Heya Bearded, yeah its nice to have a good ferment kick off hard after winter temperatures. The volume of fermentables is what creates all that pressure/gas. I've seen giant airlocks in breweries before that consisted of a 2 inch hose running from the top of a massive fermenting silo into a plastic barrel of water, it looked like a spa pool! - that was impressive! :o)
Just incase any foreign friends need explanation ... Shagging Spiders; *Put your hands together so you fingertips are touching. *Push your palms together (fingertips still touching) *Pull palms apart (fingertips still touching) *Repeat. (ie; "twiddling your thumbs"/ wasting time. :)
Really cool bubbler. I've never used one. Just cover drum with lid and put old wool army blanket over. In the winter I drop in my fish tank heater, wrap drum with 3 layers of reflectix and cover with 2 army blankets.
Thanks again for a great educational vid. Can you throw anything up re running a reflux still? I have a liquid management reflux still and have yet to use it. I am a pot and thumper man, but wish to make a light rum with the reflux still. Keep them coming please. Jimy
G'day Jimy, Yep, reflux still vid' definitely coming. :o) I've been running a series of stripping runs on sugar washes lately to fill the 200L HWC still I built - they're going to be distilled out as neutral spirit (as close to 95% as I can get) with a 4" reflux column I'm putting the finishing touches to over Christmas ... which is another video again haha. That'll be using the 4" dephlegmator I built in an earlier video to force the reflux. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from New Zealand !
G'day Tracey, Glad you like the videos. Now you are just being silly with the cocaine thing, ... everyone knows yeast do their best on a mix of energy drinks and methamphetamine. ;o)
For some reason I bought corn sugar in bulk not granulated. I made a wash of 14lb of sugar diluted in 26litres of water. This gave me an SG 1.090 with a calculated ABV of 12 . what percent alcohol can I expect after distilling through my 2” combination still using reflux. This will be my very first run using the 2” combination still that I built from your videos. Although my wash has been fermenting for a few days now and the SG will be reducing as the yeast does its thing could I still add more sugar to get my wash up to 18%? Cheers mate. Keep up the good work.
G'day Mel, Remember to do a cleaning run 50/50 water/vinegar after your build. What ABV distillate you get out using reflux config' is kinda up to how you run the still … and any limitations of what you've built and how you rigged/packed it (what did you pack you column with?). If your build is good and you run it right you should be up around 95/96% yield - best possible outcome. It's not like a potstill in that the abv of your wash has some determining factor in what your distillate abv will be (as well as how you run your potstill). Corn sugar … dextrose right? I've only used it a few times - it takes more weight in dextrose to ferment out the same result than regular sucrose table/caster sugar. In NZ here, dextrose is hella more expensive too, but, it has a rep' for fermenting out cleaner. I've known people to add more sugar again and again after primary ferment each time the gravity starts dropping down towards 1.0 to keep the yeast working and the abv up without initially stressing and killing the yeast. I've never done that, I keep things simple once I pitch my yeast -except for the odd stuck ferment where I have to open the barrel and dick around with it. :o) This vid' was just a down-n-dirty sugar wash … I don't usually chase the abv monster in my washes and I don't reflux distill that often (more of a rum and whisky guy). As a suggestion if you are starting out (and even when you have it nailed), you may get better mileage doing two batches at a lower abv for yield rather than chasing 18-20% washes - you don't stress the yeast and there aren't generally as many nasty by-products being created with the heat and osmotic pressure in the ferment.
Angry Parrot Distillery Thanks for that. Yes I am beginning the first cleaning run next week with 15 litres of vinegar and 15 litres water. I also added a sight glass to my still just for a bit of fun to watch the condensate, and also made an infusion basket to hold my botanicals.. Having listened to what you have said I won’t waste my money on the corn sugar next time. I have made a 25litre batch of Rum using 4kg of sugar and 4kg of molasses which I will run in pot mode and also as I mentioned a 27litre batch of sugar wash for a Gin/vodka run under reflux. Can’t wait to do my first run. Fingers crossed I’ll get some good results. Thanks again big fella.👍
Haha - you've definitely got the bug! Wasn't saying you wasted your money on corn sugar - you might have really good results with it. :o) Would love to know how your first runs go. Happy Distilling Mel!
