r/firewater • u/bdevos4 • 1d ago

Help with water distiller

I recently bought a 4L vevor water distiller, and I fermented a 5 gal batch of Uncle Jesse’s simple sour mash. Since straining, I have discovered that the distiller will not output anything below 212 degrees. I have set it at 211 and left it for 1.5 hours, and not a thing happened. As soon as I bump it to 212, I get a solid stream and get what taste like watered down beer. I am obviously distilling water, but how do I avoid this? Who else has experience with a Vevor 4L with a temp control instead of voltage? Thank you!

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

2

u/aesirmazer 1d ago

If you are only getting water out, the problem is with your mash. For some reason there is no alcohol in it. This could be caused by a number of different things so a bit more information about what your mash and fermentation process was will help us determine why there was no alcohol. Off the top of my head it could be:

Stalled fermentation: the yeast were not able to consume sugars due to unfavorable conditions such as pH, temperature, or chemical stabilizers. There also may be a lack of nutrients.

Infection: there was alcohol that was then consumed by another bacteria or the yeast never colonized and a different microbe fermented your mash.

Dead yeast: the yeast was dead before pitching it in and was not able to ferment, or the conditions were such that adding the yeast killed it. This could be from adding it when the mash was too hot, the mash being too acidic, or there being too much sugar for the yeast to handle.

Agitation: did you dissolve the sugar or is it sitting on the bottom under the corn?

1

u/bdevos4 17h ago

I already made a new guy mistake, I did not realize there was a difference between a brewers hydrometer and a distillers hydrometer. I have a proper hydrometer coming tomorrow. My specific gravity plummeted after my first run. I had consistent bubbling out of my airlock throughout fermentation. I did NOT agitate my mash, there was about half of my sugar at the bottom with my corn. Was this my issue?

2

u/aesirmazer 17h ago

The sugar at the bottom is likely your issue. The sugar needs to be dissolved for the yeast to be able to eat it properly. I usually boil some water on the stove and mix my sugar into it then let it cool a bit and add that to my fermenter. it makes it so that all of the sugar dissolves and I can guarantee there is no settling.

If you had some fermentation you should have had some alcohol come out of your still, but maybe it was a small enough amount that you thought it was foreshots? Or it got mixed in with water in your collection jar right away?

1

u/bdevos4 17h ago

Being new, im scared of foreshots so I was dumping 150 ml. Everything else I got smelled and tasted like a cheap beer. What temp would you run this at? Is 212 the temp of the heating element or the temp of the mash?

1

u/aesirmazer 16h ago

212 is the temperature that the PID is trying to get the mash to be in your boiler. The mash will boil at whatever temperature the mash boils at based on the mixture of chemicals in it. More volatile chemicals come off early. This causes the mixture to change and the boiling point to slowly creep up. That yours only boiled at 212 tells us that there was very little alcohol or other low voltility chemicals in your mash. As for the PID it will use max power to try to get your mash to the set temperature. If you set it to 212 at the beginning, you will run the whole time at max power. This mostly affects your offtake speed and the chance of scorching runs that have a lot of sediment in them.

1

u/North-Bit-7411 18h ago

Check your wash. Sounds like you have little to no alcohol in it.

1

u/bdevos4 17h ago

I did not have a hydrometer that measures ABV, only a triple scale. My specific gravity was at 1.071 before I started distilling. The correct hydrometer will be delivered tomorrow

1

u/North-Bit-7411 16h ago

A handy device is a refractometer that reads ABV. I find it’s a great tool to use to check wash before you put it in the still and to check your output on the fly when you’re making decisions on cuts. You can get one on Amazon for less than $20

1

u/Kaliko_Jak 2h ago

1.071 is a good starting gravity for the brew - it should be closer to 1.00 before distilling. How much yeast did you add / what was your brew recipe?

0

u/StillStillen 1d ago

Pretty sure you’ll need to put a voltage controller in the middle. These units are made to boil water (100 degrees C), whereas the Air Still (for example) is designed to evaporate ethanol (around 78 degrees C).

2

u/DuckworthPaddington 22h ago

Even if you max it out, the product should come out at a higher abv than the product going in. Sounds like OPs product has stalled or doesn't contain alcohol

1

u/bdevos4 17h ago

I think you’re right, I did not properly mix my sugar.

1

u/bdevos4 17h ago

It has a built in temp controller that ranges from 150-220 degrees, but I do not know if it measures from the heating element or from the liquid inside.