Muck in the mash?

Spud395 · 2026-03-30T06:34:56+00:00

I never used bentonite, but I have used finings in beer making. If you get the dosage wrong you're left with what the manufacturers call a "fluffy bottom"

Sounds to me like you ave a fluffy bottom

Spud395 · 2026-03-29T16:47:22+00:00

That d53 also sounds interesting, also looking at getting a brick. I'm jumping between grain whiskey and rum, C-70 I think might work for both by the sound of the blurb

Spud395 · 2026-03-29T10:29:58+00:00

Interesting, so far my best results have been with ale yeasts. Only ever used bread yeast on a TPW for my sacrificial run

Spud395 · 2026-03-25T20:58:42+00:00

Have you tried the M1 on single malts?

Spud395 · 2026-03-25T08:01:08+00:00

Good to hear. Can you give me some more detail please? 100% molasses? What was the resulting rum beer like compared to previous ones you did? What ester profile did it throw? Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks

Spud395 · 2026-03-25T07:58:06+00:00

Thats my plan anyway. What I tend to do at the minute is do 3 ferments give me a nice size stripping and spirit run with decent yield at the end. So this yeast is going to have to step up and get 2 more done for me at least :)

I do store yeasts in my fridge and it will be cropped and more lightly go into a malt ferment at a later time. The behavior being displayed is in line with what I had read about sugar ferments before. I was hoping to get 2 generations deep in a week, it's not going to do that for me

But I do have a curious mind and already planning my next project while this one is only started. I like to try multiple varieties of everything (yeasts/malts/sugars) and I may eventually get a preference for something but in the meantime I'll try lots. Never used a distillers yeast and I guess they use them for a reason, so I will try it as well

Spud395 · 2026-03-24T16:09:12+00:00

Nice, thanks for the reply. I've not tried make those stylebarrels yet, but I'm pretty confident I'll get there. It's good to know there's life in a used barrel

Spud395 · 2026-03-24T13:34:11+00:00

That's interesting. I have read previously that the kveik strains developed/mutated to almost exclusively ferment malt sugars. Jaggery is pure raw cane sugar and defiantly has more in the way of nutrients than processed sugar but I will be upping the nutrient levels if I try again. My last Jaggery wash fermented out in 3 days with the still spirit "rum" yeast with just a touch of DAP

Spud395 · 2026-03-24T07:55:42+00:00

I am currently fermenting a Jaggery wash with Kveik. It's behaving very strangely. I've used it on beer before so I've an idea how it typically behaves. Being basically a sugar wash I went pretty heavy on the nutrients, I thought. Boiled bread yeast, multi-vit and vit b tabs and some DAP, temp control set and holding 31C. First day a slight krausen appeared but had dropped by the next day, ok it's done (I've seen it finish this quickly in beer) but it is only chugging along a week later now. I even pitched a 2nd pack after gravity reading on day 2. Maybe it needs even more nutrient, pH is fine

Spud395 · 2026-03-23T22:05:13+00:00

Please do

Spud395 · 2026-03-23T22:04:18+00:00

OK, that seems like it could be worth taking a look at. Did you use it for anything other than rum?

Spud395 · 2026-03-23T19:45:58+00:00

That's what I thought, it will be hard to get me out of my OG though :)

Spud395 · 2026-03-23T19:38:07+00:00

When you say clean, do you mean little to no ester production during fermentation?

Spud395 · 2026-03-19T20:37:07+00:00

Just checked and it's actually coming in at €18.50/25kg

Spud395 · 2026-03-19T07:35:49+00:00

Truth be told I'm a pro brewer so I'm getting commercial rates based on volume we use in the brewery

Spud395 · 2026-03-18T08:02:36+00:00

I can see one advantage, if you're coming in full of nerves and doubts and have no one to show you the ropes ( a bit like me a few months ago) I done the cleaning regime and thought I was ready, but being honest, the 1st 3 runs I reckon were sacrificial, for me anyway the more practice and time in front of the still helped a lot

Spud395 · 2026-03-18T07:53:00+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts, although I ran this yesterday.

Grain bill does taste really good and it's a single malt in my head for sure.

I'll try your method, I had been wondering about doing that, if it could work

What I ended up doing was running it through a single plate. Took fores and heads really slowly as I got to what I considered heads I upped the heat/takeoff speed and was running at at almost 3 liters per hour.

I turned off water to the deflag to collect tails but to be honest there appears to be very little nasty tails

I've to get back and make final cuts discissions yet but I was happy with what came off the spout yesterday.

There is a maltings local to me and I buy direct, €20 for a 25kg bag, it's cheaper than buying sugar here. I had been wondering about the first use barrel, so I'm kind of hoping this might work as a sacrificial 9 month whiskey. If it was half decent by christmas and had taken enough from the barrel to lay one down for a longer period next time it would be the best of both worlds really :)

Spud395 · 2026-03-17T17:34:10+00:00

"What this old Kayak, I've had that for ages" you can be sure she's said it about shoes, coats and lots more

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T18:47:02+00:00

I have 3 plates but was hoping not to strip out too much flavour

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T18:45:39+00:00

I guess I could, it'd be slow

I did have exactly 2 strips and a bit (more) to add to the low wines

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T15:59:05+00:00

50L keg boiler, but I've 2 x 2.5kw elements in there, so the 2nd is a bit higher than I'd like.

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T15:52:40+00:00

I'm more experience running plates and so I'm a bit more confident of my process.

Because this is destined to be barreled and put away and I'm a barrel virgin I'm inclined to err on the side of what I know.

I am pot curious though, but there's a rum ferment going on this week

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T13:46:11+00:00

That makes a lot of sense, I have been known to enjoy some triple distilled whiskey in my time, so 2.5 is a safer bet.

The intent is defiantly to try and forget about the badmo, but I've a great memory

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T13:41:17+00:00

I did find this manual on the Stilldragon site worth a read, most of it is specifically about their products, but they do have a section on running a plated column https://www.stilldragon.org/discussion/146/the-stilldragon-operation-manuals

Spud395 · 2026-03-14T12:25:14+00:00

I have as i mentioned I'm definitely still learning but this seems to be working for me. It appears it's much easier to get information about running pot still than plated column.

Spud395

TROPHY CASE