Pot still design

[bt1]

CD,

this is exciting...it's like re living my first brews again...love the questions cos they're all valid and logical...wd

Just a few things....

Kimbo has offered a still...very kind ..

If under the pump for time you could just put 10lt or so of wash into a stock pot and gentle biol it for an hour or so to get the backset to start gen 2. Using 3 -4 lts per fermenter of the hot backset you've made in effect use it to invert your sugar....saves power and time.

Citric acid to invert the sugars which you pre cook together until it turns a nice light straw colour needs to be balanced off with 1/5 handfull of gypsum placed in in each fermenter...balances off PH. I use 1/2 lemon instead to invert sugars cos I've got them hanging around.

I use about 1/6 of a can of the red can Lowan bakers yeast. Sprinkle on top of a well circulating stirred wash let sit for 15 mins until it all gets moist. Then stir it all in to the wash using the top 1/4 of a spoon cos it sticks like shit, then immerse whole spoon to wash off the bits stuck to spoon and wash off bits stuck to side of fermenter.

Let it root/multiply for 30 mins more, it foams up and increases in size then stir that back in again. Yeast should be well dispersed and quantity of yeast several times larger than when you started. Pop the lid on heater in or on whatever, dial her into to 32C let it rip for a week. Can run upto 34c no worries with lowan will complete in a week. At 26C it takes two weeks nearly so you can adjust to suit your free weekends. pop a couple of old windcheeaters over the fermenter or old coat to keep it nice and snug.

On the finishing of fermenter point...When a lowan yeast finishes it turns from a nice cream coloured consistant wash and drops out the yeast and the wash starts to clear. It appears to darken up as it clears, but really only has no yeast etc in it as it settles. Turn the heat source off cos it's done. A good day or two in this settled state is a good thing as you take a "cleaner" wash into your still.

If you get cracked corn and most places have it, pop the corn into a bucket first and hand wash it once or twice by hand in a 2lts of fresh water ...get the shit out of it. If you cant get cracked corn 1 bag of frozen corn from super market whilst not cheap will do until you find a supplier.

well let us know how you go...keep up the reports cos its fun reading Enjoy!

bt1

[Cane Toad]

Fuckin great post bt1 :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[cdbrown]

I will be in touch with Kimbo and will be listening very carefully when he explains how to use it. That is of course if he's willing to part with it for a short time.

So this gypsum you are talking about - I have gypsum salt for brewing - calcium sulhpate - is this the same stuff you mention. 1/5 handful would probably be a tblsp of the stuff.

The temp is what I'm concerned about - I don't think my aquarium heater has enough guts to get the temp above 30, but I've got some old hot water bottles around that may get some use in the evenings for the fermenter to snuggle up to.

About to head off and get some stuff from feed place (grains) and shop (sugar, citric, yeast) and might look at a cheap heating pad or a bigger aquarium heater.

[bt1]

Blokes,

gypsum is the mineral stuff they put on lawns etc to break down clay/ tough soils. not sure on chemical side c/f with what you have.

It's cheap 5kg bag is about $4 and 5kg will last you about 10+ years. Garden supplies or Bunnings is the go for this stuff.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum

On the heater point i use 2 x 30lt fermenters and 55watt imersion aquirium heaters . It's more than adequate for 8 months of the year but in winter the 55 Watters are maxed out...more windcheaters and it slows to a two week ferment...fine cos the weather late winter is shit anyway and stillin every weekend in winter is a pain...

cheers

[Cane Toad]

Or you could always smuggle one of the war departments electric blankets out to the shed :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Kimbo]

I will be in touch with Kimbo and will be listening very carefully when he explains how to use it. That is of course if he's willing to part with it for a short time.

So this gypsum you are talking about - I have gypsum salt for brewing - calcium sulhpate - is this the same stuff you mention. 1/5 handful would probably be a tblsp of the stuff.

The temp is what I'm concerned about - I don't think my aquarium heater has enough guts to get the temp above 30, but I've got some old hot water bottles around that may get some use in the evenings for the fermenter to snuggle up to.

About to head off and get some stuff from feed place (grains) and shop (sugar, citric, yeast) and might look at a cheap heating pad or a bigger aquarium heater.

Mate, siphon off your wash, add some water to the lees to keep the yeast happy.
bring your wash over here and i'll give you a tute ;-)
you can then take it home for a couple of weeks till you build your own :handgestures-thumbupleft:
If i need a still, I'll go down to Mac's :D
Oh! and bring something to collect in :-D

[Cane Toad]

And a slab :handgestures-thumbupleft: :teasing-tease:

[cdbrown]

Back with
25kg wheat
40kg flaked barley
25kg gristed maize (aka cracked corn)
9kg sugar
2 containers of yeast (last ones on the shelf hidden behind the other stuff)
1 container of citric

Bit of shed tidy up is required before I get to boiling up some water and brew this stuff.

