liquid activated carbon in a mash to be distilled

[RenoJimmy]

I decided to make a sugar wash with a new kind of yeast. It is Extreme Alcobase turbo yeast by Pure Brewers. It has two separate packets: 1 yeast and 1 liquid activated carbon. I followed the directions for the yeast which involved dumping both packets into the dissolved sugar and letting ferment for 7 days. The next step, according to instructions was to use a clearing agent and siphon. I did not, as I made the wash intending to distill. So my question is: Is distilling a mash/wash that has liquid activated carbon in it going to cause ill-effects with the finished product, specifically the production of higher levels of methanol? Thanks for any answers and your time.

[rad14701]

You need to let the wash settle and then rack/siphon the cleared liquid off the trub on the bottom of the fermenter... Do not skip this step, especially with turbo yeast...

Avoiding greed takes time to master... That turbo greed sounds like it has a lot of work and expense associated with it... I'd never put carbon in my wash... It just ain't right... If you have to be that concerned about the wash just imagine how difficult the rest of the process is going to be...

You can do better...

[RenoJimmy]

Thank you for the reply. I already distilled a small amount of the wash with the carbon in it. It smells normal and is clear as a bell but I still have this nagging concern about it. I guess for the rest of this batch I will bite the bullet and get the clearing agent and siphon before distillation. I think the next batch (I bought a few of these yeast packs) I will disregard the instructions and just put the yeast pack in (Any thoughts as to how that might work out?). Hopefully I will still get a decent yield. Thanks again.

[rad14701]

Here's my thought on the carbon... Others may have differing opinions...

If you put the carbon into the wash it will trap some of the off smells and flavors produced by the turbo yeast... The problem with this is that if you don't remove the carbon before distilling then everything trapped in the carbon is going to be released back into the wash in the boiler... And while the carbon itself won't carry over into your spirits, the crap that was originally absorbed into it will... Therefore, if you use the carbon you need to let it settle before racking so it doesn't make it into the boiler...

As you can see, the friendly folks at the brew shops love selling turbo yeast, fining/clearing agents, activated carbon, and whatever else they can think of, in an effort to get just a little bit deeper into your pockets... Those who eventually figure this out usually back away from turbo yeasts and their associated baggage...

[eternalfrost]

carbon is BS. dont believe the garbage people at homebrew shops tell you they just wnat to sell you more nonsense.

do commercial distilleries use carbon? no. do you need to? no, not if you do it right in the first place.
also, turbo yeast is just more overhyped trouble. simple bakers yeast or if you really want to splurge EC 1118 works great and dosent produce the garbage that you want carbon to clear out in the first place.

wait the extra day or two for a proper wash to ferment and youll have an infinitely nicer wash and an infinitely nicer product.

fuck carbon and fuck turbo yeasts... that is all..

[HookLine]

do commercial distilleries use carbon? no.

Some do. For both vodka and some of the lighter flavoured spirits.

do you need to? no, not if you do it right in the first place.

Agree with that. A clean ferment, a decent column, run properly, should give you nice clean vodka without using any carbon at all.

[RenoJimmy]

Thanks for the input guys. I was originally running without the turbo yeast and it was working right as rain... As rad14701 implied, I was just trying to get more in less time... aka: greedy. Although I am glad nobody thinks that the product of the distilled turbo yeast/carbon wash will be harmful (At least I didn't waste a batch).

[rubber duck]

A lot of the commercial guys use carbon but a lot of commercial guy use bulk 190 proof grain spirit shipped in from the midwest. So basicly a good product should not need it, maby for a gin maby.

[Ayay]

I read here that turbos can do OK if you give them only enough sugar to make 12% or less alcohol in the wash. If you want to use up any turbos you bought then this is the way. Carbon is needed when you push turbos to their max but you don't have to do that.

Letting the wash settle and clear is necessary because more yeasts in the boiler = more off-flavours in the distillate. Time is money, so you can buy time from someone else in the form of clearing agents or by refrigerating the wash, or you can just wait until the wash settles and clears.

It gets nasty when people try to sell imaginary time for lots of money and have the gall to claim that this is the only way.

I bought a pack of turbo just before finding this site. Went straight to DWWG and later to UJSSM and the turbo remains un-used. Today I got me a box of All-Bran (cheers Rad ).

[HookLine]

IMO, turbos can do okay if you use them at half the rate (ie either half the packet, or double the total wash size), and keep the final abv below 10-12%.

But it can be done better and cheaper in other ways.

[Photonic]

If you want to see the fusel oil analysis of a wash that had liquid carbon added to it then you can here: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =1&t=12350

As far as the wash that you've made goes, add the clearing agent and you'll see a change in about 2 hours. I found the racking off tricky though as the carbon dust is a lot more sensitive to movement than normal lees.

I ended up filtering the last gallon that I racked off through a coffee filter to get it clear!

Like others have said, there are easier (and tastier washes -All Bran), but a cleared carbon wash won't harm you.