Total Newbie

[Mitcon]

Sweet, thank you. Will just throw them in a dark draw and forget about them, I'm good at that :oops:

[Mitcon]

Well getting excited now, picked up a 600L ibc today hoping that will be enough for cooling the little T500. It looks brand new lol, nice and I think my practice wash (turbo) it almost done already. Man they are fast, I thought maybe next Sunday at earliest :shock: , not sure if that's a good or bad thing lol.

I have a TPW going already also, it stalled the first night (was pretty cool) so I've now put heat pads under it keeping @30 degrees. Not a single bubble @ airlock but I think the twist lid or airlock grommet isn't sealing as the wash is fizzing/bubbling itself.

I wonder if those 25w magnetic pumps are any use for cooling duties as they as food safe and are heat rated, my only concern is I've set everything up in an elevated position so pump will need to get that water up window height to the still. Now it's only 2-3m head I need maybe but from what I've been reading a lot of fountain/pond pumps don't shift water upwards very well. Is it all like that or just some over rate their specs on head lead or do that mean head lead at a level plane and not pushing against gravity?

I'd like the pump as quiet as possible I guess, more powerful ones might be too noisy for the location. Getting very excited, it's getting close to me being able to try my first run :dance:

[RC Al]

If you can keep the cooling system "primed" you can get a lot more head out of most pumps, the head rating is vs gravity not circulating a sealed system

you may have to put some basic taps or valves on the return line (s) to stop the water from emptying when you finish and keep the return line well under the top of your tank

[Mitcon]

I'm wondering about the AP3000 pond pump from bunnies, got a 150mm opening on the IBC and those pond pumps might drop right in without cutting up the IBC. Just think it's head is 2.8, pretty sure for the T500 I'm not going to need much flow/psi, pretty small cooling lines/fitting on the T500. That'll be the greatest restriction, either that or maybe same kind of pump just even more powerful, have seen some on fleabay 140w with 7m head but you can never trust half the rated specs on things.

[Mitcon]

Well no idea on which pump to go with yet but am clearing the turdbo wash reading to run on sat/sun for my first trial. Hopefully I'll set up another tpw within a few days and roll on with those. Have one running already should be week 'n couple days it'll be good to run, think I need a couple more 30L fermenters to keep up with my habit :oops: .

My work area is set-up and 600L ibc in place ready 'n waiting, got 15L of filtered water ready (already got the idea into my thick skull no plastics for filtering booze. I'm not a fan of anything artificial or tablets etc, sorry maybe am a freak lol..... Wife is still here after 30+ years so something is workin, prolly the boooze :laughing-rolling:

Very excited about doing my first trial/cleaning run this weekend, jumped into way quicker than I was planing but bless my wife she's the best :happy-partydance: :teasing-tease:

Edit: credits (or blame lol) to M-in-law as well as wife :laughing-rolling: I thought I was 6 months to a year away yet, they're the ones who couldn't wait (or put up with me till then) :scared-eek:

[Mitcon]

Well had my first run today with the turbo wash black stuff, temp sat @ low to mid 40's most the time watching the drip...drip...trickle suggesting though eventually the temp rose trying to keep the drip..drip...trickle...... Once it reach high 70's I turned it off, was worried once it went over 65c.

I tossed about 180-200ml of foreshots, took 3 heads (150ml each) then I found it hard to tell difference in taste and took about 1.5L, then collected about another 1L roughly which I can't really taste much difference except it seems less bitey and more mellow to me if that makes any sense. I think I obviously besides being new and have no clue whatsoever lol have dead taste buds. Got it with tissues covering the bottles for a day etc and then will revisit.

Don't know if I'll drink this stuff, got a TPW working now on the side already. I must say it was just under 5 hours of production time and only seemed to have used about 4L of the mash, while I didn't think I'd use all of the final product I reckon at best if you drank it at best you get 6L once watered to drinking down and nothing like the 10L they suggest. If being fussy it'd be a lot less. I did forget to add 2-3 caps full of foaming agent, will use the olive oil trick with the TPW.

