Home Distiller

Hi folks,

I may have a bit of a dilemma. I started a 2 separate 5 gallon Cornmeal/Sugar/Barley mashes in anticipation of distilling after about 7 or 8 days. However, when I unpacked my new still that I ordered I realized that an important piece was missing and I had to alert to seller to send to me ASAP. Of course I was disappointed and fighting mad. Anyway the seller sent the item but it's taking forever to arrive and according to the tracking I may receive it tomorrow or the next day but the dilemma I referred to is that both my mashes have now been sitting for 14 days or 15 days now and active fermentation stopped after about 10 days. I didn't have a suitable secondary vessels at the time and I hated to go out and spend a lot of money for glass carboys to transfer to while I waited for the shipment. I read something about not letting the mash sit too long after fermentation finished and to distill immediately after the bubbling stopped or else all I did was make vinegar. So my question is has my mash basically gone to waste now or do I still have a chance at distilling a good product once I get my part in a couple days?

If it matters I used Turbo Yeast on one mash 5lbs Yellow Cornmeal + 5lbs White Sugar with 1lbs Rye and 1lbs Toasted Barley Grains and on the other I used Fleischman's Bread Yeast with 5lbs Yellow Cornmeal + 5lbs White Sugar with 2lbs Light Barley Grains

I do have more ingredients at the ready to start over. I planned to make a new mash anyway once I distilled the first two but I was hoping to save these and not have to start all the way over again and wait.

What's the verdict?

Thanks in advance.

The wash you made is still plenty good. Hell it's just now cleared probably. Not sure where you read that you must distill ASAP after fermentation but it's not true and you need to stop getting advise from wherever that was. Do you plan to use one if these washes for the cleaning run? Your going to do a vinnegar run first right?

I think you maybe need to ready crankys spoon feeding thread for a while before you fire up that still.

JayTeeDee wrote:...both my mashes have now been sitting for 14 days or 15 days now and active fermentation stopped after about 10 days...has my mash basically gone to waste now or do I still have a chance at distilling a good product once I get my part in a couple days?

Naw, don't worry too much about it. The ferment will be fine. The good thing about alcohol...it is still a pretty good preservative. If the ferment was healthy, it'll set fine for a week or two, even after it's done.

So, what's more critical...the cleaning runs for your still. There is a 4-step protocol recommended here:
step 1) mechanical cleaning (brush and soap),
step 2) a good steam bath (fill with water and make some steam). Get it all good and hot.
step 3) vinegar run with 50/50 vinegar and water (get it good and hot again),
step 4) a sacrificial alcohol run, meaning you run a wash through it like a regular wash, but you dispose of the product (all of it too!).

So, if you're planning to use one of your mashes as the sac run...OK. Otherwise, get a quick sugar wash started to clean the still before your cornmeal mash.
ss

p.s. - the spoon feed thread that StillLearning recommended (Cranky's) is linked in my signature. Just click and read...read...read...etc.

+1 StillLearning and stillstirrin. IMHO use the turbo run as a sac run. link to crankys spoon feeding in my signature.

Whew good to know. I plan on running them twice. I read some stuff from different books and distillation blogs that had me freaking out. I'm just trying to make some good whiskey. Thanks for the quick reply!

Yea I might use the Turbo as a sac run it's the one that's been sitting the longest.

JayTeeDee wrote:Whew good to know. I plan on running them twice. I read some stuff from different books and distillation blogs that had me freaking out. I'm just trying to make some good whiskey. Thanks for the quick reply!

Yea I might use the Turbo as a sac run it's the one that's been sitting the longest.

Man we got a guy here that swears by letting his ferments sit for AT LEAST a month after fermentation stops.
Just keep the lid on and the fingers out and you should be fine. What kinda still did you order?

The time sitting does not matter so long as everything was sanitised and you kept your dick squeezers out of it. Don't rerun the sac run.

posted same time as SL +1

I've got a rum wash that's been sitting >8 months and still smells/looks ok.
Just now getting the new stillin' room put together after a move and this will be the first run through.
Should be interesting.

tp

JayTeeDee wrote:I read some stuff from different books and distillation blogs that had me freaking out.

