not turbo yeast,then what yeast!!

[paulhardy]

I have been using alcoltec 24 hour turbo yeast, am just about to try still spirits triple distled yeast. I have read on a few of the topics here about using half a packet with 25 litre wash to get rid of that tang that i get, if i do use half a packet, do i need to add anything else, have heard i might need to add some nutrients, if so what is this. Also if turbo yeast is no good, what sort of yeast should i use. I mainly make vodka and some liquers, in this wash i have 6 kg dextorse and the yeast, i also do a whiskey wash, 6kg dextrose, 2 litres orange juice and cracked corn which makes my bourbon and whiskey. Would i use the same yeast for both of these washes. My still is a ss airstill (didnt know any better), and i am also trying sitting my diluted product in carbon before running it through my carbon filter system. thanks in advance

[HookLine]

I have been using alcoltec 24 hour turbo yeast, am just about to try still spirits triple distled yeast. I have read on a few of the topics here about using half a packet with 25 litre wash to get rid of that tang that i get, if i do use half a packet, do i need to add anything else, have heard i might need to add some nutrients, if so what is this.
No, you should be fine.

Also if turbo yeast is no good, what sort of yeast should i use. I mainly make vodka and some liquers, in this wash i have 6 kg dextorse and the yeast, i also do a whiskey wash, 6kg dextrose, 2 litres orange juice and cracked corn which makes my bourbon and whiskey. Would i use the same yeast for both of these washes. My still is a ss airstill (didnt know any better), and i am also trying sitting my diluted product in carbon before running it through my carbon filter system. thanks in advance

For neutrals and rums, bakers yeast is pretty popular, I use it a lot. Not sure about the best yeast for whiskeys, as I don't make them. Others will know.

If you are having to use carbon to clean up the spirit, then your set-up and procedures are not really doing the job properly. A better still would go a long way to doing that, and a basic but good pot still is pretty easy and cheap to build. Also, I would cut the amount of sugar you are using in the ferments so that they end up with an abv of no more than about 10%. That alone will clean up your final product a lot.

[Dnderhead]

this year I used ale yeast in my single malt seems to have worked out good.
but then I never put orange juice in whisky?

[Hawke]

I had good luck with an ale yeast in my UJSSM as well.
It made some very clean neutral, when I first started. (Then I figured out I was wasting the flavor)

[Husker]

Paul,

If you are using 6KG of dextrose to make a 25L wash, using turbo, then you are in the 14% ABV range. That is pretty high. The instructions to split out the yeast are not simply split the yeast, but also split the sugar. Many of these recipes for turbos, try to get you to push to 18% or even worse yet, 20%. The 'split' goes like this:

Recipe on back of turbo satchet:
- 1 satchet yeast
- 8kg sugar
- Fill bucket with sugar, and water up to 25L.
- Add yeast, ferment, run

What you get from that, is a long ferment that gets you about 19% ABV.

The split change we are talking about is this:
- 1 satchet of yeast (split in half)
- 8kg of sugar (split in half), NOTE, you could bump this to 5kg each easily
- take 2 buckets put the 1/2 sugar (assuming 5kg) in each, and fill up to 25L
- Add the 1/2 satchet yeast to each, then ferment, run

What you end up with, at 5kg each, with 1/2 satchet is 2 25L washes that are in the 11.5% range, but that will ferment MUCH faster, and the end result will be much much cleaner than the single 25L that you tried to push to 19%.

Now, your initial post made claim to about using 6kg shows a 14% and not an 18%. I have no idea about your 'turbo' yeast, and what it claims, but if you push to the max, you are going to get a much nastier tasting product in the end.

Also, when doing distilled spirits, there is little need to use dextrose. El cheapo sucrose (i.e. table sugar), works just fine. Again, do not push it 'too' far.

H.

[paulhardy]

Wow, thanks for the comments, great help. In relation to splitting my wash, do we make 2 washes just because we have the yeast to do it, so i can just do 1 wash with 4kg sugar and half a packet of yeast? Also with the sugar, so i can just buy sugar in the packet at my local grocery store and use this and it makes no diffrence? And in regards to the yeast, if i just brought normal brewers yeast from the brew shop, so no turbo yeast, from reading other posts this will help with a cleaner product, can i split this in half as well. Thanks in advance

[Hawke]

For a 25L batch, you could go 5kg and use just 1/2 the turbo packet.
The non turbo packets do not contain the neutrients, so they do not need to be split. You would need to use something besides sugar to feed them. (gerber, wheat germ, tomato paste or simillar)
Turbo's can be pushed so high because they are overloaded with everything.