When To Use a Wash.

[Divey]

Okay, being a brand newie here, what is TPW I'm interested to know. I am assuming it is a wash of some description. :!:

I have two fermenters at the moment that each have 6.25kg of Dextrose dissolved in water that made up 23 litres in total and I have had then sitting on a heating pad and they have been running at 27°C, I pitched both of these with a full packet of Still Spirits Turbo Classic yeast. Fermentation is nearly complete now. I have not taken a gravity reading as yet but I can do if required. I pitched the yeast 3 days ago and the fermentation process has been extremely rapid considering that I am used to brewing ferments.

Being a brewer, I usually place my fermenters into a chest freezer with a temp. controller and run the beer at 0°C for a few days to crash the yeast before kegging. Is this a process that I can do with the dextrose wash or not. Or, can I run the wash off the yeast now and begin distilling. :?:

Is it necessary to run any finnings in this wash before I go ahead and distill it :?:

Sorry, but I'm probably going to ask some questions that may seem simple to a few but bloody difficult for me. :smile:

I need help and lot's of it.

[Panda]

Welcome.

TPW (tomato paste wash) is a wash you can do that replaces the dextrose and turbo yeast wash the brew shops tell you to do

It uses white sugar, bakers yeast from woolworths and tomato paste ( like the Legoss stuff you put on a pizza base) for nutrients. There are others but this one is very easy and gives a far better and far cheaper product then turbo yeasts.

[Panda]

The wash you are doing doesn't need much love. You just pitch the yeast, does its thing for a few days then will take a few more days for all the shit to settle to the bottom leaving a yellowish tinged (or maybe clear with dextrose) cleared wash ready to tip into the still

[Divey]

Welcome.

TPW (tomato paste wash) is a wash you can do that replaces the dextrose and turbo yeast wash the brew shops tell you to do

It uses white sugar, bakers yeast from woolworths and tomato paste ( like the Legoss stuff you put on a pizza base) for nutrients. There are others but this one is very easy and gives a far better and far cheaper product then turbo yeasts.

Tomato Paste........my god! That just does not sound right, anyway, shall give it a whirl and see how it goes.

[Divey]

The wash you are doing doesn't need much love. You just pitch the yeast, does its thing for a few days then will take a few more days for all the shit to settle to the bottom leaving a yellowish tinged (or maybe clear with dextrose) cleared wash ready to tip into the still

Do you think it would be beneficial to crash cool it so the rubbish settles quicker :?:

[law-of-ohms]

When I started like most people, I ran turbo yeats.

Then I read about this TPW (tomatoe pate wash) thingy, So i did an experiment, 10+ pails of 25L, each different turbo (major brands), marmite wash, and two tomatoe paste wash's.

Marmite = slow
Alchotec 48 the best turbo but costs$$ and tastes yuk.
Tomato paste wash took 24hrs longer then alchotec 48, taste = good :-), about $3.00 instead of $10 for a turbo.

[Panda]

The wash you are doing doesn't need much love. You just pitch the yeast, does its thing for a few days then will take a few more days for all the shit to settle to the bottom leaving a yellowish tinged (or maybe clear with dextrose) cleared wash ready to tip into the still

Do you think it would be beneficial to crash cool it so the rubbish settles quicker :?:

Some of the more knowledgeable guys will be online this evening. They will be able to give some good insight on this

[crow]

Do you think it would be beneficial to crash cool it so the rubbish settles quicker :?:

Why not try it both ways and post what difference it makes :D . If it clear faster and better a lot of ppl might try it

[SBB]

Do you think it would be beneficial to crash cool it so the rubbish settles quicker

Cant say if its beneficial or not, but most people just let it sit for a few days to a few weeks once fermentation has finished, it clears up well on its own without help.

[Cane Toad]

When I did my first TPW it sat for about 6 weeks before I ran it,as with all my washes,they can sit for 6 days to 3 months under an airlock,just depends on how busy I am :angry-banghead:

[bt1]

+1 SBB,

The only variation i use is to turn the heat off and in winter let the fermeters with newly added airlocks(don't brew with airlocks) sit for 1.5 days to let it settle.
The yeast will drop of on its own so depending on wash type you'll end up witha slightly soft dull red for TPW with no suspended solids. Past 1 day for settling I've never noticed a wash "clear" more.

I understand Dex from a beer background but it really is overkill in terms of costs. Unlike beers there no noticable taste or other known advantage....it's boiled later so no gain. Plain table sugar Inverted(an acidic chemical conversion process...check threads) is far more cost effective. Coles current in2kg packs=$1.10 per kg.
Secondly, 6.25kg dex is a hefty amount. It's about = to 5.5kg sugar in 23lt Once sugar concentrations push past about 250g/lt your asking a lot of a standard yeast. You see it as slower ferments, longer run times or failed starts. A specialist yeast, sure some are designed for 380+g/Lt. The other advantage of specialist yeast include improved flavour profiles, higher alchol tolerances, wider pH range, lower or specific run temps, faster completion times and they're tailored for normal table sugar negating the need to invert in some cases.

In rough terms what your spending on Turbos would be more than normal total cost for 2 washes.
Even a half decent bakers yeast like Lowan Instant will give you the same brew times rouglhy, at a fraction of the cost...say 6 washes for <$5 per tin. Added advantage here is as you drop the temp you can time your washes to finish in a week, 2 weeks so it fits in with your free time to distill.

On the questions you have ...ask...simply ask there's no dumb questions here and there's a lot of bored experienced hands (self included I guess) who get a kick out helping out. One of the best feelings (other than sharing a glass of your own with a mate) is seeing the penny drop for a new user...it's a nice feel.


cheers
bt1

[Divey]

Brilliant information, I'm liking this place already. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[amaizing]

The only variation i use is to turn the heat off and in winter let the fermeters with newly added airlocks(don't brew with airlocks)

why shouldnt you use airlocks?

[Divey]

I've carried out a little experiment. :D

After taking a specific gravity reading which showed that both washes were down to 1.000, I placed one fermenter into my chest freezer and have it sitting at 0 degrees C, the other I have left at ambient temperature just to see the difference in clearing.

I shall report back. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[cdbrown]

Would they not both finish lower than 1? I thought it would go down another 10 points or more - but I'm just guessing.

[grehund]

You're right cdbrown, the SG needs to drop down to somewhere between 0.990 and 0.995 before it goes into the boiler. I think Divey is testing to see if the wash clears better in the chest freezer as opposed to ambient temps. Much like putting a yeast cake mixture into the freezer to rack it quicker.