"Ok here goes
23L carboy, 30cups white sugar, distilled water, and wine yeast
Initial readings:
balling: 31
Sg 29 I believed it to be 1.029 but idk cuz broke h/m. N couldn't recheck
Pa% 17
: burping was happening Very slow one week in abt 1 burp per min. Dh added a few handfuls of raisins. Let it slowly ferment another week
Got a new hydrometer and the sg is 1.134 I went to wash an record findings and dh added 5tsp of booster directly and stirred. :-o
So my questions are should I continue fermenting or start distilling?
At 17% pa what is the actual?
I have a megahome top air distiller, what timing should I time the process?
What should alcohol% be after first distillation?
What abt any yeast still alive?"

There's no way your OG was 1.029 with 13 lbs of sugar ... even if you filled your 23L carboy to the brim.

Just to be clear ... you added 30 cups (about 13 lbs
7 oz/cup) of granulated sugar (normal table sugar) for a total volume of what? ... 23 L ??
What type of yeast did you use? Baker's yeast? Wine yeast?

"Those numbers seem more reasonable ... and the temperature adjustment to 1.1315 is correct. So your initial PA is around 20% ... this is high even for the most tolerant of yeast strains. I know high gravity washes seem really cool, but I think you'll find that many folks with some experience under thier belts will recommend against them.

I highly recommend that you keep your OG around 1.080 give or take. This is roughly about 10 lbs of sugar (about 23 cups) in a wash that has a total volume of about 22 L. You'll need some nutrients for your yeast ... I see you added 5 tsp of ""booster"" ... I'm assuming that's a standard DAP + urea energizer ... which sounds about right. For a 22 L wash, you can add about 1/8 tsp of epsom salt (to provide some magnesium).

But if you're just getting started, you should really stick to a tried and true recipe. Most of the tried and true recipes are very forgiving, and if you have any problems there are many folks who are familiar with them, so you'll always be able to get help if needed. Try a gerber, an all bran or a Birdwatcher's recipe.

Make sure you aerate your wash. You can do this by pouring the wash back and forth between two sanitized fermenting buckets for a few minutes. Don't pitch your yeast until the temperature of the wash falls into the range recommended by the yeast supplier, otherwise you may just kill them. At best, you'll shock them and they'll produce more of the stuff you don't want to drink. If you want to use an energizer, add half before you pitch, then add the other half a few days later. And keep your fermentation temperature around 72 F. It might take a bit longer to finish, but you'll get a cleaner wash (less of the bad stuff).

In the mean time, if you have another carboy, you might want to consider splitting your wash in half, then diluting to get the gravity down. If the yeast don't kick off after that, you can try repitching.

Regards,
--JB"

that is about 15 pounds of white sugar and in a 6 gallon batch of water should give a potential alcohol of almost 13%

If I do need to repitch can I use bakers yeast? When I first used wine yeast?

where are you getting it for that price ?

WineCalc says 10 lbs sugar in 6 gal = 20% with a starting sg of 1.080

10lbs of sugar in 6 US gallons would give a potential alcohol of approximately 11.7%

"Go ahead and add the yeast ... 3 - 4 tbs should be fine.

I'm a little confused by your numbers though: 23L
1.080 ... what does the first carboy have in it?"

"Sounds like you had some success!

Get yourself a proof and traile hydrometer so you can measure & know what you need to dilute to drinking strength. Also, for your safety, you should check your water distiller for plastic parts, etc. and replace them with something alcohol tolerant.

Congrats!
--JB"