homegrown hg yeast??

Ricky · Post by **Ricky** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:11 pm

i was wondering if when reusing yeast as in the ujsm recipe if you could up the amount of sugar every ferment and cultavate a high alcohol strain of yeast. by slowly raising the amount of alcohol in the wash would the yeast adapt to the higher alcohol content or would they maintain there original tollerance. i maybe way out in leftfeild on this but you would think as new yeast are produced they would adapt to there environment. if the wash was started with bakers yeast and after several generations would sustain a 20% abv this would surely produce some high yeilds. i havent heard of anyone doing this but all opinions will be read and concidered.

Rebel_Yell · Post by **Rebel_Yell** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:00 pm

Do a search for yeast farming on this forum. There have been several great links posted by others.

I am sure that you could selectively grow such a yeast. I feel that the time required would be very long.

I would rather spend my time on other activities. I prefer to buy a good yeast and maintain it so that I don't have to buy as much yeast.

possum · Post by **possum** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:11 am

Ricky, I'm not a biologist, but yeast have 2 kinds of reproduction (at least). Asexual, where they just make coppies of themselves, and the only changes are from random mutation.
Sexual reproduction, where the yeast swap genetic material.

I have had multiple strains of yeast in the same fermenter.
I used Whitelabs High grav. ale yeast, and Crosby and Baker's Super Starter Distillers yeast, along with several other ale strains, and bakers yeast.

The whitelabs was always slow to ferment, but the super starter had a quicker ferment time, but a lower alcohol tolerance. I dont know what kind of interaction if any took place in the fermenter, but I'm sure that there are strains out there somewhere that will suit your needs.

Ricky · Post by **Ricky** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:23 am

possom thats the type answer i was looking for. i was just thinking as i keep the sourmash going maybe a gradual mutation could occur. sort of like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. its not that big of a deal i was just curios if something like that could happen. i know there are some highly educated and intellegent people on this forum not to mention the experianced. i might gradually increase the sugar content of my washes and see what happens. i started it with some 1yr old distillers yeast and it was slow to start so i added some fresh bakers yeast to get it going. its what i had on hand. i could add 1/2 to 1lb of extra sugar each gen until i cant acheive full fermentation. i know the sg will be hard to judge with all the suspended solids but they cant fool the taste test. worst that could happen is to waste some sugar. i will give it a go and see what happens.

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:43 am

I've done the same, had multiple strains of yeast in the same fermenter. It's worked out fine for me, but I've also read that this is a bad idea...search pintoshine's posts. I think he had a good explanation...

My experience has led me away from doing high gravity mashes. They put too much strain on the yeast and make too many unpleasant byproducts. My washes are now in the 10-12% range. There are lots of commercially available yeast that perform great.

Hackers · Post by **Hackers** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:59 pm

High tolerance yeasts were primarily developed to allow people to legally create drinkable? spirits.

In almost all countries it is quite legal to produce a wash, it is just not legal to distill it???!!!

So by producing 20% ABV washes you have a wash that has enough alcohol in it that you could if you wanted to, just filter and then add you essences for for a legally produced low alcohol rum, whisky, bourbon etc. Hence the search for higher % producing yeasts, one of the problems is of course the by products.

For what it is worth, I understand that hopeful research is currently going on in NZ to produce 30% plus tolerant strains, the problems at the moment are by products and heat tolerance.

However if you are going to distill, then you don't need yeasts that are stressed, in fact the less stress (by products) the better. Better to do two low alcohol washes than one high alcohol wash.

(more to drink too)

masonjar · Post by **masonjar** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:29 pm

I wonder what will happen when someone develops a yeast strain that can produce 40% alcohol. The government would then have to either legalize distilling or outlaw brewing it seems.

Ricky · Post by **Ricky** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:34 pm

probably the latter!

possum · Post by **possum** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:21 pm

I've been using the White labs High grav yeast, and it is slow to get those last 10% from 15% to 25%. Now if you have time to wait, then great...I think this yeast is designed for barley wine. I have seen stuff advertised forfuel use only, and it apearently goes beyond 25%,ferments more quickly, but with lots of off flavors/odors.

I do plan to use this fine yeast to make some kickin barley wine, but for now it is slowly finishing of my high grav rum wash. A 25% barley wine is stronger brew than fortified Port, or night train....heck its more than half as strong as general issue- off the shelf whiskey(@45%abv).