Fast Fermenting Molasses Wash

[jose]

Pint o
What do you charge your doubler mit.
Thanks

[apsynt]

fancy I'll give this a go. Though am having hard time finding cheap blackstrap molasses. RD1(NZ) sells 25L for $90 or 250L for $235. Do those seem more or less reasonable?

I wonder if i'll survive the wrath of the woman when a 250L drum shows up in our tiny garden

[kiwi]

way too much. $54 for 25 from CRT. Wrightson's is a bit more IIRC.

[big worm]

right at $11 us for a gallon here is that a good price? its light sweet louisana style what ever that means...priced some today

[pintoshine]

Yes that is what I am paying at the moment too. Big Worm.

I fill my double with water to catch more tails.

[big worm]

say pint if you would not begrudge a spoon feeding.....what exactly are your cut points for this one? how much in heads and tails you removeing from the run and how far down you running it to% wise? i'm not a rum drinker so i might have trouble cutting this stuff.

[pintoshine]

Well... Hmmm...
No issues with explaining my cuts.
First run I collect everything. Fresh wash no dunder.
The spirit run is usually a 45 to 50% charge. When it comes over with me running rather slow, it is up there around 82 to 85%.
Since I use the copper Appalachian style pot it should be similar to yours but a bit smaller. On my new hotplate it is right at 1400 watts.
The abv never really drops much before I get to the hearts so I have to test by tasting.
I have been doing something different lately. I had a case of cherry Seven-up left from a party. I use a shot glass and dilute about 1 tsp of rum off the condenser with 4 tsp of 7-up. I smell and taste this looking for the ethyl acetate. It is real easy to tell when it breaks because the cherry 7-up has a foul chemical taste when it is present. As soon as it tastes clean and sort of like vodka I start collecting hearts. Like I said the abv might still be up there around 82 -83%.
The abv will drop when it gets close to the tails. This is usually around 70%. It sits up there pretty flat for a long time. I usually don't sample but every 12 oz bottle through the hearts. The tails will come on pretty quick. There will be a point that will taste sort of like rum extract(candy flavor). Try not to go past that because the next part of the tails is pretty bad with that molasses wash taste. It took me several times to learn that rum extract flavor. My wife gave me a bottle to try and it was an excellent comparison.
That's about it. Oh for rum I have discontinued using the thumper for the spirit run. It was better without it.

[big worm]

that gives me a good head start, and i'll try the 7up thing as well as the extract...thanks
i have to wonder if i should make a hot plate for my copper still, i use a ultra small gas burnner as is because the copper just heats better than stainless.

[jose]

Hate to be a PITA but here goes.
Followed this recipe but used feed grade. Left town yesterday and shoved barrel out to garage as it was working hard.
This was after 12 hrs from starting. Got home 17:30 and was not working. Added more yeast and nothing. Moved back inside
and added 5# sugar and now working again.
Should I use more feed grade to make work correct?

As an aside, wife asked what was coming out of airlock? I said c02. She said EEEW pollution!
Laughing she said( good thing Algore is as dumb as he is or you all would be in big trouble!

Thanks

[mort4]

Jose, what kind of temperatures and specific gravities are we dealing with here?

[jose]

Thanks
I did not check start SG.
The garage was 55º F-+
The brew has stopped again @ 74ºF AND 1.40 SG.
Guess my molasses does not have much sugar?

[punkin]

You could try splitting some off and watering it down, see if it comes to life. It may well be done, though it usually gets lower than that.

It sounds really like a temperature problem though. Yeast seems to work better and quicker for our applications around the 30-34C mark in my experience. Also, mollasses washes can look like they ain't doing much after the initial frothing as they have tiny little bubbles and don't really fizz.

Take a reading each day to see if it changes and try to keep some heat in it.

[Harry]

Thanks
I did not check start SG.
The garage was 55º F-+
The brew has stopped again @ 74ºF AND 1.40 SG.
Guess my molasses does not have much sugar?

You guess correct. Suggest you keep feeding it sugar in diminishing doses until it quits working altogether. This is known as 'step-feeding', and it's a common traditional method of working with molasses. Forget about SG readings. Molasses is too viscous for them to be accurate. Bubble activity is more reliable. Keep track of how much rawsugar you add, & allow about 40% of your starting molasses weight as sugar also. Then you can estimate the alcohol you'll get back. It will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 45% by weight of your total sugar. The rest goes to CO2 gas (51%), yeast growth & some losses.

If you want a really good method for step feeding, an ancestor of mine handed down a recipe. It's on my Library site...
http://distillers.tastylime.net/library ... /index.htm

If you can't follow the old writing style, Tony ackland did a translation here...
http://homedistiller.org/wash-sugar.htm about 1/2 way down the page.

There's also a raft of info I and others have posted in several places over the years. This one has the translation and my notes. Pugidog re-posted it. I think he used it as the basis for his Pugirum...
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=4468

[jose]

Thank you Gentlemen.
You all have no idea how much I appreciate this help.
Jose'

[butt wheat]

Just started a 20L wash of this yesterday...This stuff takes off like a bottle rocket
The dang airlock looked like an airhose was running to it..Simply Amazing!!!