To strip or not to strip, that is the question.

[Swag]

I’ve done it both ways.
When I tried to get a pure vodka directly from a turbo wash, it always had an off smell. It was high proof, but still had some impurities that I had to filter out.
With stripping runs first, I can now get a clean smelling, high purity vodka that doesn’t need carbon filtering.
Gert Strand mentions in his book that he is convinced that clean vodka can’t be had directly from a wash without needing carbon. I would tend to agree with him if one is using a turbo product. The turbos seem to me to produce more off odors than other yeasts, although I haven’t really done an accurate side by side yet.
A big stack doesn’t hurt either. The 5 foot, 3” wide stack I have now does a pretty good job of cleaning up the vapor. I can definitely take off more product at a higher rate with a good level of purity than using my smaller stack.
Stripping first is more work, but for really clean vodka it's the way to go.

[possum]

Good yeasts produce less crap. Personally, I hate EC-1118 champagne, as it makes isomal-somthingornother bananna flavor in high sugar environment. But I don't have a collumn still, pot only, and a collumn car seperate stuff out nicer.

[Swag]

I'm not real impressed with 1118 either. It takes forever to work off and just doesn't seem very robust.
I just got a pound of distillers yeast and I pitched some in a rum wash so we'll see how it does. It looks more active right off the bat which is a good sign.
I've been working on a short, 4 stack plan for a fractionating still that will fit in an area with a low overhead if you're interested.

[theholymackerel]

Strange the problem ya had with EC-118. I've had great results with it and it has become my standard fruit brandy yeast.

I find it to not ferment as fast as claimed (what yeast does?) but it has allways given me a crisp clean product with fruit brandies. I also know from experimentation that it will go 4.5% abv higher than the 18% advertised if given optimum conditions.

[Tater]

What holy said. same here

[possum]

The wines I used it on (REDSTAR CHAMPAGNE:EC-1118) were ok, but the sugar washes were crappy. However, I didn't feed the sugar wash in stages. That could make the difference. The wines did get multiple feeds.

[Watershed]

I ordered a prestige 48h yeast by accident, treated it the same as their vodka yeast ( ie basic sugar wash, 5gal ). It left a strong bitter off taste in the second half of the distillate - a taste that doesn't shift with charcoal and doesn't easily go with repeated distillations ( a loss of about 30% of my expected product after 3 runs ). I always do a stripping run followed by a careful slow run - doing this with the vodka yeast leaves a clean product that doesn't need charcoal.

My sugar washes are always left to settle & clear before running - mostly cos it takes me a week or so to get round to setting up the still.

[Tater]

The ec-1118 I use is made by Lalvin out of Canada Just got done with a peach wash that I started on the 30th of last month.For it still being cool here at nights temp of wash stayed around 60-70 degrees f.Was a 15 gallon total wash with 70lb lbs of peaches 22 lbs sugar rest water with 6 pks of yeast prestarted in wash.Now Ive never found it as fast as distillers and I think distillers is a better yeast to use in heat of summer .But since finding it I havent used anything else on fruit and berry washes .And sometimes in heat of summer Ill mix a little distillers in with it in my starter wash.I havent yet to be unhappy with a wash done from it. As to the topic I seldom do striping runs.Using a pot still its unnessary unless your starting with a real low abv wash or just like double run . With a proper wash and distilled right you can make some fine likker with just 1 pass through the still.So I guess a reflux is for making shitty washes taste like nothing right?

[Swag]

The distillers yeast I used on my latest rum wash is really going to town. It seems to be a lot more active that the 1118. Maybe 1118 works better on fruit juices.
Like anything else it best to use the right tool for the job. I'm sure yeast is the same way. I'll compare the taste of the rum using both distillers yeast and the 1118 when I have all the batches run.

[theholymackerel]

Yep. Distillers yeast is probably the most vigorous yeast I've ever used. But I don't use it anymore... no need for it.

I have found the yeast type for each different thing accordin' to my taste allready. A flavorful ale yeast that throws alot of esthers for my grain mashes, bakers yeast or EC-118 for molassas washes, and EC-118 for all my fruit washes.

[Uncle Remus]

I've used EC 118 for a couple sugar washes now. A typical wash would be 10kgs of sugar and enough water to make 50 litres. I think this proportion give about a 11-12% SG potential. In it I put 1 small can of tomato paste and a cup full of grain (whatever grain is handy) for nutrients. Yes it does take a while to work off, but IMHO the end product is 10 times better than anything I've made from skanky turbo yeast washes.

Yeah turbos give you high AV% washes fast but like someone mentioned it's like trying to clean up the little kid all covered in mud in your kitchen sink.

I got my first batch of rum made with EC 118 ready to run. We'll see how that one goes.... I suspect it will be better than previous batches with distillers turbo yeast.

[Swag]

I've used EC 118 for a couple sugar washes now. A typical wash would be 10kgs of sugar and enough water to make 50 litres. I think this proportion give about a 11-12% SG potential. In it I put 1 small can of tomato paste and a cup full of grain (whatever grain is handy) for nutrients. Yes it does take a while to work off, but IMHO the end product is 10 times better than anything I've made from skanky turbo yeast washes.

Yeah turbos give you high AV% washes fast but like someone mentioned it's like trying to clean up the little kid all covered in mud in your kitchen sink.

I got my first batch of rum made with EC 118 ready to run. We'll see how that one goes.... I suspect it will be better than previous batches with distillers turbo yeast.

Turbo yeast definitely leaves a lot of nasties that are hard to distill or filter away. I got some Superstart distillers yeast which I am hoping will not produce too many off flavors or odors.
I can see that yeast play a significant part in the final flavor of a likker. It will be interesting to see the difference in rum between 1118 and distillers.

[possum]

I love the crosby distillers yeast for my rum, I got nothin' bad to say about that stuff.
Takes off like a big red rocket of love, and keeps going like a freight train loaded with molassis.