Birdwatchers and Yield question

[mweb]

Hi there, 1st time poster here,

I tried my first birdwatchers the other week, after being advised by a friend.... Everything went smoothly, SG was .990 ish, did the boil in the reflux as I normally would until the temp increased by 1 full degree, but maybe my expectations were a little different, but I think the yield was about half that of what I would normally get if using a normal tubo yeast/dextrose wash? I shaved 200mls off as I normally would to be safe.....

So I am yet to cut back to my preferred 45% strength, but I would say less than 5litres, compared to the 9ish I would get with a turbo? am I missing something, or will the yield always be lower than a turbo, but from what I have read, a lot cleaner etc? I did do a smell test, and there is no where near as much smell in this, than from the Turbos..... so I wont need to carbon filter as many times..... before adding to container and dropping some oak in.....

Is this all normal, or have I done something wrong

[BDF]

The amount of alcohol available is directly proportional to how much sugar there was for the yeast to eat. Did you use less that you would have with turbo recipes?

If you did, good, because that is one (of many) of the sources of the funky flavors that turbo causes. Yeast are living organisms, and even though they produce alcohol during their metabolism it still does distress them to be living in their own waste, and they produce different nasties as a result. Pushing how much alcohol is present in a wash often comes at the expense of flavor and quality. If you keep the yeast happy, and run your equipment so as to not smear heads/hearts/tails there should be no need for carbon whatsoever.

Glad you made it here, there is a ton of great info and experience in each subforum. I would recommend spending a good chunk of time reading though the existing threads, stickies, and questions as many answers to initial questions are floating around, and only bring up more questions...whose answers are also floating around...ect

[mweb]

Yep cheers, and does make sense. I would usually use 9kg of dextrose, this time 6kg sugar... but like I said, no funky smell like with the turbo so thats a good thing, will just need to adjust how I do things, maybe a larger wash mix so I can knock out two boils in a weekend

Cheers

[NZChris]

Up-sizing the fermenter is the best way to fill your cellar with aging likker.

Check out UJSSM. That is far better for oaking than the tasteless Birdwatcher's, which is better for gin, Absinthe, Panty dropper, etc..