"12 gallons of basic Turbo 48 sugar wash at 13.47% ABV. This time, I let it clear for 10 days, racking twice before racking into the still.

My pot still runs to date have taken about 4 hours from first drip down to shut off at 10-20%. This time, I decided to try it with the fire WAY down. It's taken about eight hours.

Pain in the butt? Maybe yes but here's what I got:

1/2 pint of Foreshots
1 Qt of heads
1 gallon of hearts at 73%!
1 gallon at 56%.
I cut tails at two gallons, the hydro reading 43%.
Looks like about 1-1/2 to 2 gal of tails.

And the taste so far is better than anything else I've done. All this with a Turbo! I guess it's true: Low and slow wins the race."

rasher...slow and easy, low and slow, that works for me too. Others like it hard and fast and thats not wrong either but I like your way more.

Did not realize the slow ferments was important till just recently but sure makes sense. Slow fermentation would seem to be easier to establish with a pinch of yeast as opposed to the recommend ration. Also bound to be much cheaper. Made a bunch of wine using the procedure mainly to be more economical. Bound to work on hooch washes/mashes too. Gonna try it next time to make sure. Thanks.

Racking is when you siphon the liquid from your wash/mash off the traub/ sediment in the bottom of your fermentor. Helps with keeping the flavor from turning into something you don't want.

"Just another note on slow fermenting. It is not to use less yeast; but slow fermenting((lower temperatures) produces far less off flavors. This is why soo many folks advise against turbos.

To use less yeast try making a starter bottle which will accomplish more than justsaving yeast."

"Before the actual conversion of sugar to alcohol takes place The yeast will/must multiply and populate the wurt before it goes into proper anaerobic fermentation.

Starting with less yeast only means that it will take longer to multiply and populate the wurt.

Slower fermentation is accomplished by controlling the temperature:)

naturally properly aerated and nutrient rich wurt is assumed.:)"

"Lager yeast is special yeast that works at temperatures very low but above freezing.


Slow fermentation is accomplished by me by keeping the temps about 65 to 70 F. I like to ferment in winter and use a thermostat with a remote sensor controlling a brew belt around and a heat pad under the fermenter."

"


ROT BW lol lol lol"

"Thanks---------------------:)---------------------------

Post # 15 is the most important in my opinion."

"gryphon,

First, congrats on your new propane burner.

A 48 hour run is a very, very long run. My pot still spirit runs with a 22 L wash at 10% and a 1500w hotplate took me about 10 - 11 hours from power on. I only did a few of these runs so I could see what the machine would produce when I ran it very slow ... but nowhere near 48 hours.

Now that you have propane you may decide you never want to use your hotplate again. But pull it out of the trash. You can disable the thermostat and use a power controller (router speed controller, variac, etc.). Your hotplate may come in handy if you're low on gas and don't have time to get your tank filled.

When you run your pot still, don't try to hold the temperature constant. Try to control your collection rate by adjusting the power. If you collect too fast, you'll get that ""smearing"" that people talk about (heads and tails smear into your hearts). The temperature is going to change throughout the run ... this is normal ... and you really can't control it.

That's 10 - 15 mL per minute (600 - 900 mL per hour) which sounds reasonable. But at that rate you should only be collecting for less than four hours ... even if you run it all the way down (for a wash in the neighborhood of 10% abv).

Q: Did your wash finish fermenting?"