That right there is your problem... Forget about all that other crap you've read elsewhere... You're here now, where you need to be... The sky won't fall before your parts arrive...

I rarely run a wash/ mash that is LESS than 3 weeks to a month old.

I noticed that you wanted to run it after several days - did you miss that you
said fermentation stopped after 10 days? Leave it be Beaver, you'll be fine.

Read my signature lines

Coyote

StillLearning1 wrote:Man we got a guy here that swears by letting his ferments sit for AT LEAST a month after fermentation stops. Just keep the lid on and the fingers out and you should be fine. What kinda still did you order

A friend bought me one of those Chinese made stills off Amazon because they knew I home brewing and thought I might like this too. It got good genuine reviews so hopefully it holds up to the test. That's why the part is taking so long because it's coming from Beijing! But eventually I'm going to upgrade to a good one from Clawhammer unless y'all can recommend some other place.

Coyote wrote:I noticed that you wanted to run it after several days - did you miss that you said fermentation stopped after 10 days? Leave it be Beaver, you'll be fine.

My original plan based on what I thought at the time was solid research from youtube and other blogs before I found this forum was to run it after about 6-8 days. I just freaked out when I didn't have my part and thought my first batches were ruined because I left them too long.

still_stirrin wrote: So, what's more critical...the cleaning runs for your still. There is a 4-step protocol recommended here:
step 1) mechanical cleaning (brush and soap),
step 2) a good steam bath (fill with water and make some steam). Get it all good and hot.
step 3) vinegar run with 50/50 vinegar and water (get it good and hot again),
step 4) a sacrificial alcohol run, meaning you run a wash through it like a regular wash, but you dispose of the product (all of it too!).

So, if you're planning to use one of your mashes as the sac run...OK. Otherwise, get a quick sugar wash started to clean the still before your cornmeal mash.

That's good information I may make a quick sugar wash to run before the cornmeal. Just 5lbs of Sugar + 5 Gallon of Water + yeast right?

All of which I got plenty of!

I don't mind sacrificing that.

Look at the bright side if it's turned to vinegar, you already have your stuff for the vinegar cleaning run [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

JTD can we see a picture of the chinese still? I fear it might have plenty of unsafe materials....

cuginosgrizzo wrote:JTD can we see a picture of the chinese still? I fear it might have plenty of unsafe materials....

UH OH!

Here is the product page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XZ4 ... _pC_nS_ttl

And here are some pictures I took when I notified the seller of the missing part. The part I'm missing by the way is if you check the product page is that airlock that they have attached to the top of the pot which doubles as a fermenter. They call it an exhaust valve though. I didn't ferment in the pot though I fermented in my cleaned and sanitized brew buckets. I was taking everything out to clean when I noticed the part missing. I repackaged it up just in case I was going to have issues getting the part. But I will thoroughly clean and sanitize the same I do with my brewing equipment and I will do a sac run.

It doesn't look totally unsafe, at least to my unpracticed eye. There are much worse around.

At least the connection is copper, I hope they used lead free solder on those junctions.

What's that gasket made of? It looks like silicon: if it is discard it, since it is not considered safe, and make yourself another with ptfe wrapped cardboard (look for everlasting gasket on this site).

The worm I fear is way too small, you'll not have an easy life tuning that. Also, collection point is right above the still, if you plan to use a gas burner try to extend the product collection as far as you can from the open flames.

cuginosgrizzo wrote:What's that gasket made of? It looks like silicon: if it is discard it, since it is not considered safe, and make yourself another with ptfe wrapped cardboard (look for everlasting gasket on this site).

The worm I fear is way too small, you'll not have an easy life tuning that. Also, collection point is right above the still, if you plan to use a gas burner try to extend the product collection as far as you can from the open flames.

I think it is silicone so I'll use it as a guide and toss it to make the everlasting gasket. I found the instructions to make one. Thanks.

