Lowan bakers yeast

[Stonemull]

Australia here, using supermarket Lowan premium bakers yeast. reflux column, neutral spirit production only..
Last sugar wash I did a gerber equivalent, I used a baby porridge, started with 2.3kg sugar (inverted partly) in 12 litres water, from memory would finish at a little over 10%, decided not enough wash for my still so upped it with the last 700g sugar and another litre of water. should finish at around 12%.

After siphoning off the wash I figured nothing to lose, experiment time and threw 15 litres of cold water on the yeast cake, crushed up 6 weetbix, added a few dst spns of molasses, then dissolved 3kg of sugar in about 3l water and warmed it to steaming, poured that in, not a lot of activity next day so tipped in last of the yeast tin, perhaps 2 dspns .. on day 4? now and slow but consistent progress, around 1.015 this morning..

anyway, decided to just use fresh yeast in future, found the lowan supplier doctor provided this info on the yeast ..

I can suggest rehydration temps of 30C
Pitching 30-35C
pH of wort 4.5-6.0, suggest 6.0
Fermentation temperature 30-37C
Keep glucose levels up to maintain growth rates
Ensure good agitation and oxygen input into the fermenter when rehydrating
Monitor the ethanol concentration in the cooled wort as the yeast will start to die off at 12% ethanol with little activity seen above 17% "

since my overall aim is to produce max % in the least time with minimal effort and maximum hearts..

so I have a couple of questions .. glucose, inverting all the sugar seems a waste of time and energy, considering making a starter though and inverting the sugar for that and then adding it to a plain sugar wash. good plan or just pitch yeast straight in and let it do its thing ? certainly seemed faster first run but a lot more effort involved.

in the interests of speed, am i better to aim for perhaps 14% or even 16% .. adding sugar in 2 batches to bring down the sugar peak the yeast has to deal with. tomato paste and cheap cereal for nutrients.

what I was thinking of is that to clear the wash at the end would it not be better to have the yeast die off due to the higher ABV, or let it trickle along at 12% for ages. takes as long to clear as to ferment, so can you clear it quicker by some means ? considering crazy concepts like say adding a big batch of bicarb soda or even caustic soda at the end and radically change the pH and murder the poor yeasties.

when the weather warms up here and I end up with 4 fermenters bubbling along then I will be happy to cruise along, but I like to experiment and want to try and get something like a 4 or 5 day 14% ferment going using bakers yeast..

crazy talk ?

[RevSpaminator]

You should top out at 12%, and that's only if you are patient and don't mind cold slow fermentation..aka lagering your wash. Just because you are running reflux doesn't mean stressed out yeast won't give you some nasty 95%. Remember, 5% is plenty of room for some raunchy flavors.

If you want a faster ferment then stick to between 8 and 9 percent.

Personally I've hated the warmer weather. I can't get a good ferment that isn't shut down due to heat or exposure to some nasty that wouldn't show its head when the temps are below 70f. All my attempts this summer have turned out to only be good for fire starter. Compare that to the haphazard ferment I did in early spring that made the smoothest booze I ever tasted. Better than anything I've ever bought. Quality ferments lead to quality drink and less junk to throw away.

If you want quality then patience is key. If you're in a hurry to get shitfaced then run to the store, buy a case of cheap beer and drink it.

[Stonemull]

cheers for the feedback. good points, I am after quality overall since I hardly drink, I just want to make some nice liqueurs.

sadly cheap beer is not something our gov wants people drinking, so they do us a 'favour' with sin tax. not that I drink beer anyway, but our cheapest is double the price of yours..

heres what we are stuck with (last year, been 2 tax rises since)

According to the article, here’s what a selection of countries pay in tax per litre of pure alcohol:

$32 – Australia
$28 – UK
$24 – Sweden
$10 – Netherlands
$9 – Italy
$9 – Hungary
$6 – Canada
$4 – France
$3 – Spain
$3 – Germany
$2 – US (California)

I shall learn MORE patience

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

That's nothing for an alcohol tax. Here in NZ it's about $54 per litre of 100% ethanol. Lol

[Stonemull]

turns out that $32 was for kegs of beer only.
for spirits its $77 a litre.

[Andy Capp]

I used Lowans for a while but changed to Mauripan yeast. It comes in a 500g block from the local health food shop and costs $4. It's cheaper and works quicker than Lowans did.

http://abmaurianz.com/au/Content_Common ... t.seo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

The local distilleries pay about $22 per bottle in tax here. Crazy when you think imported stuff pays bugger all. You would think the Government would have it the other way round and support a local and growing industry.

[Prairiepiss]

since my overall aim is to produce max % in the least time with minimal effort and maximum hearts..

You can't have your cake and eat it to. Either you want quantity or you want quality. Increase one the other one falls.

Bakers yeast shouldn't be pushed any higher then 14% max. I wouldn't suggest going over 12% or so. And I won't go over 8%.

It's all about making the yeast happy. And high ABV ferments just stress the yeast.

Make the yeasties happy. They will piss alcohol and fart CO2.
Make them unhappy. They will just shit in your drink.

This all has been covered to death here on this forum.

[Stonemull]

Cheers guys, I will see if I can find the mauripan locally.

guess I just need more buckets

[Galeoturpis]

Mauri yeast is an Aussie company (well British owned) which has its factory in toowoomba (just behind the hospital on Stephen st) where it makes a range of bakers yeast and some fine wine yeasts which were developed at the south Australian wine institute in urrbrae.

[thecroweater]

Hi ya I can't speak for the other yeast (might have to keep an eye out for it) BUT Lowens is pretty good for any sugar wash. If you are chasing something neutral I would suggest you leave the molasses out as it is very hard to remove the rum flavour it will give you Lowens is breed on an molasses strata and so is well suited to any rum or sugar , it can go quite high alcohol % (Maybe 16 %)but will produce unwanted esters once its stressed so 8 to 10% is a good place to stop