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Time for Fermentation
I am interested to hear how long your whiskey grain in fermentation takes. Ive heard some people completing a ferment in as little as 56 hours to other people taking as long as 6 days.
How long is your whiskey fermenting before it goes in the still?
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5 Replies
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I start stripping at around 60ish hrs. My mash cooks are 3 strips so I get started when its almost done, and its totally done by the time I load the 3rd strip.
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Don’t think there’s any right answer as it depends on what the distiller wants out of the mash. Bacterial activity typically isn’t significant until yeast finish their work. So those looking for bacterial acids normally need to go another day or two after the cap falls. Yeast choice can also significantly change fermentation duration.
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Yeast, temperature of which you ferment (jacketed fermenters? hot ferment? Climate controlled space?), Nutrient use, mashbill makeup, Starting Gravity…all these things effect how long it takes to ferment. In my mind I can’t have too many fermenters. It will always be my bottle neck. If I have the space and schedule to let the ferments run longer than 4 days, let the cap drop and some lacto/bacteria action start I get my best product. I’ve ran ferments that sat for 2 weeks, and I’ve ran ferments as fast as 3 days to complete attenuation. Rye in particular runs hot and fast. I swear it’s 90% dry by 48 hours after pitching.
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Those are all good points. If I pitch at 90* I’m ripping in 4-5 hrs and struggling to get it cooled down a bit. If I pitch at 80* it’ll lag for 12 hrs or more and be cooled down in the low 70s before it does a much slower take off, and it’ll add a day to the ferment. Lots of variables!
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Thanks for the input guys. I am kicking around a few ideas on how to schedule production and ferment time is critical to this decision
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