Marry Christ birthday mates from Florida..So hay got a drum it taste like tails run five got any tips on how to clean that up with out running it threw 7 times...? Barrel set for two weeks and soured even more ..with little water first two runs was great even after last one had a great apple smell on fermentation.. thinking Sugar up thump tank and run real slow.maybe even put some fresh fruit in.Its a sweet feed wash
G'day Derrick, yeah you could use your thumper as a gin head and try and infuse your spirit with something, ... what I've done before with a feijoa brandy that I wasn't happy with was to "apple-pie" it like "apple-pie moonshine" (I tempered the feijoa brandy with feijoa-and-apple juice). You take the high-alcohol distilled spirit and instead of tempering it back with clean water you temper it back with fruit juice or whatever flavour it was you wanted to add - that may mask the nasty taste you've got there and make it drinkable. Short of that I guess running it through a reflux column and stripping all the flavor out of it right back to a neutral vodka spirit would be the other option. Good luck fella and Merry Christmas from New Zealand.
G'day Bama' I'm at work so don't have a journal with me (this was about a year ago now), from memory it was a nasty ol' turbo yeast of some kind (just to deal with the high osmotic pressure either end of the ferment) which usually has some nutrient in it anyways. This was a bit of an experiment to see how clean/neutral I could process a sugar wash like this with my distilling gear I had on hand at the time. Added nutrients from memory would have been; DAP (diammonium phosphate) Several vitamin-C tablets ground up (fizz-in-water type) A couple of Mens multi-vitamin supplement tablets (ground up fine) Some plant growth nutrient About a kg and a half of wheat bran I may have even blended up and thrown in a can of tomato paste for good measure. Citric acid added also - just to adjust the PH for the yeast before pitching - not as any kind of nutrient. Things I did wrong that I wouldn't do again and that stopped the wash fermenting out "dry"; 1) I'm pretty sure I may have under-pitched the yeast slightly. If you are making stupidly high abv washes you want to overpitch by a margin just to give your yeast the momentum to ferment out fully before the alcohol % starts retarding their efficiency. 2) I let the wash get to hot - it was running up over 30degC at one stage - I should have dropped my copper wort chiller coil in there and dropped it back to 20-25 degC, too high a temp will damage your yeast or even kill it off altogether. (although turbo yeast generally handles the higher temps better than regular yeasts). Fermenting in larger volumes also creates more of a thermal mass with will retain heat longer and raise the temp higher during ferment than a comparative smaller batch. Happy Distilling.
Turbo yeast, generally nasty stuff. Is a high attenuating strain of yeast packaged up with a selection of promoters, nutrients and minerals that "turbocharge" the yeast. Is possible to ferment out 20% abv sugar washes with it. Not generally recomended tho as it with throw off flavors and certainly at those high abv end-ferment levels. Afaik turboyeast was originally developed for the ethanol-fuel industry where it is ALL about yield and zero about taste, ... unless you have a fussy Euro-sports car that will only drink 20y/o Laphroaig. 🤣 Having said all that, it is a fairly bulletproof way to ferment and if you are just starting out in the hobby and wanted to limit the no. of variables that could go wrong on your first few batches I certainly wouldn't be looking down my nose at you for using it. As you get more and more acomplished you'll want to start matching yeasts to what you are brewing. 👍
Wow! I thought I'd seen an aggressive fermentation, but that was nuts:-)
Heya Bearded, yeah its nice to have a good ferment kick off hard after winter temperatures.
The volume of fermentables is what creates all that pressure/gas.
I've seen giant airlocks in breweries before that consisted of a 2 inch hose running from the top of a massive fermenting silo into a plastic barrel of water, it looked like a spa pool! - that was impressive! :o)
Well, thats having at it!
LOL ... not here to shag spiders!
Angry Parrot Distillery won't someone think of the spiders.....
Just incase any foreign friends need explanation ...
Shagging Spiders;
*Put your hands together so you fingertips are touching.
