What makes the fermentation process?

[MICKoWAR]

Hi guys I'm new to this forum! =)
Recently got a still and making a fuck load of spirits!

Now, i've always been curious, how does the whole process work, my gathering is you need nutrients, yeast sugar and water, (sorry to bust peoples balls here! but i'm on a quest for knowlege! =)

What part does each ingredient play, and what products fall into each catagory?

(also yes im a dumb ass and have no idea what the whole SG etc mean, so if anyone can tell me that too would be appreciated!)

[blanikdog]

Welcome mick. May I suggest that you read the parent site and this forum and all your questions will be answered without us having to resort to spoonfeeding, which isn't tolerated in here. We'll go out of our way to help someone who has made the initial effort, but clearly you don't fall into that category.

blanik

[rubber duck]

Hey Mick,

The fermentation process works something like this. We put bugs in sugar water, the bugs eat the sugar and poop. We drink the poop. That's fermentation in a nut shell.

[kiwistiller]

I'll throw some links at you if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

from which you may browse to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol#Production" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentati ... emistry%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fermentation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zymurgy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Dnderhead]

Come on Duck tell the rest of the story.
Then we work very hard and with a lot of practice, we separate the poop from the water,so we can have pure bug poop.
or if you practice and become good you can create flavored bug poop.

[rubber duck]

Ok now that I gave you the smart ass answer I figure I should give you a better explanation.

Yeast is a living organism, It need food and vitamins to survive. Sugar and sometimes starches are its food. When a organism process food it creates byproducts, in the case of yeast this byproduct is alcohol. Now just like you if all you ever ate was sugar you wouldn't get vary far right? yeast also needs nutrients ie. vitamins just as you do. When all the food is consumed yeast goes into hibernation just like many animals do in the winter time when there is no food.

SG = specific gravity. Specific gravity means density. The density of water is 1.000. Sugar will raise the density of water. Alcohol has no effect on the density of water. So lets say you start with a SG of 1.05 and at the end of the ferment your at 1.01 Rough and dirty math your at 4% alcohol. So as the yeast eats the sugar and produces alcohol the gravity on you hydrometer will fall when you go a day or two and it doesn't fall any more your ether finished or you have a stuck mash.

There is also Og= Original gravity and FG= Final gravity. They should be self explanatory.

As Dunder said when you get good at this you can make some really flavorful poop.

Ya so basically we're refining poop.

[Fastill]

Hey Mick,

The fermentation process works something like this. We put bugs in sugar water, the bugs eat the sugar and poop. We drink the poop. That's fermentation in a nut shell.

Guys, do I feel stupid
All this time I thought we were just drinking the bugs pee.