pH of neutral washes

Stillhead · Post by **Stillhead** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:08 pm

I would like to know if people are running basic (adding bicarb to the stripped run) or if they are acidic (adding citric acid to prevent chemical reactions which turn distillate blue/green).

homedistiller.org says that adding the NaHCO3 is benneficial...

I am not so sure after trying it.

btw my still and packing are cleaned with acetic acid and rinsed well before running.

Hackers · Post by **Hackers** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:04 am

If you are fermenting with sugar there should be no need to worry about the PH of the wash

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:13 am

Hackers wrote:If you are fermenting with sugar there should be no need to worry about the PH of the wash

I agree, although I have no way of checking my sugar wash ph. Thinking of buying a measuring device.

Just to be sure, after recieving a few opinions, I've been chucking in the juice of three lemons to an 80 liter wash. Maybe a waste of $1.00.

What the Hell; I'm a big spender.

Cheers,

G

Stillhead · Post by **Stillhead** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:13 am

This is related to my concern over adding bicarb, as per suggestions on the mother site. This turned my stripped distillate aqua colour.

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:01 pm

I prefer the natural approach. Try lemon juice. I per 23 liters.

Keep us posted.

G

AfricaUnite · Post by **AfricaUnite** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:14 pm

I am not at home but I have a PH meter and a plain sugar wash at home I can check. I'll post with results within 48 hours. Ive checked before and it seems i remember it being very close to 7. I cant remember if it was a bit above or below but it was almost 7.

Just checked the PH of a sugar/water/turbo yeast wash and it was 5.4 after fermentation.

I suspect that the turbo yeast nutrients bring down the PH to make it a more suitable condition for the yeast. Anything you want checked for PH let me know. Ive started to make UJSM and will be making rum in the near future.