Home brew

Right, first batch stilled off and in the filter for the first pass.  Second batch in the still.  New wash in the fermenter and running.

 

The second wash is still burping away, will check it tomorrow night to see if it can be cleared.

Home brew

The first batch has been in the still for an hour now, and I’m just starting to get spirit!  WOO HOO!!!!

Finings

Right, the second stage of the finings is in.  Smells very beery.  Distillation tomorrow afternoon!

Home brew!

Very happy – the 2^nd fermenter has been going off its nut all day, it’s blown the contents of the airlock out twice.  Not bad for 3 days from pitching.

 

The first batch at just over 5 days from pitching has hit 985 SG and is no longer gassing, so I’ve degassed it (nothing) and done the first stage of fining about an hour ago, off to do the second stage now.  Distillation tomorrow night!

 

Little bastard fish have eaten the entire skin off 2 hunks of zucchini, but not the flesh.  If they don’t chow down on the core by tomorrow morning it’s coming out.  Tank continues to lighten but slower now, I may need to change the filters entirely to scrub the last of the particulate carbon.  The peppermint bristlenose catfish are lightening to a chocolate colour with milk coffee spots as they grow, which is apparently their normal colour.  One albino is growing much quicker than the other.

 

The idiot and increasingly irrelevant CEPU called a spot walkout at work this afternoon, precisely ZERO staff walked off the job.  Supposed to go until COB Thursday, we’ll see how many are there tomorrow.  I think the CEPU are quaking in their boots.  I would be in their position.

Things you learn

Protip:  if your fiancé asks what music you’d like at the wedding, do not reply “The end of the world as we know it” by R.E.M.

 

Trust me on this one.

Fish tank update

Only about 10 hours since I stripped the filter and chucked that
useless carbon bag, and already the tank looks better. Most of the
dark tinge has gone. I dried the carbon bag thinking I might be able
to get the "dust" out of it dry but I ended up chucking it.

Found a place in Brisbane that does filter pads for $3.50 each so I
have ordered a set, I'll use them to make a cutting template and make
my own from doona dacron afterwards. Also ordered another 60 bioballs
which I will use to fill the last tray where the carbon was. Quite
cheap, $27 the lot shipped.

My MonCarbone xarbon fibre iPhone case has also left the USA - got it
for $60 US shipped free. :)

Home brew

Bought a home brew spirits kit for myself and my partner for christmas.  It’s an Air Still kit, uses a simple electric pot still design with an air blast condenser – no water jacket required.  The whole kit is a fermenter vat, the still (which is about the size of a small urn), and a filtration system which is basically a plastic strainer bowl set with plug-in carbon cartridges.  I’ve already acquired a second fermenter.

 

A single “batch” costs just over $10 for the kit of sterilizer, sugar (high solubility dextrose), a carbon suspension slurry, the yeast and a two stage finings system.  It also includes the carbon filter cartridges used to polish the finished spirit.  That will produce two liters of 40% alcohol spirit, to which you then need to add flavouring escence – about $8.50 a bottle.  The only other consumables are a smidge of sterilizer solution, the odd replacement gasket and a tiny bit of anti-foam solution for the still itself to stop fluid carryover.  Call it under $15 for a 1 litre bottle, not bad.

 

I’ve been thinking about this for literally years, but the full reflux still systems are just too cumbersome and large for what I want it to do.  These Air Stills are brilliant.