[Kimbo]

:dance: Yeah Baby, your on your way now :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Cane Toad]

Hey CDB,you're gunna need a plenty big fermenter,and about another 100kgs of the sweet stuff to get that all happening :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: Or are you putting it all into a 1000l cube :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[SBB]

If you get cracked corn and most places have it, pop the corn into a bucket first and hand wash it once or twice by hand in a 2lts of fresh water ...get the shit out of it.

Most of it just floats to the top anyway....easy to scoop out with a kitchen type sieve.....I leave it there.....it just adds flavour :))

Back with
25kg wheat
40kg flaked barley
25kg gristed maize (aka cracked corn)
9kg sugar
2 containers of yeast (last ones on the shelf hidden behind the other stuff)
1 container of citric

Christ that lots gunna last awhile.......maybe BD will sell you half a ute load of sugar

[bt1]

Yep SBB

That's a grain bill for a year right there

Better seal it up in yard type garbage bin liners to keep them pesky weevils at bay

...wonder how they taste , garlic, butter, a few shallots?

[bt1]

CD,

Where's our community update on ur first brew up? we're hanging out for it. We want all the details too, the scalds, dropped utensils the lot

btw we've not done the condenser post yet let me know when ur keen.

cheers
bt1

[cdbrown]

Well put the grains and sugar into the just boiled water, let it cool and dumped it into the fermenter topping up with water to 25L mark (scaled the grains and sugar back). Figured the weather was cool so wouldn't take long to drop the temp - wrong. Wasn't till about 9 last night that it was cool enough to put in the yeast. Thankfully had some frozen bottles to help bring the temp down. Sitting at about 32 this morning and constant sound of bubbling so somethings working!

Need a better way to chill the hot stuff down in the future. Probably should have put the pot into the laundry sink - but didn't think of that at the time! :angry-banghead:

[bt1]

Sounds like a long day.

But hey your off and running.

I use the hot backset from still to do sugars and grains keeping hot volume as low as i can. I stand the pot in the sink to adjust temp if needed but a smaller volume in approx 20+lt tap temp water seems to pan out to about 35-38c

Don't forget to seal up ur bulk gains in some tough heavy duty garbage bags at least, or air tight containers preferably to to keep those bastard weevils out.

Well sit back relax your a veteran now! :-D

cheers
bt1

[cdbrown]

I've got it sitting inside a good esky which is insulating it well. Seems to be sitting around 30-32 without having to provide any heat. I went in and saw Roy at TWOC on the weekend and bought an alcometer and while there picked up a heat belt which will come in handy with the wash or brewing. Everytime I open the esky I keep thinking there's water leaking or something, then I notice all the bubbles rising in the wash - damn thing sound like someone thrown an everlasting berocca tablet in there!

So when I get around to stripping the wash I'm guessing I'll need to syphon it as the level of grains are above the tap height - I'll probably get about 18-20L out. How many jars or bottles would you think I'd need for the strip run? I've got quite a few macconna and nescafe jars but storing bigger than that I might need to look at demijohns. Recommendations?

I've seen mice in the shed and had a hole chewed into a sack of pale ale malt before so rains will be going in heavy duty plastic bags and will get one of them into a 60L fermenter when the black ipa is kegged. Might get another in if I can sort out the brewing bulk grains a bit better.

Off to buy a McStill parrot from The Pope!

[Kimbo]

Hi CD, if you strip down to 20%, you'll get around 5L

[bt1]

hello CD,

all sounds normal so far... good work!

The Maconna and Nescafe jars put the lids aside cos u don't want spirit sitting in soft plastic lidded jars, but for stripping tubbed up, all good i reckon.

With temp a Lowan yeast will hold it temp for approx 1.5 - 2 days after that temp starts to drop as yeast "rush" settles. May pay to check temps past that. A gentle stir Thursday ish, some folk don't support opening or stirring, but I ve never had issue...dam i don't even use air locks?

Demijohns ain't cheap imho...take a look at discount homewares shops...I went to Reject Shops ...you'll pick up 5 lt cookie / Mason jars with removal rubber seals(throw these) and wire tie down lids for about $5...that's about 1/5 the price of demijohns per lt.

Plenty in WA
http://www.rejectshop.com.au/stores/index.php#

cheers
bt1

[Sam.]

I tried using the big moccona coffee jars but they are a real pain in the arse to pour out of and I have wasting spirit :angry-banghead:

I now use the V8 juice jars the big ones are 1.5L and are great to pour from. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[cdbrown]

Will be heading to the reject store during lunch as there's one in the city. We do have some cheap stores like that at the local shops so will hit them up on the weekend.

You were right about it slowing down and temp dropping. Checked this morning and it had dropped down to 28C so turned on the heat belt for a while. As I was leaving for work I turned it off so hopefully it's provided a bit of extra heat. Didn't want to leave it on all day and end up cooking the wash. If only the STC-1000 that I ordered had arrived and I'd have the temp sorted.

The local plumber is going to drop around his old man's pot still and reflux column for use, so thanks for the offer kimbo :handgestures-thumbupleft: At least this way I can do my first run at home and not get grief from the missus for spending that time at kimbo's place.