stillwagon

I am moving my distillery to a new location, hopefully. I need someone on the Oregon Coast capable of visiting my site and interpreting the code requirements to see if it is possible to make sure compliant.

I keep my pH above 5 to keep a robust fermentation. When the pH drops below 4, it usually stalls. Temperature is maintained at 81f + or - 1 degree and it ferments out in 7 days. 85f in 5 days, 90f in 3 days. I don't ferment above 85 anymore, I don't care for the flavor.

It sounds like there are a number of issues. Molasses fermentations tend to crash pH causing it to stall. I buffer pH with calcium carbonate, and adjust with calcium hydroxide. I use a number of fermentation supplements to aid yeast growth and fermentation. I also control fermentation temperature. Warmer temps speed fermentation and if too warm, stress the yeast. Cooler temps stretch out the fermentation. What type of molasses do you use? I use a baking grade black strap. Some feed grades and agricultural grades don't ferment well, and produce off flavors. Some refined molasses are not much more than a can syrup, which needs yeast nutritional supplements. What type of yeast do you use? Do you add any fermentation supplements? Starting pH? Finish pH? Fermentation temperature? Second feeding is accompanied with additional yeast nutrients and pH adjustment. It will depend on what type of yeast you use, and if it can tolerate a slightly higher abv.

It should be around 10-15% after fermentation. I get about 45-48% after stripping, and about 80% after my finish run.

It was supposed to say cooling. Larger fermentations generate their own heat. I start at 20-22 brix, and do a second feeding at 30% sugar depletion.

If you have had previous success, you should repeat the process but measure your brix and pH at the beginning and at completion of fermentation. 12% is a good place to be at. Then scale up. Larger fermentations will require cooling.

I have been doing this for ten years now: Aeration and pH adjustment using calcium hydroxide. We balance to about 6.8. continue aeration and adjustment for a week or tow in the summer, several weeks in the winter. bacterial activity slows down when it is cooler. once pH stabilizes, then we pump 1/3 of that tank, (we call it the "treatment tank",) to the "dilution tank," where we add water to fill the tank 2:1. Then pH usually starts dropping again. We continue to monitor and balance pH until it is stable for at least a week, then water our forest area. Here you could make a deal with a farmer that would want to use it. They will need to balance their "fertilizer" with nitrogen and any other minerals etc to accommodate the crop needs.

It sounds like you are using the wrong hydrometer for the process. Turbo yeasts, which produce a mediocre product at best, are usually finished fermenting in two to three days, so 17 days is excessive. But, if it was tightly sealed, it should have been fine to distill once fermented as long as you had sanitized all equipment and vessels. If it fermented properly, the airlock should have been very active after 24 hours. If you plan on continuing with turbo yeast, sanitize all equipment and vessels and follow the directions on the package. you might want to study a bit more on the fermentation process in general, and specifically for cane sugar. Familiarize yourself with the different variables as well: pH, nutrients (usually not needed with turbo yeast), temperature, etc.

I age 4 years in a new, charred, American Oak barrel

Used barrels have given up pretty much what they had for color addition in their first use. Switch to a new barrel. Otherwise, caramel is your other choice.

You can send me your thoughts and questions to stillwagondistillery@yahoo.com. We can discuss it further.

Hi Doug, I am working with a non-profit to acquire a grant to build the full scale system that will process our spent wash, CO2, solid organic waste, and waste heat. In the mean time, we are building a 1/16 scale system for proof of concept and to work out some of the details until we acquire funding for the whole system. We have been developing the spent wash treatment for the last 5 years, and believe we have the system worked out, we simply have to prove it (we currently use part of the system to eliminate our spent wash.) It has been an adventure, but it will be great to close the loop and reclaim the water, and enjoy the benefits of what the entire system will produce: recycled water, CO2 consumption in the greenhouse, vanilla and ginger and other plant/vegetable production, fish, and soil amendments. It is pretty involved incorporating: anaerobic and aerobic bacterial fermentation, hydroponics, aquaponics, composting, vermiculture, biochar production and use, carbon filtration, sand filtration, ozone treatment, etc. If you want to visit more email me at stillwagondistillery@yahoo.com You might try aligning with a non-profit organization that has similar goals to acquire grants. I don't know how it is where you are, but here, it is much easier for a non-profit to get grant funding than a for profit. It requires a coalition of a non-profit, university, local government bodies, other organizations that are working together and must gain something from the efforts receiving the funding. I have a grant writer that seeks out the grants and puts together the proposals. I have to pull in all the other partners in the coalition, seek letters of support, etc.

Calcium carbonate doesn't raise pH much. I use it as a buffer to prevent a pH crash. Calcium hydroxide will effectively raise pH, but do it slowly as it is very reactive and you can overshoot quickly. I keep my pH above 4 to keep it active, fermentation is usually done in 5 -6 days at 80f. I would avoid the buffer solution. They usually don't work very well in my experience.

Academia.edu is one such site.

If you Google research on distillery spent wash treatment, you will get a large number of papers. To access some you will have to join some scholar paper networks. Most are free. I am not near my office for a while. But 2 minutes on Google and you will have a hundred hours worth of reading.