The worm is small but it'll have to do for now. and I' too was concerned about the collection point. I will be using a gas burner so I'll have to rig it up some kind of way to keep it from the open flame I think I got an idea so I'll do a test run when cleaning.

I think what I'm going to do after I use this a couple times is upgrade to this from Brewhaus: http://www.brewhaus.com/Essential-Extra ... Still.aspx

Oh no... Not again that still...
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 27&t=59996

JayTeeDee wrote: I think what I'm going to do after I use this a couple times is upgrade to this from Brewhaus: http://www.brewhaus.com/Essential-Extra ... Still.aspx

Did you consider building? I started with a buy mindset then built my own. Even starting with a very limited skill set I managed to make my own still. I found out that it is fun and it teaches you a lot.
Actually I believe that in this hobby half the fun is building, half is making spirit and half is drinking it!

I originally went with an airstill and I gotta say it's much more cost effective to just get a boiler and some copper and build your own plus you can troubleshoot it when you need to without contacting manufacturers or being without the still entirely to each there own but I think you'd do better with almost anything other than tho eBay stills

I never considered building but I'm pretty handy maybe I could do DIY it. I'll see how the Chinese thing works for now and go from there.

JayTeeDee wrote: My original plan based on what I thought at the time was solid research from youtube...

Oh dear. Youtube . . . see topic: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 89&t=59335

and here: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =7&t=54723

and the list goes on. You've come to the right place now. More combined knowledge in these forums than any book or video available.

JayTeeDee wrote:...I'll see how the Chinese thing works for now and go from there...

You were Shanghai'd.

Sorry Jayteedee. I wasn't trying to burst your bubble. But I was afraid you may have ordered one of those eBay stills. We see it at least once a week here, someone orders one of those then comes here wondering why it won't work well.

The good news is your here now and you can research the still, find out what's suitable or not and go from there. And you have all the advise a man could ask for on how to get where your going.

StillLearning1 wrote:Sorry Jayteedee. I wasn't trying to burst your bubble. But I was afraid you may have ordered one of those eBay stills. We see it at least once a week here, someone orders one of those then comes here wondering why it won't work well.

The good news is your here now and you can research the still, find out what's suitable or not and go from there. And you have all the advise a man could ask for on how to get where your going.

Well it was a gift so I'll just use it to learn on until I upgrade or build on my own.

JayTeeDee wrote:

StillLearning1 wrote:Sorry Jayteedee. I wasn't trying to burst your bubble. But I was afraid you may have ordered one of those eBay stills. We see it at least once a week here, someone orders one of those then comes here wondering why it won't work well.

The good news is your here now and you can research the still, find out what's suitable or not and go from there. And you have all the advise a man could ask for on how to get where your going.

Well it was a gift so I'll just use it to learn on until I upgrade or build on my own.

As long as it's safe that's a great plan. You will know pretty quick if your going to outgrow that still or not. Aside from the synthetics issues it's hard to make good cuts on a smaller boiler like that. However it is not impossible and a few members here use small boilers and never wish to upgrade. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes!

A few minor modifications should get you safely going on that one.

By the way, I have a ferment that has been sitting since September waiting to go. As long as you keep it sealed with an air lock, you'll be fine.

In order to get vinegar, you need an acetobacter introduced. Fruit flies are a big enemy of us as they often carry these little buggers. They convert alcohol to vinegar (the bacteria do).

StillLearning1 wrote:

JayTeeDee wrote:Whew good to know. I plan on running them twice. I read some stuff from different books and distillation blogs that had me freaking out. I'm just trying to make some good whiskey. Thanks for the quick reply!

Yea I might use the Turbo as a sac run it's the one that's been sitting the longest.

Man we got a guy here that swears by letting his ferments sit for AT LEAST a month after fermentation stops.
Just keep the lid on and the fingers out and you should be fine. What kinda still did you order?

I'm one of those guys, my rums sit for 5 to 6 weeks. The one out back that was supposed to run last weekend is now on week 7. Still pops a bubble every few minutes.

I just got notification my part made it to the local post office so it should be delivered tomorrow. I'm going to do my cleaning and my sac run then my distillation and report back!