Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

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mannye
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by mannye »

So I stripped and then ran the low wines (see? I know what that means now) low and slow. I had about 1 3/4 gallons of 60% low wines that resulted from the stripping run including about a half gallon of tails from a honey shine I had done a few months ago.

I have a pot still with a three foot column I packed with copper and my late mother-law’s knee chiller wrapped around the top half. A knee chiller is a small cooler with a pump that feeds a silicone pad to cool down the wound after the operation. It helps add a little bit of reflux to the column.

On top of the column I have a dephlegmator and the result was one gallon of 86ish percent product after letting some of the tails go in (I liked the way they tasted). I threw away the first 100ml.

All in all I won’t be using turbo yeast again but if you need vodka that fast, it’s cheaper and more efficient to buy some plastic bottle rotgut and run it through.
Bren
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Bren »

I just run my very first wash just a sugar one in my little 5ltr pot still. I thought I'd done quite well until I kept getting chemical taste and shitty after taste.
Having just read the thread I have a bit of a better understanding.
Time for me to learn about how to feed yeast properly and not use turbo yeast like I just did.
You live and learn.

I'm buying carbon now.
Do I just keep running it all through until flavours go or is there a way its ment to be done.
Thanks in advance
Bren
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Bren »

I've not long bought a load of turbo and my first run has some horrible tastes even after carbon.
So tomorrow I'll have a go at this recipe and see how we do.
Archee72
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Archee72 »

Hey Bren
Go to the Tried and True recipes and follow one of those. If it’s Vodka / neutral you’re after use Shady’s Sugar Shine or Wineos recipe. You won’t need carbon if you strip it 1st then do good cuts on the spirit run. Even though you have heaps of Turbo put it aside, you won’t regret it.
Sporacle
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Sporacle »

Bren wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:45 am Do I just keep running it all through until flavours go or is there a way its ment to be done.
Firstly make sure the cleaning protocols have been done on your still.
Secondly use a sugar wash from the tried and true section, I like Shadys Sugar Shine
Strip your wash/washes to get a charge of low wines.
Do your spirit run nice and slow
Collect in small vessels and read Kiwis guide to cuts
That would be the way I would go
Good luck :thumbup:
Posted the same time as Archee, everything he said
" you can pick your nose and you can pick your friends; but you can't always wipe your friends off on your saddle" sage advice from Kinky Friedman
Bren
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Bren »

thanks guys.
new yeast is on its way(not turbo).
ive just found the read read read bit lol.
And the recipe bit.
Theres loads my eyes are already bleeding but it all looks worth it.
i will have loads of questions that are most likely easily answered once you have the know how.
we live and learn and hopefully have some fun on the way.
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Scott Tracy
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Scott Tracy »

Came looking for a temperature recommendation and found this old thread.

I thought I'd add a vote for a working way to use Classic 8 Turbo. I have a 60L reflux still, and my normal neutral method is to make a double batch of Classic 8 sugar wash. I do 6kg batches (not 8 kg of sugar) and temperature control at 27.5C. I also use a little extra water, maybe 24l rather than 20.

My plan is to manage the ferment speed. Normally it's done in about 72 hours or less. I use a wine fridge and heat belts to control temperature and stop the ferment from going too fast. Then I let it settle out over a few days, rack it off into the still and reflux it over 6 plates and with a 50cm extension packed with copper scrubbies. No stripping run.

As my still holds 60L, a double batch plus the feints from the last neutral is a (very) full still charge. I leave a litre or two in the fermenter with the lees from the ferment.

I get a yield of 94 - 95% spirit with no real flavour or odour. Usually about 6 - 6.5L of neutral, from 2 packs of Turbo 8 and 12kg of sugar. I cut pretty aggressively - I bin the first 250ml, usually the next 500ml goes to feints, and I collect into feints as soon as my parrot dips below 94% and/or the head temp hits 80c (this wash reliably runs at 79.3c - 79.6c every time). I usually end up with about 3 -4L of feints (stopping collection at about 20%) which I add to the still for the next neutral run I do.

This makes something around 15L of 40% neutral, perhaps a bit more. The difference I have noticed (with TPW but mostly with some of the bran washes) is that the baker's yeast washes have some residual flavour - it's a nice flavour, but it's not as neutral as the sugar wash, and the yield will be much lower.

Normally I then build a filtration column from still parts, with a fine mesh filter under a 25cm 2" section filled with activated carbon. I dilute the neutral to 45 - 50% and drip it through that column over a couple of days, and then do some calculations and filter the right amount of water through the column to dilute the whole neutral run down to 40 - 42%.

I use the neutral as a very clean vodka. It's a good gin base, and obviously works fine for any of the maceration recipes. I don't use the flavour cordials but no doubt it would be fine for them.

I am that annoying guy that blind tests suitable guests with my neutral against shop vodka, and so far all have preferred mine, and most can't pick it (they usually choose mine thinking it's the commercial one).

Anyway I guess my point is that this method (using Turbo but putting the brakes on a bit) works well.

If I wanted to make a sipping vodka, to drink on the rocks, I think I would probably use Teddys or one of the baby food bran recipes, but that's because I like that faint wheat tone. I take that message from a lot of the posts - if you are home distilling, you can make as much of whatever you like, as you like - so make exactly what you like.

I can be a bit lazy though. When I just want to make a high yield batch of clean neutral to fill up a corny keg, this is my go to method.

Any my question (if anyone is still reading) is this: for anyone doing something similar to me - have you found that fermenting Classic 8 at a higher or lower temperature to 27.5c works better for you? I'm about to do another run, and curious if a lower temp might work better?
Wildcats
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Re: Better Method if you absolutely HAVE to use Turbo Yeast

Post by Wildcats »

I've never used Turbo Yeast. Have you ever used any other yeast besides Turbo?? I bet you would like the end results better, if you tried some baker's yeast.
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