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Storing washes OK?

Hi guys, just wanted some feedback/thoughts on storing washes.

Its starting to heat up again and I only have enough space to ferment 100L with temp control. Could I rack off the yeast after ferment and store the wash at around 30-35c (86-95f) without noticeable funky flavours and problems. Probably for no more than 3 months.

Comments

  • Are you talking about all ready fermented wash??. I have stored non fermented wash with no problems but I dont know how well you would go with all ready fermented wash aka beer. Stick it in a keg add some gas and see what happens.

  • edited September 2014

    Storing it in a keg under pressure would be no problem I would think. I was thinking of storing it in plastic drums.

  • I cant see what the problem would be as long as you sanitize every thing and work in a sanitize environment you should be ok. At the end of the day its prity much like kegging beer. The only problem I could see is if some of the leftover yeast where to do some more work and the plastic drum started to leak then that would be away in for infection. As for funky flavors I real cant comment. I think it's 100% doable.

    Your going to be doing this with whiskey right?.

    Can you crash chill your wash in a fridge over night ???.

    Don't do this with a fruit it dose not work well in higher temps I have had nothing but problems with ciders that are not stored in the fridge.

  • keep the abv high, if you can get it to 14% storage should be no problem, in fact it might help?? maybe like wine.

  • Good idea @Law_Of_Ohms. Adding (good) feints to wines or fermented washes to be distilled later would inhibit nasties from attacking and it would certainly halt the yeast from going off by killing them.
    Perhaps a campden tab or two would do the same?

  • Thats a good idea. Was wondering what do to with those (good) feints. I will be crashing most of the yeast out.

    @Drunkas its for whisky and wheat washes I have been doing Thanks mate

  • That's cool I don't know why I never came up with that bump the abv up thanks @Law_Of_Ohms.

  • i store my washes in kegs. I run them through absolute 1 micron filter($80 for setup) to stop any problems with yeast death. I have run 8mths later with no issues.

  • @vooharmy Are your kegs airtight? What temps are you storing at? Thanks

  • I don't think you will have much a problem with the yeast in such a short time. That is really more an issue for commercial volumes as the hydrostatic pressure resulting from the large column of beer ontop of the yeast results in much more rapid autolysis than occurs for homebrewers. That said, I think you really only have two issues to be concerned with, sanitation and oxygen. Short of certain types of PET plastic, plastic containers allow a relatively high volume of oxygen diffusion. This can be good or bad depending on what favors the oxidation creates or what you want with the end product. If you want to avoid that follow the solutions offered, transfer to PET plastic, such as a Better Bottle or a stainless container that has been purged with CO2. Or try sulfiting it. You can use campden tablets or better yet buy some potassium metabisulfite (generally the same as campden but I understand some campden tablets are actually sodium metabusulfate which is not exactly what you want) and use a wine sulfiting calculator to hit ppms that will keep things in an anti oxidative state during storage.

    Beer stores well thanks to hops, without that your next best friends are high ABV, low pH, low temps, and excellent sanitation to keep infections away. If it were me, I would keep it in its current container and get it as close to freezing as possible, this would inhibit infection as well as dramatically slow oxygenation while not opening the door to adding infectious elements by exposing the beer to the air.

  • It's very simple to store once you've stripped it. :-$

    JustSayingPunkin

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @punkin said: It's very simple to store once you've stripped it. :-$

    JustSayingPunkin

    +1

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Thanks @Grudaire.

    @punkin it's crazy hectic usually this time of year for me. I just want to have a lot of wash to strip over a big weekend because I don't have the time to strip everytime a batch finishes.

  • I understand.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited September 2014

    They are air tight but If your into beer you can just fire co2 from you kegging into the drum before you put the lid. Co2 is heaver than air so it should form a layer on the top of your goods. Then it will depend on the gas permeability of the drum walls, under no pressure and at ambient temperatures co2 absorbtion into the liquid should be minimal. You could test this on your drums by using a match to gauge if the co2 layer is still in place. I have seen a similar thing with argon.

  • I realized the other day how simple it is to do a strip though. Especially if you've got the right gear.

    1.5-2 hrs including filling and draining boiler. 7.2kw heat up, run on 3.6kw. 7-8l of low wines, didn't even take a %. Just went by smell. Tails really smells lol.

    Hardly have to pay any attention to while stripping.

  • @jonno said: I realized the other day how simple it is to do a strip though. Especially if you've got the right gear.

    1.5-2 hrs including filling and draining boiler. 7.2kw heat up, run on 3.6kw. 7-8l of low wines, didn't even take a %. Just went by smell. Tails really smells lol.

    Hardly have to pay any attention to while stripping.

    Thats about sums up what I do jonno I take 2 swan pot's and let the magic begin strip hard and fast baby, run them both in to the same keg as well. My Copper swan makes much better likker then my SS.

    But still I can see where @cunnyfunt is coming from. I am very keen to see how he dose with it. I had bad luck with fruit but that was infection and I am a much better brewer now with a hole new sanitizing out look unlike befor

  • edited September 2014

    I will try and source a Ss 44gal and weld on a couple of fittings and keep it pressurised under co2:)

  • At "masters of booze" we learned, that storing the fermented wash is not recommended. The problem is oxidation and infection. So if possible, a stripping run should be done right after or in the end of fermentation. You taste the freshness of a product.

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

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