Home Distiller

midlife-u-turn wrote:I use us-05 pretty exclusively for my AG mashes and have always had good luck with it. I have a storage room in the basement that stays a consistent 65-68 degrees and works well with the 05. I think it is pretty common to do back to back ferments. I leave any sludge that is on the bottom and dump a new batch in, usually takes off very quick. I routinely get down to 1.00 with it, and I believe the worst I've gotten is 1.003ish. I

How long to get down that low? I feremented 2 weeks in the 10 gal vessels, the kind typically used for wine. They look like small garbage cans and instead of an air lock I just leave the lid loose and not snapped down tight, covered in a bed sheet for darkness. All activity seemed to have stopped after the 2 weeks but perhaps if I had an airlock I'd have seen a bubble periodically.

I routinely let them go a full 2 weeks before I rack to a secondary. I usually don't even look at them after they take off. When I check them at the end of the two weeks they are almost always at 1.00. The last two recent batches I did of oat whiskey the first took only about 9 days (1.001ish) and the second on the established yeast bed only took about 6 days. These are the fastest examples I've had however, not really sure why they were faster. I use the 13 gal food grade barrels with the red lids and a 1/2 hose for an air lock.

Shiny,

What temp did you mash at. If you mash at 155F like for a beer you'll hit 1.01 pretty routinely as youre favoring alpha amylase enzymes which make random sugars out of the starch molecule, some unfermentable. You need to mash at 148F to favor the beta amylase enzymes (which make Maltose) and you'll get it to ferment dry, 0.996-1.000

Hey Jimbo thats great advice but I mashed at 149 in a cooler for 2 hrs so don't think that was it. Could be the room it was in warmed up more during the day with the sun shining through the window? Maybe I'll check the hydrometer for calibration too.

If you're not boiling the wash after mashing, there's likely a good bit of wild yeast and bacteria in there. 148 isn't hot enough to pasteurize. Bacterias and some yeasts can eat sugars that bakers or brewers yeast generally can't, which could be contributing to the lower final gravity.

masonsjax wrote:If you're not boiling the wash after mashing, there's likely a good bit of wild yeast and bacteria in there. 148 isn't hot enough to pasteurize. Bacterias and some yeasts can eat sugars that bakers or brewers yeast generally can't, which could be contributing to the lower final gravity.

Interesting idea. Are you suggesting my process of mashing behind closed doors in the garage (keeps neighbor's curiosity at bay) could be leading to a cleaner or more sterile environment than doing it outside with all the goodies blowing around thus why I only hit 1.010?

Nah I don't think that would make too much difference. Unless you're filtering your air, there's yeast and bacteria all around us. There are a lot of variables, only some we can control and account for. What takes hold is sometimes a matter chance. If you pitch an adequate amount of healthy yeast, they can generally out compete whatever else gets in there. This of course doesn't guarantee that something else wont sneak in there and do it's thing too tho.

I've been reading up on yeast, including us-05 and came across this.
I figured it was relevant to the discussion.

Thats an excellent summary of important things to know about yeast. Everyone here should read it. Thanks for posting.

+1. Thanks Fart Vader. (Love the Space Balls bit )

On my last batch of Honey Bear Bourbon I used US-05 as I have been with all of my attempts at Bourbon. Not thinking I left the thermostat set at 78F, the temp I use for panela rum - fermented great all the way down to .998 in 9 days. Squeezed it into carboys (36 gal), great corn smell. My normal protocol is to let it clear for a couple of days and then rack through a 1 micron felt sock into the boiler.

Filled the boiler with the first 12 gals for the strip run, all good - great corn aromas ran it and racked the next for the second 12 gal run same great corn smells. Towards the end of this second run I had a little technical problem, my cooling reservoir sprung a leak ended up leaving the last 12 gals sitting on the yeast lees for a few more days until I had the time to fix it.

Racked the last 12 gals into the boiler today and wow the corn aromas turned into, took me a little while to pinpoint the aroma but my supper taster son quickly confirmed my thought that it was ripe strawberry and added with a touch of the plant. I'm not sure if it was the too high temp for the yeast or the sitting on the lees for so long, or the combo of the two? I'm going to keep this strip run separate from the other two to see if there is any taste difference.

Thoughts and wisdom will be gratefully appreciated.

OVZ

Fart Vader wrote:I've been reading up on yeast, including us-05 and came across this.
I figured it was relevant to the discussion.

Lots of great info in one location. I bookmarked it thanks.