How do you know if your wash is full of CO2? Avoid puking in your still by degassing it before you distill it. Highly recommended if you are using an Air Still, Alembic Pot Head or T500 Reflux Colum.
I actually don't degass my washes but there's a few reasons why. My still spirits wash is a bit different - I do 7 KG of standard shop sugar VS 6KG, topping up to 26L instead of 25L using the still spirits pure turbo yeast packs. I actually do this twice, putting one bucket at a time into two of the home bargain's 80L containers doubled up. Holds 52L-ish like a champ, lid on and cover with a fine cloth blanket, leave it for two weeks. At about the half way point and 11-12 days, I stir it. Rack that off back into the two buckets separately, add the clearing solution, then rack that off into another double 80L setup for a clear approx 48L-ish wash. You'd think that'd introduce a lot of air but it seems fine. Distillers conditioner and the ceramic saddles in the air still, I've had no difference between degassing and when I haven't. If I had more room Id get better containers like barrels and actually have room to move them about. But it works for me, air still 4L, 900ml results, top up to 1.2L and I have 40-42% alcohol. About 14L from the batch. My issue is finding filtering on the cheap. I use the flavourings so they don't have to be well filtered, but the lovebrewing "default" in the kit little tub thing with the small carbon cartridges is far too slow. I've been using Brita filters which have actually worked wonders but, should I really be spending 60-80 for the full carbon in line kit?
Hi Chris. This is what I love about brewing, we can do it so differently from each other, we can make it our own. As to filtering, I built my own Steel system using a 8 Liter pot and some 2" tri-clamp parts. It takes a little over 200 grams of loose activated carbon and it polishes the spirit very well. The activated carbon I buy from Love Brewing and is the cheapest carbon I have found and is very good quality. The filter system you got with your boiler sounds like the small filter that Still Spirits made for the Air Still. I had one and didn't like it either. I would highly recommend building you own. I hope to make a video soon showing how I built mine to give people ideas.
@@brewingadvice That would be great, the other DIY video you just released is the kind ofthing we need. I've been wanting to get into a proper setup recently but the £500+ cost including column etc have been putting me off, the more I can shave in the end, the more likely I am to go for it. It's not like it'll be more than a hobby or something I make money on so it's actually better hobby wise to have more DIY options rather than more costly ones.
I have two Air Stills @@ChrisSPCs & enjoyed using just them for 7+ years. I then got a T500 boiler with the T500 reflux column. Then the beginning of last year I got the Love Brewing boiler and the Alembic Pot and the Alembic condenser. Lastly beginning of this year I started to buy the parts to extend the T500 column to it rubs on the ceiling when standing on the floor. I now get 96%ABV which is the maximum you can get from a still. Sadly as you say it takes money. Love Brewing (and other suppliers) often do deals. You could get the T500 boiler and T500 column or the Love Brewing boiler and T500 column for £440 which would be all you need. Then over time you can save and upgrade to make it even better. Sadly £440 is also a lot of money when you already have an Air Still!
Just wait until you run across the problem I have , I did use turbo yeast to make a neutral spirit for the holidays and after 7 days and countless attempts to degas its still putting off carbon dioxide ! Used turbo carbon and degassed it 10 to12 times a day and that sucker is still putting off carbon dioxide , so much so that the wash wont clear . My starting gravity was 1.100 and its at zero now so its fermented that was 2 days ago and i did the iodine test to confirm, yet its still putting off co2 by the bucket fulls , its gotta degas sooner or later , i ordered a new carboy a 6.5 gallon one to try and poor it back and forth to see if that will help degas it ..usually my wash has already degassed and cleared by now but not this one .. any ideas
That does not sound fun. To be honest, if it is still producing CO2, I would just leave it as it clearly doesn't think it is ready. I only recently had a wash that took 31 days to finish as while I did keep it cool, it just wasn't ready. Don't rush it, while it may be taking longer than usual, keep taking SG readings and just leave it be. I personally would leave it for 7 days, then see how it is.
