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I am a new at this. Using a pot still I tried Cornmeal shine first and it came out really bad and i'm more of a rum fan so I started a wash of that about a week ago 5lbs sugar 20oz of molasses 3.5 gals of water and about 8 Grams of Muntons Active Brewing Yeast. It's been about 8 days at around 74 Degrees F and my air lock is still bubbling about once every ten seconds or so. I'm trying my hand at it and if everything comes out at least ok I'll invest in some equipment but as of now I don't have the equipment to check the gravity or anything I'm more or less going old school and eye balling it. How much longer should I wait to distill it? Is there something I will be able to see or a way to tell that it's ready? Most articles I've read have said after 24-48 hours it will stop bubbling then after it stops bubbling wait another 3-7 days and it's ready but as i said it's still bubbling 8 days into fermentation. Any ideas?

It's really hard to tell without the proper measuring equipment so for this one I'd error on the side of caution and wait another week. In colder temps it can take a lot longer and you really want to wait until it's done so you don't chance puking or burning from sugar left in solution.

24-48 hours on any ferment is seriously crazy. That's turbo yeast speed and even with a turbo they can go 7 days fermenting. Trust me, you are better off waiting it out then rushing to make something and screwing it up.

Bubbles in the airlock are not a guarentee it is still fermenting, it could just be CO^2 degassing from in solution. Give it a good swirl and watch the airlock go crazy for 5-10 min then it will almost completely stop for a few hours. If it starts bubbling again tomorrow then it's still fermenting.

ok cool thanks I shuck it up a little yesterday and i's still going today i'm gonna give it another shake and see what happens if anything i'm going to take your advice and wait it out another week. Also I kinda made this recipe from seeing others, most that i find are for make 10+ gallons of wash and i'm just not on that scale yet I'm using a 4 gallon pot still so i'm trying to stick to only about 3 maybe 3.5 gallons of wash for each run. looking at my recipe does it sound like a good one and does anyone know of any other good recipes I can try out? I kinda want to start another wash while i'm waiting on the one i have going now.

jaycap1030 wrote:ok cool thanks I shuck it up a little yesterday and i's still going today i'm gonna give it another shake and see what happens if anything i'm going to take your advice and wait it out another week. Also I kinda made this recipe from seeing others, most that i find are for make 10+ gallons of wash and i'm just not on that scale yet I'm using a 4 gallon pot still so i'm trying to stick to only about 3 maybe 3.5 gallons of wash for each run. looking at my recipe does it sound like a good one and does anyone know of any other good recipes I can try out? I kinda want to start another wash while i'm waiting on the one i have going now.

I usually ferment wines in the primary for 14 days. As long as your airlock is secure (not cracked if plastic) you should be ok at 14 days.

ok sounds good like i said i shook it up good and it bubbled like u said for a few mins 3 days later i still have a bubble or 2 ever 10-15 seconds. I'm aiming to distill this Saturday or Sunday I'll post here when it's done and let you know how it comes out. Thanks again for the advice.

so i distilled yesterday and i think i collected some of the bad crap a the end so i distilled it again today after the first run i had about a liter and a half i got a full bottle at 60% and a half at about 45% after the second run I got about 3/4 of a liter at 80% I think I could have got a little more but the smell changed and got real bad so i didn't want that mixing with my good stuff seems to not have much of a smell at all and almost a slight tequila taste to it which was a little weird cause i use no agave but i'm happy with the result and will be making apple pie rum with it. thats for the advice on this one

jaycap1030 wrote:so i distilled yesterday and i think i collected some of the bad crap a the end so i distilled it again today after the first run i had about a liter and a half i got a full bottle at 60% and a half at about 45% after the second run I got about 3/4 of a liter at 80% I think I could have got a little more but the smell changed and got real bad so i didn't want that mixing with my good stuff seems to not have much of a smell at all and almost a slight tequila taste to it which was a little weird cause i use no agave but i'm happy with the result and will be making apple pie rum with it. thats for the advice on this one

you might want to read up on making cuts heres the link http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=13261 the way i read what you put down you collected everything in 2 jars did you take out fores if not plz dont drink the spirit till you run it again making proper cuts. if you did take out fores the way you colllected is fine if you want all the heads and tails mixed together but the main reason most do this is to make a better spirit than what we can get commercially , which is mixed with heads and tails, dont mean to sound as if im picking just trying to help