*Push your palms together (fingertips still touching)
*Pull palms apart (fingertips still touching)
*Repeat.
(ie; "twiddling your thumbs"/ wasting time. :)
Really cool bubbler. I've never used one. Just cover drum with lid and put old wool army blanket over.
In the winter I drop in my fish tank heater, wrap drum with 3 layers of reflectix and cover with 2 army blankets.
Haha - yep I've got the army blankets out as barrel wraps in winter!
she sure is pretty. merry xmass
Merry Christmas fella!
BBQ Christmas dinner here and 25+ degrees C solid up until the last few days. :o)
Is the water you're using from Petone by any chance...?
Why yes sir, in this instance yes it was. 😊
Thanks again for a great educational vid. Can you throw anything up re running a reflux still? I have a liquid management reflux still and have yet to use it. I am a pot and thumper man, but wish to make a light rum with the reflux still. Keep them coming please. Jimy
G'day Jimy,
Yep, reflux still vid' definitely coming. :o)
I've been running a series of stripping runs on sugar washes lately to fill the 200L HWC still I built - they're going to be distilled out as neutral spirit (as close to 95% as I can get) with a 4" reflux column I'm putting the finishing touches to over Christmas ... which is another video again haha.
That'll be using the 4" dephlegmator I built in an earlier video to force the reflux.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from New Zealand !
Thanks a mil and many happy returns from Ireland
HI
I'm new at this.Did you put a gram of cocaine in with the yeast?
Great video.
Sorry I just realised it was [as the Rolling Stones would say] brown sugar..
G'day Tracey,
Glad you like the videos.
Now you are just being silly with the cocaine thing, ... everyone knows yeast do their best on a mix of energy drinks and methamphetamine. ;o)
For some reason I bought corn sugar in bulk not granulated.
I made a wash of 14lb of sugar diluted in 26litres of water.
This gave me an SG 1.090 with a calculated ABV of 12 . what percent alcohol can I expect after distilling through my 2” combination still using reflux.
This will be my very first run using the 2” combination still that I built from your videos.
Although my wash has been fermenting for a few days now and the SG will be reducing as the yeast does its thing
could I still add more sugar to get my wash up to 18%?
Cheers mate. Keep up the good work.
G'day Mel,
Remember to do a cleaning run 50/50 water/vinegar after your build.
What ABV distillate you get out using reflux config' is kinda up to how you run the still … and any limitations of what you've built and how you rigged/packed it (what did you pack you column with?).
If your build is good and you run it right you should be up around 95/96% yield - best possible outcome.
It's not like a potstill in that the abv of your wash has some determining factor in what your distillate abv will be (as well as how you run your potstill).
Corn sugar … dextrose right? I've only used it a few times - it takes more weight in dextrose to ferment out the same result than regular sucrose table/caster sugar.
In NZ here, dextrose is hella more expensive too, but, it has a rep' for fermenting out cleaner.
I've known people to add more sugar again and again after primary ferment each time the gravity starts dropping down towards 1.0 to keep the yeast working and the abv up without initially stressing and killing the yeast.
I've never done that, I keep things simple once I pitch my yeast -except for the odd stuck ferment where I have to open the barrel and dick around with it. :o)
This vid' was just a down-n-dirty sugar wash … I don't usually chase the abv monster in my washes and I don't reflux distill that often (more of a rum and whisky guy).
As a suggestion if you are starting out (and even when you have it nailed), you may get better mileage doing two batches at a lower abv for yield rather than chasing 18-20% washes - you don't stress the yeast and there aren't generally as many nasty by-products being created with the heat and osmotic pressure in the ferment.
Angry Parrot Distillery Thanks for that.
Yes I am beginning the first cleaning run next week with 15 litres of vinegar and 15 litres water.
I also added a sight glass to my still just for a bit of fun to watch the condensate, and also made an infusion basket to hold my botanicals..
Having listened to what you have said I won’t waste my money on the corn sugar next time.
I have made a 25litre batch of Rum using 4kg of sugar and 4kg of molasses which I will run in pot mode and also as I mentioned a 27litre batch of sugar wash for a Gin/vodka run under reflux.
