Bakers Yeast??????

[Timberwolf]

I have read recipes that call for the use of bakers yeast instead of the Turbo Yeast you get from Distiller sites. Dose the bakers yeast work just as good and dose it affect the flavor of the end product??? I will only be making corn moonshine or a sugar shine to use in making apple pie. Also, if my turbo yeast says it is good for up to 6 gallons of mash, should I use 2 packs for a 12 gallon of mash recipe or will the 1 package work just as well???? Hope I havnt gotten to deep!!!

[ga flatwoods]

No, no, no, on turbo. If you MUSTuse it only use 1/2 as suggested per 5 gallons. It is not for ethanol to drink but for fuel. Bakers will help keep abv for the wash around 8%. Turbo is made to look very impressive but is is not so for the drink at suggested rates.
GA Flatwoods

[corene1]

I have read recipes that call for the use of bakers yeast instead of the Turbo Yeast you get from Distiller sites. Dose the bakers yeast work just as good and dose it affect the flavor of the end product??? I will only be making corn moonshine or a sugar shine to use in making apple pie. Also, if my turbo yeast says it is good for up to 6 gallons of mash, should I use 2 packs for a 12 gallon of mash recipe or will the 1 package work just as well???? Hope I havnt gotten to deep!!!

Personally I wouldn't use turbo at all! Very few people here use it as it does cause off flavors. I have used bakers yeast with excellent results on my corn and barley mashes. Also used it on some sugarheads with good results. I am sure you will hear some more from more experienced distillers on the forum.

[MitchyBourbon]

Timberwolf,

Don't use turbo yeast for anything but fuel. People here don't use turbo yeast because it does affect taste. The effects are all negative. For a sugar wash use bakers yeast, for corn use a good ale yeast.

[Mazriam]

It's the general consensus of the people on this forum that turbo yeast isn't any good, except for making fuel ethanol. I have a differing opinion.

If all your after is a completely neutral alcohol, then turbo will serve you well, provided you can make your cuts, and willing to carbon filter.

If your after a flavored alcohol, (corn whiskey, rum, whatever), then do not use a turbo yeast.

[jase1977]

I'm starting to wonder if the turbo yeast you blokes are getting in the states is rubbish. I get good results with mine.

[pounsfos]

we get it in NZ, and it is good for starters.

I did alot of testing with it, but at the end of the day, it's nothing compared to a try and true recipe

the fact you have to carbon filter it shows that,

For those interested, the best result I got with turbo yeast was,
Cuttign it in half for a 5 gal ferment, and only fermenting to 8%
then making VERY small hearts cuts

still got no where near what birdwatchers or other tried recipes can do with bakers yeast (or any other "specialised" yeast)

personally, beeing in NZ, I come across alot of people who have had a go at homebrewing, I can taste a turbo wash a mile away, then try pointing them at this site, or let them have a swig of my stuff, they say the difference is night and day

[Fed]

HI Timberwolf,

I've been using turbos since I started a couple of years ago. Recently I switch to bakers yeast for my rum & neutrals and E1118 for fruits, the return is less but it tastes so much better. My rum is now way up there with Bundy, only better. NO need to filter any of it. My fruits are so much better using E1118, I make a starter for this a week before and have yet to have a failure. I have turbo on hand just to remind me how bad it was.

[Rockypoint stills]

Brown jar yellow label from the grocery""

[jase1977]

Its really hard to wrap all turbo yeasts all together guys. That would be like saying all cars are the same.

Yes there are some rapid 24 hr. ones out there, but there's also some yeasts that can take two weeks.

I suspect the quality of what the Americans are getting is lesser quality than what we can in countries were home brewing is legal. Could someone in the states let us know what you can buy.

I cant see the commercial distillers using Bread yeast eh?

[bobtail]

Its really hard to wrap all turbo yeasts all together guys. That would be like saying all cars are the same.

Yes there are some rapid 24 hr. ones out there, but there's also some yeasts that can take two weeks.

I suspect the quality of what the Americans are getting is lesser quality than what we can in countries were home brewing is legal. Could someone in the states let us know what you can buy.

I cant see the commercial distillers using Bread yeast eh?

I'll promise you they don't use turbo

[Just a Biker]

The big boys maintain their own yeast strains. Cost effective but also a most consistent product. Turbos are turbos, they were not developed for distilling high quality drinkable ethanol. They were developed for the production of fuel ethanol. Ethanol plants are not concerned about taste. They want the highest ethanol yield as possible. These strains can also be marketed to novice distillers as “wonder yeasts” to increase revenues. The real irony is most of these strains are developed by company’s getting research grants from the government. So in essence people are buying an overpriced and substandard product at the store that your tax dollars paid to develop in the first place. Tidy!

[Prairiepiss]

Its really hard to wrap all turbo yeasts all together guys. That would be like saying all cars are the same.

