Yield difficulties

WHITE DOG · Post by **WHITE DOG** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:29 pm

Hi, new to the forum, and I already have a question. The question is that I am having trouble getting a good yield on my mash. The recipe I use is 25 gallons water, 25 pounds sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh bakers yeast and 3 teaspoons yeast nutrient. I am running through a pot still with cooling water going at 78C and monitoring until about 95C. The problem is my yield on this run is only about 2 litres per 28 litres of wash. I am wondering how to increase my yield up to around the 15-18% mark. My temp is very stable in the hold of the wash, I keep it at 79F- 83F until the CO2 quits at about 2 weeks. Any ideas? thanks

Post by **Tater** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:40 pm

you could use 50 lbs sugar with that much water and you would need more food for yeast id use more yeast as well. read sights in my signature and welcome to fourm.

Hackers · Post by **Hackers** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:45 pm

That's a big wash for your first attempt. Why did you go so big?

By doing say a 25L wash (5 gallons) you will have a lot less to worry about and as Tater says read, read read. It is amazing what you will learn and as our scouting troup motto used to say "Learn from the mistakes of others . . . you haven't got timeto make them all yourself"

Finally, welcome also.

WHITE DOG · Post by **WHITE DOG** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:25 am

Thanks guys, I guess I could try more sugar, the thing is, I have yielded up to 3 quarts per 28 litre run, I just cannot seem to get any continuity with the wash. Sometimes I get 1.5 quarts, sometimes 3. I'm thinking old yeast may be the culprit at some times, other times maybe impatience. It can take up to 24 hours for the still to drip out 2 quarts.

Post by **Tater** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:01 am

id worry more about cuts then temp on a pot still. sounds like your running awfull slow like they do reflux stills.Agin read parent sight get a idea of whats going on and let us know how you do .

Rocky_Creek · Post by **Rocky_Creek** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:00 am

More sugar, more yeast food. Can be grain, molasses, or a mix of neutrients.
For a sugar wash, sterilized ground grain would be good. Get rid of the bacteria that also eat sugar.

AllanD · Post by **AllanD** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 8:35 am

If you have the ferementer volume to do so stay with the BIG more diluted washes, they ferment more quickly while producing fewer byproducts.
If given a choice between having the yeast stop because the alcohol
(which is toxic to yeast after all...) level exceeds the tolerance for it
or having the yeast run out of sugar it is ALWAYS preferable to have
them run out of food... the yeast will generally produce less undesirable byproducts that way.

As for your "yield"?

The best you can hope for is about 48% as much alcohol BY WEIGHT of the ammount of sugar you started with. Ethanol is about 7lb/gal,
so for 25lbs of sugar you should expect to get 12lbs of alcohol,
or 1.7gallons of PURE (100%) ethanol or about 3-1/2gallons of
100proof spirit.

So ~2liters of finished product for 28liters of wash is not too far out of line...

the important thing to look at is Sugar in Vs Alcohol out.

AllanD

WHITE DOG · Post by **WHITE DOG** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:50 pm

I will check the configuration on the still to make sure I am pot stilling, (it can work either way) the nutrient I use is a one that I buy from a brewing house. My main concern from running so long is burning through elements on the still. I will start reading up on the info in the site when I get back from deer hunting, I am sure I'm asking the same questions many of you have heard over and over. Thanks for all the ideas