we need to make sure the still is clean so we dont get funny tastes of flux and other stuff still in the column.



I'm following the recommendations I found on this forum post, it makse the most sense.



1) clean with soapy water



2) rinse with plain water



3) use vinegar and water mix in the still and boil it to produce an acidic vapour



4) alcohol cleaning run, twice, this involves making a cheap wash that will produce alcohol, we will not be able to drink this so basically they suggest making up something that is cheap, I used a basic mix which I will detail below.



You could buy some cheap wine and use that to clean the still or you can make the following wash.



cheap cleaning wash, you can use this as a practice run for your recipes



5kg cheap sugar

2 packets of dry baker's yeast

50g of yeast nutrient

boiled water, to kill any bugs in the water so the wash doesn't go mouldy



ok start off with cleaning everything using steriliser, fermentation vassal, spoon, airlock, hydrometer



boil up some water, I filled the kettle 2 times, put the boiled water in your fermentation vassal and start to pour in your sugar, you need to dissolve all the sugar, and keep adding cold water until you reach the 20L mark on your vessel.



let the wash cool down to between 23-26 degrees C, the reason for this is if it's too high it will just kill the yeast, yeast will die at 40 degrees, and if you're using it above 26 degrees C you will stress the yeast out and it will produce more ester, methanol (bad alcohol, you can't drink it, in fact it's dangerous to humans) and what they call fuser oils.



To produce the good alcohol, most yeasts have to be below 26 degrees and for them to replicate they need to be around 23 - 26 degrees. however if you're using a brewing yeast read the packet as there are some yeasts that can operate at higher temperatures.



so what is fermentation? well basically it's when the yeast breaks down the sugars and turns them in to other substances like CO2 and Alcohol, now these sugars can be pure sugar like we are using in the cleaning wash, or they can be provided by fruits, vegetables or even grains.



whiskey and bourbon are made using grain, so is moonshine (normally corn), schnapps is made with fruits like apples / pears / peaches, and vodka can be made out of near enough anything as it's a neutral spirit e.g. a tasteless spirit, well in the US it is, in the UK and Europe it has a tiny bit of flavour the above recipe is cheap and will make a half decent vodka.



ok so while you are waiting for your wash to cool down add the juice of the lemon and a whole tube of double concentrate tomato purée and mix it, take some of the wash and put it in a glass and put the glass in a bucket of cold water to cool it quicker until its 23 degrees C or less, then take it out of the water and add 2 packets of baker's yeast (or brews yeast if you like) mix it up.



This is called a yeast starter, sometimes these are prepared a few days before you want to start your main wash, the key is to make your start wash the same as the main wash as the yeast learns to feed on different sugars, it takes 7 generations for it to learn properly which is why it's important to make your starter exactly the same as your main wash. The purpose of this is to give the yeast a head start.



Once your main wash is at 23 degrees C you can add your yeast starter, I'm not too bothered that I haven't waited a few days before adding it as this is just a cleaning mix. Give it a good stir; you want to distribute that yeast throughout the mix.



at this point the SG should be about 1.100 and this mix is spot on using the hydrometer to measure it.



pop the lid on and seal it, you should fit an airlock to the lid so the gases can escape but the air can't get in, I put some Vaseline around the edge of the bung to make sure it was air tight.



here is a video of me checking the SG of the wash, now I say in the video the SG at the end should be 90 which is 1.090 on the hydrometer in the blue area, I realised after recording this I was wrong it should be below 1.000 so between 1.000 and 0.900 which is near the top in the yellow section, which means that all the sugar has been converted to alcohol.



During the fermentation process you need to make sure the temperature stays around 23 degrees C, if you find it’s getting warmer than that put it in a container of water, if it's still getting to warm try putting a little ice in the water.



if you find it getting to cold then you can do the same put in an aquarium heater in the container and set the temp on it to 25 degrees C or whatever your yeast needs to be.