Experiments with yeast and whiskey

[stilldistillin]

So I've been making UJSSM for some time with bakers yeast with mixed results. Sometimes after a few generations the distillate would smell stinky or have some crazy smells that I didn't quite like. I ran three different pails and tried to make sure all equipment and hydrometers were sanitized when using them on different buckets as not to spread any infections.

Lately I've been diving in to testing some brewers yeasts. Upon some research I found that dry ale yeasts work best with whiskies from reports on the Internet.

I picked up two yeasts, S-04: a British ale yeast with high sediment and fast fermenting, and S-05: an American ale yeast with medium sediment and medium ferment time.

For all ferments, I aim for an SG of 1.06 to 1.066, in that range @ 25c (77f).

Upon my first generation ferments and distil of the two different buckets containing S-04, and S-05, I noticed that the taste/smell of the final product after one distillation was much cleaner and had many less off-smells than when just with bakers yeast.

I never let my UJSSM settle. Once it hits 1.0 FG or lower and bubbles have almost stopped, I rack it in the pot and boil away.

The S-04 bucket distillate seems to have a harsher ester profile than the S-05, but not near as harsh as bakers yeast - and very, very good and extremely tasty after one distillation. I took about 35% hearts, I threw away all the heads into my fruit fly jar (I hate heads so much I won't even use them in my feints jar,) and saved the tails. No need to distil a second time - very happy with the 1st gen s-04 bucket distillate. However there were quite a bit of heads, even though I ran at 100% reflux and 50% reflux for a while on the first couple jars. The tails were very strong as well so I only added a very, very small amount to the hearts jar when combining final cuts. I could not add a ton of tails to the final product as this would of been overpowering.

The S-05 bucket distillate was much cleaner. It was amazing how much hearts I could take from this distillation - I actually had to question myself a few times ... "Am I being too greedy?? Nope, can't smell heads and the tails aren't that strong yet.." I took about 60% hearts, and threw away about 20% heads, and kept 20% tails for the feints jar. The 60% hearts was collected at 65% to 70% ABV, averaging 67% ABV when put together in to one jar. The heads smell was pretty strong in the first couple jars, but faded pretty quickly after the initial reflux stage was stopped and put the still in to pot still mode to collect hearts at 65% ABV. The tails were pretty subtle at the start, and even collecting at 40-50% once the ABV started to drop and I didn't increase reflux, the tails still had a pleasant smell which enabled me to use quite a bit of them in the final product.


Overall, my S-04 and S-05 alt yeast adventures have been quite pleasant and I'm happy I sprung for the packages of yeast. I will report back on how they shape up and compare in 2nd generation and beyond. The bakers yeast got more and more stinky as the generations wore on, and I'm hoping if I can keep the S-04 and S-05 yeasts pure, that they won't go that way.

Hope this helps someone else considering using brewers yeast. If anyone else has anything to offer and expand this conversation, please add.

EDIT: I use a pot still VM hybrid 2" column with two VM SS values to control reflux and pot still mode. It has two condensers which both have CM ball values on them. One condenser is an inline 2", sixteen inch long liebig over 1" which in inline with the column. The second condenser is a 36" liebig 3/4 over 1/2 which is the product condenser. With this setup I can control 100% to 0% reflux, and dial in the exact ABV I want coming over to my distillate in a range of 90% to 20% on a 8-10% wash.

[aceswired]

Thanks for the report. Will be watching.

[biker geek]

I have been experimenting with S-04 and wlp007. I liked the hearts flavor for s-04 better, but I kept more of the run with wlp007. I found that if I used a bigger starter I kept more of the run when using s-04, but still not as much as with 007. The s-04 highlighted the nuttier flavors, whereas the wlp007 highlighted the sweetness from the corn(40% corn, 40%oats, 20% 2row barley). I started with these because I knew how to use them for beer, and because all the distilling yeasts had almost no ester profile. I will have to compare results with some of the distillers yeast, but for now I am going to try some Belgian style yeast and see what I get. I'm expecting a lot of heads

[stilldistillin]

I just distilled my 2nd gen UJSSM today of the S-04. Again, heads bleed through quite a bit of the product. Even the 5th jar in tastes "hot", even though I used quite a bit of reflux. Great taste.. Really can't make any mix decisions until tomorrow and it's had 24 hours to air out.

The tails end is strong... The direct middle of hearts tastes absolutely awesome... but I don't think I'll be able to keep much hearts again with just one distillation. I'm starting to think S-04 is definitely a two distillation yeast if you want more smooth final product.

Will report tomorrow after mix of jars have been completed.

[stilldistillin]

I have been experimenting with S-04 and wlp007. I liked the hearts flavor for s-04 better

I do love the taste of the S-04 hearts. But unfortunately, the hearts section seems very narrow and cuts need to be tight. Thanks for sharing!

[biggybigz]

My ujssm has a hot smell as well. I use DADY. When you drink it it is smoooooooth. Smells hot even when you water it down to 90 proof. I'm not a person to get heartburn much but I got it after several glasses of it. Is that the Result of too much yeast?

[Appalachia-Shiner]

Seems like my last batch was kinda headsy.
We have had hot weather lately, will this cause the yeasts to make the batch more headsy??
Way down in the run I was still getting the heads Smell and taste.

[biker geek]

The hot smell and flavor cmes with too little yeast. Yeast make a number of compounds when the multiply that make beer and distillate hot. A bigger starter will help a lot.

Yeast almost always produce more esters with a hot ferment. Finding a way to keep your ferment in a desirable temp range will cut back on heads

[raketemensch]

The wlp400 was always my favorite when brewing, with all the banana esters. I have to wonder how that would translate to distilling, but my hopes aren't high.

Thanks for doing this, I've been wondering what the factors are that seem to cause yeast flavors going bad for some, but not others. I appreciate your efforts.