Can’t wait to do my first run. Fingers crossed I’ll get some good results.
Thanks again big fella.👍
Haha - you've definitely got the bug!
Wasn't saying you wasted your money on corn sugar - you might have really good results with it. :o)
Would love to know how your first runs go.
Happy Distilling Mel!
Marry Christ birthday mates from Florida..So hay got a drum it taste like tails run five got any tips on how to clean that up with out running it threw 7 times...? Barrel set for two weeks and soured even more ..with little water first two runs was great even after last one had a great apple smell on fermentation.. thinking Sugar up thump tank and run real slow.maybe even put some fresh fruit in.Its a sweet feed wash
G'day Derrick, yeah you could use your thumper as a gin head and try and infuse your spirit with something, ... what I've done before with a feijoa brandy that I wasn't happy with was to "apple-pie" it like "apple-pie moonshine" (I tempered the feijoa brandy with feijoa-and-apple juice).
You take the high-alcohol distilled spirit and instead of tempering it back with clean water you temper it back with fruit juice or whatever flavour it was you wanted to add - that may mask the nasty taste you've got there and make it drinkable.
Short of that I guess running it through a reflux column and stripping all the flavor out of it right back to a neutral vodka spirit would be the other option.
Good luck fella and Merry Christmas from New Zealand.
LemmingHerda thanks will sweeten her up like the apple juice cut
Have a search online - there are some quite good "apple-pie" moonshine recipes that use spices and such as well as the apple juice. Good luck.
LemmingHerda got it thanks mate
What kind of nutrients and yeast did you use?
Wow.
G'day Bama'
I'm at work so don't have a journal with me (this was about a year ago now), from memory it was a nasty ol' turbo yeast of some kind (just to deal with the high osmotic pressure either end of the ferment) which usually has some nutrient in it anyways.
This was a bit of an experiment to see how clean/neutral I could process a sugar wash like this with my distilling gear I had on hand at the time.
Added nutrients from memory would have been;
DAP (diammonium phosphate)
Several vitamin-C tablets ground up (fizz-in-water type)
A couple of Mens multi-vitamin supplement tablets (ground up fine)
Some plant growth nutrient
About a kg and a half of wheat bran
I may have even blended up and thrown in a can of tomato paste for good measure.
Citric acid added also - just to adjust the PH for the yeast before pitching - not as any kind of nutrient.
Things I did wrong that I wouldn't do again and that stopped the wash fermenting out "dry";
1) I'm pretty sure I may have under-pitched the yeast slightly. If you are making stupidly high abv washes you want to overpitch by a margin just to give your yeast the momentum to ferment out fully before the alcohol % starts retarding their efficiency.
2) I let the wash get to hot - it was running up over 30degC at one stage - I should have dropped my copper wort chiller coil in there and dropped it back to 20-25 degC, too high a temp will damage your yeast or even kill it off altogether.
(although turbo yeast generally handles the higher temps better than regular yeasts).
Fermenting in larger volumes also creates more of a thermal mass with will retain heat longer and raise the temp higher during ferment than a comparative smaller batch.
Happy Distilling.
Hey Bama - it's loosely a recipe from NZ home distillers site. TeddySads Vodka;
www.nzhomedistiller.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=121
Turbowhat
Turbo yeast, generally nasty stuff.
Is a high attenuating strain of yeast packaged up with a selection of promoters, nutrients and minerals that "turbocharge" the yeast.
Is possible to ferment out 20% abv sugar washes with it.
Not generally recomended tho as it with throw off flavors and certainly at those high abv end-ferment levels.
Afaik turboyeast was originally developed for the ethanol-fuel industry where it is ALL about yield and zero about taste, ... unless you have a fussy Euro-sports car that will only drink 20y/o Laphroaig. 🤣
Having said all that, it is a fairly bulletproof way to ferment and if you are just starting out in the hobby and wanted to limit the no. of variables that could go wrong on your first few batches I certainly wouldn't be looking down my nose at you for using it.
As you get more and more acomplished you'll want to start matching yeasts to what you are brewing. 👍