In The Shed Today

[harold01]

I use to get a torch and shine it into the top you will see a shit load of tiny bubbles.

[hjubm2]

I use to get a torch and shine it into the top you will see a shit load of tiny bubbles.

This ferment was completely finished, no bubbles at all. Followed the instructions from Lallemand for their yeast & worked real well. They say it should ferment out within 48 hours but I left it an extra 3 days with no sign of life...

Decided to start pulling apart the old Archie Rose whiskey barrels I bought awhile back while distilling 160L of dodgy port... these barrels look like their going to make great small aging barrels :handgestures-thumbupleft:

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[harold01]

Distilling an Agave syrup wash atm. I was warned that Agave syrup can take awhile to ferment out, it ended up taking about 1.5 days to get down to a final gravity 1.003... if this is slow fermenting I'd hate to see what the fast fermenting stuff is like :laughing-rolling:

what was the SG

[hjubm2]

Not sure what the SG was as I followed advice & added the syrup in 3 seperate additions instead of all in one lot. Worked out to 4:1 water:agave syrup in the end though

[harold01]

have you run it yet

[harold01]

airlock is still gurgling away at 18 times a minute

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[hjubm2]

have you run it yet

Stripped it last week, gonna ferment/distill a few more batches then do a spirit run on a decent lot. Only doing small batches atm while I sort out the process...

Looking at your picture from earlier, are you using Bakers yeast? I used the DistilaMax TQ which is designed for agave, processes the fructose a lot better then bakes yeast would hence why mine fermented quicker. Also keep an eye on the PH & make sure you use heaps more nutrients then what you normally would (on recommendation from Lallemand I used about 1.6g/L off the top of my head).

I'm in the process of trying to import some Terpenes from the US to add to a ferment, meant to add to the flavour quite a lot...

[hjubm2]

Running about 100L of port today... got about 44L of low wines off the first 100L i stripped so not too bad yield so far... also starting another batch of barrels today, toasting some oak ready for the apple/black currant brandy & agave spirits...

[harold01]

the yeast is a brand called bakels which is an instant active dried

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[Puk]

Well, i am sitting in my shed with my laptop monitoring the drip-drip-dribble of my first ever Spirit run on my pot still.
After i had my boiler welded up i have run 3 x stripping runs of MacWhisky and today is the momentous day of my first spirit run.

I have finished work for the morning and it is now time to play. :)

I am half-way through the foreshots at the moment and am in for a pretty long afternoon of watching Kayo sports and trying hearts samples while not walking away from the still. I have lots of bottles lined up for cuts and am ever hopeful.

I hope everyone else is having a good day.
It's a toss-up whether molasses rum of Zac's CFW is going into the fermenters next. :)

Puk

[harold01]

congrats on your spirit run it is quite obvious that you need more fermenters so you don't have to torment yourself with difficult decisions

[Puk]

Sounds about right.
the torturous decisions come today when i taste and make cuts.

It's nice knowing that anything i reject isn't wasted, but goes into my mate's reflux still. :)

Puk

[harold01]

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just running some ag sugarhead, ended up with a couple of goons

[The Stig]

This arrived today.
AC/DC TIG, I see many cool winter days learning a new art, now if only the gas would arrive

[harold01]

and what might we be going to create with that

[The Stig]

No idea , just want to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks :laughing-rolling:
It’s really more about fixing pin holes etc , I’m always getting customers asking if we can add a port to a boiler or fix a pin hole in a parrot (not 5 Star) etc

[harold01]

value adding to the business and the owner, good asset

[Wellsy]

My aluminium Tinnie has plenty of pin holes if you want to practise :)

[Coastie]

This arrived today.
AC/DC TIG, I see many cool winter days learning a new art, now if only the gas would arrive

wanna weld some ferrles onto a keg for me :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:
Friend - Yeah ill weld up your boiler... 2 months later ... Crickets

[The Stig]

This arrived today.
AC/DC TIG, I see many cool winter days learning a new art, now if only the gas would arrive

wanna weld some ferrles onto a keg for me :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:
Friend - Yeah ill weld up your boiler... 2 months later ... Crickets

:laughing-rolling: