to raise the pH. Also, if you're desperate to raise the pH, try using "pickling lime", as it is a much stronger base than bicarbonate. You can get it in the grocery store with the canning supplies.
I'm going to grab some oyster shells for future runs, eggshells dissolved in a few days anyhow, I will grab some "Pickling Lime" to keep on hand
When I do Rad's All Bran, I usually boil the wash for a few minutes. I crush the fertilizer and B-vitamins in a mortar & pestle and add to the boiler. To the boil, I also add 1/2 cup of yeast slurry collected from the last ferment (great nutrients in there). I crush the bran flakes (I buy the generic bran flakes) and stir into the boiling water. I stir this vigorously as the wash comes up to a boil and then I use an immersion chiller to cool down to 90*F.
For my next wash should I use some lees from my last wash as a nutrient and if so how much for a 15 gallon ferment?
This I rack into the fermenters and aerate well (I inject O2 with a stainless steel stone). Then, after rehydrating fresh (dry) yeast, I pitch the yeast into the fermenters. Ferments usually start within 2-4 hours and finish within a week to 10 days. My OG is typically in the 1.074-1.078 range. Terminal gravity is typically at or slightly below unity.
I was going to aerate with a high quality air stone I used in my hydroponics but I tread somewhere that this could be harmful to the wash? That's why I went with the immersion blender.
I strip with a potstill and run the spirit with my combo LM/VM reflux. This makes a very good neutral, the hearts of which I use in Odin's EZ gin recipe. It makes a divine gin...try it sometime. If my goal was a "vodka", I would run the spirit through the potstill one more time (triple distilled), again using the sweet hearts out of the all bran run. Taking the product from the reflux still (at 190 proof) and tempering down for another pass through the still is the best "filter" you can use to clean up the flavors. But, the real key is to make sure you DON'T have any heads or tails in your wash...just clean hearts.
Noted
For your washes that have stopped at 1.004, you may be done, especially if the OG was 1.090 or greater. Depending on the amount of nutrients and the crashing pH, your yeast may have flocculated and quit. It is often difficult to revive yeast in these conditions. So, your best bet may be time....and then running it. Give the ferments a couple of weeks and see. No rush, you said, right?
ss
rad14701 wrote:Sweet is a subjective term... There could definitely be some unfermentable sugars or other components that give the sweet taste, but there should also be a dry alcohol taste in there too... And you're talking less than 2% potential increase in alcohol, at most, if you can get the wash to ferment down to .990 and you could wait forever and not get down that low... This won't be your last batch that doesn't ferment to dry according to your hydrometer...C2H5O5 wrote:My concern is that the wash is still very sweet, should I just let it clear for a week then run although its still sweet?rad14701 wrote:1.004 over several days is an indicator that the wash is done... You can play with it all you want but you're wasting time and ingredients for a very small potential increase in %ABV... Let it clear and run it...
Rack it into another container and it will clear a lot faster than a week...
