From all my reading here and other places I have jotted down some key points, which now seem more confusing.
Some clarification would be very appreciated.
Statements that have been made:
For every 1kg sugar, use 4L water.
For every 1kg molasses, use 5-6L water.
Question is if molasses contain only half as much fermentable sugar as sugar, is viscosity and possibly pH the reason for more water/kg?
Max molasses in wash should not exceed 16%
Max sugar in wash should not exceed 20%
Is this in volume/volume or as in the previous statement weight/volume?
I ask specifically because the thick heavy molasses I have weigh in at 35kg/25L and before I fill the first of two 1000L fermenting tanks, I'd like to be confident of the recipe
(I have tried several different recipes and have had random miscellaneous successes)
I see many recipes using various combinations of sugar and molasses and have been trying to find a good balanced average or at least some kind of correlation and have come up with this:
Molasses: 20% of total wash volume (v/v) added to hot dunder from run just completed.
Sugar: 5% of total wash volume (kg/L)
Dunder: 15% of wash volume (up to 25% of water volume)
Baker's yeast @20g/kg sugar and 10g/kg molasses, started in 1-2L warm water + 1 crushed vitB complex pill and a few drops of warm mix from pot.
Also add 2-3L old yeast bed from previous ferment.
When I use this, I also add 15g Epsom salt + 15g Bicarbonatede of soda to 32L wash (which is split into two 20L buckets to ferment, 16L each leaving 20% space on top
The pH usually upwards of 4.6 no more than 5.2 and temp fluctuates from 32°C to 18°C St night, but all wrapped in blankets and space sheets to retain heat.
SG ranges 1.160-1.025
FG ranges 1.025-0.990
And this yeilds from 26-28L run from pot still and two thumpers, a volume of from 6-10L collected and 4-6L of 70-74% product.
Doing the backwards calculations, an incredible amount of tails + some heads and water to 15-25% ABV in the first thumper (6-12L) and heads + water to 30-40% in second thumper (4-8L) are turned into product 80-60% with wash calculating only around 4-7% ABV (1200-1800mls etoh)
Any comments advice guidance cautions pointers in the right direction will be very much appreciated.
Thanks.
Molasses/sugar wash ratios
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- RūmHôk
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