Was slow fun anyways, and a new experience. I most likely messed up the turbo-crud but I'm not really worried lol, any more tip/hints I'm all ears. least the still is cleaned run now :happy-partydance:

[RC Al]

It's mainly barley and rum washes that will foam up

If the tpw has settled for a few days and you do a long pour to agitate it as you fill (degassing) you will be fine, not need for the olive oil

[Ravvin]

When I do my TPW runs, I discard the first 150-200ml fores, then take 200ml cuts for the first 2 jars, then take 100ml cuts for jar 3 and 4, as so far this is right where the heads ended for me. I then take 200ml cuts until I get to jars 9 & 10, where I again do 100ml cuts as this is where the tails start for me. Then it's 200ml cuts to the end, where you saw the flow rate drop off and the temperature start to spike.
I originally did 200ml cuts right through, but when I realised that the heads and tails started at pretty much the same places each time, thought I would narrow it down a bit and in effect save an extra 100 to 200ml of hearts.
I also started airing it for 2 days, as I couldn't tell after only 1. I also found it hard to tell the difference between heads and hearts by only mixing 50/50 with water, so I mixed one teaspoon of neutral with 2 of water. It thins it down and makes it easier to taste the sweetness of the heads.
The tails become really easy to detect. Its not so much a taste or smell, more that you feel your tongue burn, as if you had eaten something with chilli and had a hot drink.
When you sort your TurboWash cuts, don't put the heads and tails in with your heads and tails from the TPW run. Keep them separate and I bet once you have a sniff of both, you will toss the TPW stuff or use it as cleaner. Its that noticeable.

One of the best things about the TPW is the clean up. As you will now know, that black crap in the TurboWash is a bugger to clean off. One of my fermentors still has a black band around the high tide line from it. I do get a faint pink line around the top of the fermenters, but it cleans off with hot water and a bit of a scrub.

I am currently trying a cornflake wash, just to see the difference in the finished neutral.
So far, I've noticed it smells a lot better, but I won't be able to drain it out the bottom tap, as the sediment layer is way above the outlet hole. I was told to put the cooked cornflake mash in a muslin bag in the fermenter, but didn't get the bag made in time. I'll just siphon and strain it when I run it.

One final thing I have found is that after making up a bottle with HBS flavouring, I need to let it sit 2 weeks at least, to let the flavours settle down. Things like rum, that are around 40%, I put in a larger bottle so there is some air space. Then I give it a shake each day and open the top for a sniff check. Haven't yet found a rum flavouring that I would bother making again. The Willards Honey Bourbon is pretty good though, even though I never really drank much bourbon before. With the liqueurs, the Top Shelf Marula is my favourite, and the Hazelnut Liqueur is pretty close to a Frangelico. My mum keeps asking for more of that one. :)
Make notes of what you try and what worked. With so many flavourings available, its easy to forget what you have tried before.

Greg.

[Mitcon]

Thanks for such detailed info Greg, awesome mate.
I could have done more cuts/smaller amounts but I had trouble testing any taste differences. But will keep trying, yeah even after one turbo wash I can see what you mean by the black carbon crud or whatever it is. I don't think I'll be buying those turbo washes (no offense to those that enjoy them) and it's not even a taste thing but more just I don't like the idea of chemicals and black nasty looking liquid.

Worries me though I'm certain it's safe but just not my cuppa, I already had a TPW down for a few days now and just after cleaning out the turbo ferment loaded up another TPW. There what I'm looking forward to, I'm sure they will live up to all I've read on them. I've got a small range of essence's to try already of varying types and am hoping to put a bit of oak barrel with them also. 4 or 5 different bourbon flavs few liqueurs, couple whiskey, a rum and can;t remember others off top o my head.

So when the temp started jumping around 65c that would be tails running and near end of run, have to remember that. :handgestures-thumbupleft: sweet, great tips.

[Mitcon]

Well while I'm happy with my T500 I just couldn't help myself when I saw some kegs for sale on gumtree @$35 and they already has the spear removed 8-} . They still had several kegs, I only grabbed the one as I'm not a greedy kinda guy. My first thought was it'd make a good smoker, least that's what I told the wife lol.

[benner]

any body use stainless steel 4 stranded woven or knitted zig zag corrugated 100mm wide 1 m long packing

[Professor Green]

any body use stainless steel 4 stranded woven or knitted zig zag corrugated 100mm wide 1 m long packing

Got any pics or links for that? Most folks use stainless scrubbers or copper mesh for packing. Some even use scoria.

[benner]

s-l1600.jpg

I use all the above and am about to try scoria.

[RC Al]

Stainless version of the copper mesh 5 star sells, consensus is that the copper is better as it dose the whole sulphide removal thing, some of that above scoria is good bang for buck https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/prod ... pper-mesh/
you may have to try a few different sizes of scoria to get good results out of a 2"

[benner]

It's similar but not the same, the ss version is knitted from 4-5 .1 mm strands plied and it's corrugated.
I also use copper mesh.

[benner]

I guess the zig zag corrugated woven/knitted from such fine wire (.1 mm loosely 5 plied) might-could compare with well scrubbers or maybe SPP.