Yes there are some rapid 24 hr. ones out there, but there's also some yeasts that can take two weeks.

I suspect the quality of what the Americans are getting is lesser quality than what we can in countries were home brewing is legal. Could someone in the states let us know what you can buy.

I cant see the commercial distillers using Bread yeast eh?

Homebrewing is legal here in the states. Home distilling is not.

And yes the turbo yeast available here is the same available there.

And all turbo yeast can very easily be grouped together. They all have an extreme amount of nutrients packaged with a little yeast. Where all the other good yeasts are just yeast.

Have you tried any other yeast? In a good recipe? Have you used bakers yeast? What kind of still are you using? What are you making? What ABV are you fermenting to?

[nabtastic]

I only have experience with the turbo yeast from brewhaus, but we consistently get good flavors from it. I don't know what the rest of you chaps use, but I have a strong feeling that if your spirit is crap then you probably screwed something else up along the way. That being said, I'm not exactly a proponent of turbo yeasts, but they are incredibly easy to work with. It does seem to produce a little more ethyl acetate (based off sense not chemical analysis), but that can be fixed.

Incidentally, some of my worst spirits have been using bakers yeast. but the wash I've got going now is bakers and I've improved quite a bit since the last time I used it, so we'll see what happens!

NAB

[rad14701]

I cant see the commercial distillers using Bread yeast eh?

But they do... They sure don't use Turbo Yeast... Fleischmann's supplies distilleries with yeast and was, in fact, a distillery before prohibition here in the US... So, what is your stance on the subject now...???

[Prairiepiss]

I only have experience with the turbo yeast from brewhaus, but we consistently get good flavors from it. I don't know what the rest of you chaps use, but I have a strong feeling that if your spirit is crap then you probably screwed something else up along the way. That being said, I'm not exactly a proponent of turbo yeasts, but they are incredibly easy to work with. It does seem to produce a little more ethyl acetate (based off sense not chemical analysis), but that can be fixed.

Incidentally, some of my worst spirits have been using bakers yeast. but the wash I've got going now is bakers and I've improved quite a bit since the last time I used it, so we'll see what happens!

NAB

So you are saying as a small legal distillery. You are making and selling a product made with turbo yeast? What kind of product is it. And what are you using? Maybe your methods could shed some light?

And how can you screw up a turbo yeast wash? Other then making it to begin with?

[Jimbo]

I suspect the quality of what the Americans are getting is lesser quality than what we can in countries were home brewing is legal. Could someone in the states let us know what you can buy.

HomeBrewing beer is legal here. We have ready access to hundreds of yeasts. Even distillers yeasts. Here's 9 pages of yeasts we can buy. There's many more, this is just one shop. http://home-brewing.northernbrewer.com/ ... id&w=yeast" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow


Edit: INteresting, they even have a Bourbon yeast from "the heart of Bourbon country' Might be worth a try http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/whit ... yeast.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[nabtastic]

So you are saying as a small legal distillery. You are making and selling a product made with turbo yeast? What kind of product is it. And what are you using? Maybe your methods could shed some light?

And how can you screw up a turbo yeast wash? Other then making it to begin with?[/quote]

I'm not sure how you can screw up a turbo yeast sugarhead...but where there's a will there's a way! In all honesty, we do open fermentation for our "moonshine." I follow the direction of my bosses for better or worse. We have tried hydrating the yeast a few times, but mostly we pitch it dry because we haven't noticed any difference. We've got a heater, but it's very effective for the space so there is a considerable temperature flux - especially when running our direct fired still. Our shine uses refined sugar and yellow cornmeal and we distill on the grain. We're using a 500L alembic still from Hoga http://www.hogacompany.com/distillers.htm. Despite all the advanced methods on this website we literally use none of them at work, though my personal life is different. I will say that we typically let the spirit rest - after being thoroughly mixed/proofed - for at least a week using mineral water (as opposed to distilled). Maybe it just needs to rest/oxidize longer than a standard yeast?

For me, I'd prefer to use ECJ and wine yeast just to see if there is any difference.

[BourbonStreet]

I've tried champagne yeast, EC-1118, etc., with decent results. Recently, I ran out, and needed to restart a ferment. I was in a hurry, and got some bread yeast at the supermarket. Wow, does this stuff work! I proofed it, then pitched it. In an hour or two, it was bubbling like a fountain. I ran it, and it tastes great. My ABV was a bit higher, too.

The best part is that my wife didn't complain about my ferments. She actually complimented me on how good the wash smells...

[nabtastic]

I asked our yeast supplier why some people have issues with turbo yeast. I haven't heard if I can post the email but the gist is that many Turbo yeast include urea.. Also a straight sugarhead has basically no natural flavors to hide failures in fermentation. So control your temps, your SG, nutrients, etc.

NAB