Happy Yeast?

These little beasts do all the hard work. Share how to keep 'em happy and working hard.

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Rocky_Creek
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Happy Yeast?

Post by Rocky_Creek »

I am coming to the conclusion that I get way less heads with a thin sour mash than I see most people talking about with all grain mashes and even turbo yeast. Back when I did some turbos the smell of ethyl acetate was expected. Now no ethyl acetate and very little of anything else. Anyone else experiance this?
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Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

I always make thin mashes with corn (I've never made a sour mash yet)
In a 50ltr batch I take 200-250ml foreshot and then maybe 500ml of heads. There was a couple times that I even added the heads back into the final product just because they tasted and smelled fine, but in general I just add the heads to the next batch.

The barley wash (also a thin mash) I ran last weekend had very skanky smelling heads, but only 400-500ml. The middle run turned out nice.

I've never used turbo in whiskey, just whiskey yeast.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
possum
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to sugar or not to sugar...

Post by possum »

Uncle remus, do you sugar up your grain mashes? If you do, does the good grain flavor still come through? I know you use a reflux, but I am using a 5 gallon pot still and am working on a corn barley rye(5,3,1 lbs in 5 gallons) and haven't pitched the yeast yet (25% tolerant whitelab high gravity yeast) and I am hoping for a flavorfull product.My all sugar washes with champagne yeast gave less than ideal results.(skanky heads)
Feed back would be very helpfull.
Last edited by possum on Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

Possum, yes I do sugar up my grain mashes. A typical mash:

I heat 25 liters of water up to 74 deg C. , turn off the heat, then I stir in 10 lbs of grain. Cover the pot and let sit till temp drops to 69 deg C. When this temp is reached stir in 2 lbs of malted barley. Let it stand for at least 2 hours. Then I usually do a quick sg reading, a typical reading for corn might be 1.060-1.070. Then I add 25 liters cold water and enough sugar to bring the sg back up to 1.060 - 1.080 max, pitch in whisky yeast and put it to ferment.

I've mostly only done corn mashes, and yes lots of flavour comes through. The trick is to not use too much reflux. I know guys with pot stills usually do a stripping run first, but I figure if I run the reflux still properly I can skip the stripping run. I try to keep the av% below 80%, if it jumps above that I cut back the reflux. I make my cut at about 60% av. Taste the product the next day, if you think it needs more flavour you can always add a small amount of the tails you collected (which usually got lots of flavour)

All I've ever used for yeast in grain mashes is Gert Strand whisky yeast, which I have had good results with. I haven't tried any others. BTW they say on the package to use one pack for 25 liters, I use on pack in a 50 liter mash and it does the job.

Good luck with your mash. Are you using malt too? Corn , barley and rye, are you shooting for something like an Irish whisky?
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
possum
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Post by possum »

Yea Uncle Remus, by barley, I mean 6 row barley malt. I started my whiskey experiments with a recycled porter beer that had way too much roasted barley and its associated tannin but discovered that roast barley flavor came across real nice in the spirit unlike the beer. So im using the 5,3,1 (corn,six-row,rye) brew to get some nice flavor and hope to condition it in three different ways if the yield is high enough. 1/3 age charred oak (bourbonlike) 1/3 chared apple and 1/3 uncharred oak(irishlike) with a little to sipp on raw. I think that the sugar could help bump the yield up enough to allow the full range of experimentation, especially if my stripping run goes beyond 1/3 by volume. Previously, I was only taking 1/4-1/5 on the strip for whiskey then doing the second distillation.BTW,I'm leaving the grain in the fermenter.
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Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

Let me know how it turns out Possum.

I put down a mash on the weekend, used 5 lbs rolled corn, and 5 lbs of barley grain. I threw the barley in a fry pan and toasted it up, some of it I even blackened, then I ground it up in and old coffee grinder.

It sure had a nice aroama while mashing, I hope it carries through the fermentation and into the whiskey. I too am fermenting on the grain.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
Guest

Post by Guest »

sour mash is chugging away, ive drawn off 3.5 gallons of clear liquid, and added 5lb corn ,3-4lb 6row malt and 6 lbs corn syrup and 3lbs sugar . its thick in the fermenter now but yeast is active. dosent smell too nice. ill process my clear liquid when i can, and dillute my carbuey when i get a second.
Guest

Post by Guest »

that was possum
possum
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Uncle Remus

Post by possum »

How did that toasted barley wash come out Uncle Remus?
Hey guys!!! Watch this.... OUCH!
Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

It's a nice drink smooth with a slight toasted taste and smell. I got it in bottles now aging away slowly.

I don't know if ya saw my pics of the pot still we constructed. We ran an all malt mash in this still, this mash I also toasted about half the grain. This is the best whiskey we made so far, kinda like a scotch without the scotchy taste if you know what I mean. It also has a nice toasty flavour.

Thats the beauty of this hobby, a person can experiment and customize a liquor to your own taste.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
possum
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Posts: 1159
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:33 am
Location: small copper potstill with limestone water

Post by possum »

Sweet, glad it worked good.

and yes, I did see the potstill,very pretty work.
I run a potstill(exclusively)it's only 5+ gallons.

I like the customization of my beverage....suits me perfect.
Hey guys!!! Watch this.... OUCH!
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