low yield from weetbix wash & VM
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:35 pmMade up a wash in 200L barrel. 34kg raw sugar, 2/3 box of weetbix, some lemon juice yada yada fill it up etc. 2 2/3 tins lowan's baker's yeast, 28 degree fermentation for about 3 weeks down to around .994
I didn't take an initial gravity reading but hey 34kg is 34kg.
Ran about 4 stripping runs, so prob got around 175L. (no i didn't do alco reading on the low wines, usually my entire stripping run averages out at 40%.)
Finally got around to doing the spirit run and got around 10.5L before running into tails. (the rubbing alcohol smell). Sort of weird that the tails comes in so quickly, one minute its hearts smell, nek minute its tails. I'm presuming the VM compresses tails well?
I've taken everything from around 2.5L mark to the 10.5L, just before the tails came in. (it was the matter of a single bottle that brought the tails full on in).
That seems like a very low yield to me and i'm slightly confused. My vm setup is approx. 1.8m tall, with 1.4m packing, 1m s/steel scrubber and 40cm FSD copper mesh packing. 2" column with 1" offtake valve. Run at approx. 2000w most of the run. Ran the column for approx 1.5 hours equalising before taking off product.
The hearts are hearts, no smell after airing. My top thermometer got water damaged so I couldn't really tell the temp throughout the run, but I usually go by smell anyway (using 700ml tallies for cuts). Any ideas? Its essentially prob 6.5x25l washes worth of runs (taking into account waste, head space, trub left behind etc.), providing around 1200ml of 95% each (if you divide it all up with the 8L of spirit collected / 6.5 runs).
Anyway, hopefully my post isn't too confusing, its just weird how the tails seem to come in so quick and so early.
I didn't take an initial gravity reading but hey 34kg is 34kg.
Ran about 4 stripping runs, so prob got around 175L. (no i didn't do alco reading on the low wines, usually my entire stripping run averages out at 40%.)
Finally got around to doing the spirit run and got around 10.5L before running into tails. (the rubbing alcohol smell). Sort of weird that the tails comes in so quickly, one minute its hearts smell, nek minute its tails. I'm presuming the VM compresses tails well?
I've taken everything from around 2.5L mark to the 10.5L, just before the tails came in. (it was the matter of a single bottle that brought the tails full on in).
That seems like a very low yield to me and i'm slightly confused. My vm setup is approx. 1.8m tall, with 1.4m packing, 1m s/steel scrubber and 40cm FSD copper mesh packing. 2" column with 1" offtake valve. Run at approx. 2000w most of the run. Ran the column for approx 1.5 hours equalising before taking off product.
The hearts are hearts, no smell after airing. My top thermometer got water damaged so I couldn't really tell the temp throughout the run, but I usually go by smell anyway (using 700ml tallies for cuts). Any ideas? Its essentially prob 6.5x25l washes worth of runs (taking into account waste, head space, trub left behind etc.), providing around 1200ml of 95% each (if you divide it all up with the 8L of spirit collected / 6.5 runs).
Anyway, hopefully my post isn't too confusing, its just weird how the tails seem to come in so quick and so early.