Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Backset is the acidic leftover liquid in the still after you have run it. We use it for PH and some flavour, if you pull it straight from the still while it is hot, it is also good for melting sugar and softening ingredients / grain etc.

If you are doing a 20L wash it is calling for 4L of the backset plus the ingredients and fill the remainder with water.

The slurry in the bottom is trub and is made up of mostly yeast. If you are wanting to reuse this you will need to use a 2nd bucket to keep it separate until the wash is cool enough not to kill it. After 5 or so generations you will likely need to repitch new stuff anyway.

The other option (which i do) is to add the hot backset to the fermenter and add new yeast once it has cooled. The dead yeast will become nutrients for the new stuff. Yeast is cheap.

HI

Thanks for the info about Backset and trub - much appriciated info ,
its not that i want to use either but i read all this post about weetabix wash and seems many people use the generation or backset back in the fermenter -
as you say yeast is cheap as well as most ingredients so whats the main benifit of using it ? Just flavour or does it ferment better ? i like to recycle and reuse everything if i can so also saves water i guess .
Thanks Big rig

Put simply, yeast prefers an acidic environment, you need to add sugar to the wash and Yeast nutrient is always a good thing.

Using hot backset straight on to the sugar & trub you are ticking all the boxes at once and saving time and energy on heating water.

And the second gen can turn out very nicely indeed.

Hi.
I’m still quite a noob at this art
Hope this is the right forum for my question
Does this recipe come out reasonably dry from a VM reflux still?

I’m finding that the TPW wash is a little too sweet when using essences to make whisky
It’s ok for bourbon but too sweet for whiskey

Any help tips appreciated

JustChilln wrote:Hi.
I’m still quite a noob at this art
Hope this is the right forum for my question
Does this recipe come out reasonably dry from a VM reflux still?

I’m finding that the TPW wash is a little too sweet when using essences to make whisky
It’s ok for bourbon but too sweet for whiskey

Any help tips appreciated

Hey mate, yes this will be drier / less sweet than the tpw. Will have a nice subtle wheat flavour

:text-+1:

Thanks guys
I appreciate the help
I’m building a pot attachment for my boiler atm and intend to use it to do stripping runs then do a spirit run in the reflux
I’ll post results as they go
Cheers

I’m brand new to distilling. I have an air still pro. Xmas pressie to myself.
Is this wash ok for this machine ?
Can this be put through the reflux mode?
Or do I have to put it through the pot still mode and take cuts ?

Yes. An air still is a pot still. Any flavoured wash will be good. Although, through an air still, this will be a whiskey not a vodka.

You may be better off with bwko or rum though...or one of the numerous cereal washs..

Hello Krisy
How about you pop into the welcome centre and tell us a little about your gear and what you are hoping to make.
I love the WBAB wash and I found I got the best results by simply stripping the wash in an airstill and then re running everything when I had a 4 litres of low wines. And I took cuts from this run although it takes a lot longer for that run.

Krisy wrote:I’m brand new to distilling. I have an air still pro. Xmas pressie to myself.
Is this wash ok for this machine ?
Can this be put through the reflux mode?
Or do I have to put it through the pot still mode and take cuts ?

If your aiming to carry flavor through the distillation (think rum, whisky, etc) then use pot mode.
If your aiming for low flavour and you treated yourself to the reflux head then do that. My only hesitation would be fear of boil over.

Air stills can puke and I'm not sure how much fun that will be cleaning out of the head. Maybe start only 2/3 full and adjust as you get to know how it behaves.

Hi all ,
I have been Turbo washes for about 3 years now .
Came across this recipe after googling distilling .
I put my first WBAB wash down 7 days ago and it is still bubbling , about 1 bubble every now and then .
I have read through this discussion but still have some questions regarding new generations .
If i reuse the trub do i leave it in the fermenter and add the new ingredients on top ?
Or do i take it out and add it after all the new ingredients go in ?
I have a standard Airstill , not the Airstill Pro , so i know this is a pot still.
With the Turbo washes i run 4 litres at a time , take the first 50 mls off then collect 700mls , then dump the rest ,
With the WBAB wash , is everything left after 700 mls classed as backset ?
How much of this would be added to a WBAB new generation wash and when is it added ?
Looking for ward to trying the wash , it smells great .
Regards ,
Bucket
:-B

Hello Bucket
Welcome to the Forum.
I have just run my first WBAB through a reflux still to get a very clean neutral spirit.
Using the neutral spirits, i've just done my first Odin's easy Gin through the Air Still last night. (it tastes awesome).

My question to you is, are you wanting to make rums/whiskey with the WBAB wash, or are you wanting clean neutral spirits for Gin (or something like that).

My reading of the recipe (and please forgive me, i am new too) is more flavours come with using backset into the next wash. But to answer your question of 'when' to add, it would be once the backset has cooled to below 30 degrees. (to not kill the yeast left in the fermenter).

Personally, I am planning to clean out the fermenters and start a new batch each time - as I desire a clean wash for neutral spirits.

I am guessing in this "chasing the craft" of home distilling, there are a lot of choices to make, based on what end product you are trying to achieve.

WoodyD40
Thanks for that .
I would be looking at making a Whiskey i guess.
I still have 2 fermenters full of Turbo wash for neutral ..
I was wondering for Whiskey if i only take the first 700mls as is normal for the Airstill .
Cheers,
Bucket .

Hi Bucket

With your Air still - i think you run the full 4 litres and do a stripping run - collecting everything (no discarding) - probably end up with close to 850 ml to 1 litre.
This I've learnt is called "low wines"'.
Once you have done enough of the "low wines" to run through the still for a second time (watered down to 40ABV), then you do a "Spirit run" where you discard the first bit (fore shots), then start collecting in 100ml increments in small jars - for the remainder of the run.

Taste test the jars at the end of the run - discarding the stuff from the beginning (heads - will be a bit "off") keep the middle jars (the nice tasting hearts), and the final jars which will be "Tails" start to taste off again (which can also be discarded).

Then you will have some great spirit for your whiskey.

Thanks again Woody
I have since found a PDF flow chart over in the pot still section .
I downloaded it but can't find it again on here to share .
It basically describes what you said in your above post .
Cheers,
Bucket .

HI again Bucket ... where are you from by the way?

I learned from experience that doing runs from a 30 litre fermenter, takes a lot of runs and time through the Air Still - it took me 3 hours from start to finish each run (with a 4 litre run). :angry-banghead:
It was interesting doing that for the first time, then repeating with the 30 litre fermenter until it was empty. :oops:

2 weeks later I went out and bought my reflux still :laughing-rolling: and I also set up a nice little enclosed space in my garage for the new still to live (wife did not want that in the kitchen for some reason) 8-}
I managed to get some shelves etc set up for all the empty 4 and 5 litre glass bottles, and ingredients for fermentations etc to live. I have not set up photobucket yet, otherwise i'd be sharing lots of piccys of the setup.

Woody
Yeah , i figured out it is going to take a long time with the Airstill .
I am from the Gympie , QLD area .
Cheers,
Greg

You don’t need photobucket , just upload directly to the site