Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Anyways, reading up on other sites, and some users stick a tblspoon/25l of bicarb in their low wines (NOT THE WASH!) to get rid of esters and apparently it also helps compress heads etc. There is a safety concern about raising the ph level and its interactions with copper. Just wondering if anybody on here does it and is it considered safe?

does this help you out?

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2792

Yep I've used it in the past with vodka. It's more than safe and is sound science behind the chemical reaction that occurs. The pH problem is that ammonia can be created in the low wines, but this is a widely covered topic which you can read up on and be able to control/avoid :smile:

The vodka I made with it was always great, but it would've been great without it. Maybe I'll try again with my new rig and see if there's any difference between a batch done without bicarb. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I tried it once and didn't see any great improvement so have never bothered since.

Having said that I never did a side by side test keeping all other variables the same (which would be pretty damn hard anyway) :handgestures-thumbupleft:

cheers thanx guys. I've had a couple of tpw washes that seem to have stalled and added a bit more yeast so i figure that i could probably do with a bit of a cleanup before my final run. Anything to improve the quality without worrying about safety. :D

icewind wrote:cheers thanx guys. I've had a couple of tpw washes that seem to have stalled and added a bit more yeast so i figure that i could probably do with a bit of a cleanup before my final run. Anything to improve the quality without worrying about safety. :D

I would try to get the ferments finishing properly first, that will help with your quality before trying to band aid with other things ;-)

sam_and_liv wrote:

icewind wrote:cheers thanx guys. I've had a couple of tpw washes that seem to have stalled and added a bit more yeast so i figure that i could probably do with a bit of a cleanup before my final run. Anything to improve the quality without worrying about safety. :D

I would try to get the ferments finishing properly first, that will help with your quality before trying to band aid with other things ;-)

:text-+1:

yeh i know. most of my tpw batches don't have the issue now that I make sure the yeast is rehydrated before pitching.