sugar mash keeps stalling!!!

[diesel4ever]

Okay I tried a couple of test batches of the sugar mash reciepe on here using bakers yeast (I used bob's red mill baking yeast) and plant fertilizer, epsom salts, citric acid, multivitamins, etc. This started out fine only it went REALLY slow taking like 3-4 weeks now and I'm on my 3rd course of repitching yeast and nutrient. it runs for about a week and then just stops. Today it just stopped again and I thought "okay maybe it's finally done" so I dropped the triple scale hydrometer into the bucket and it shows 1.026 sg still! WTF! My mash is at a constant 70deg. F and this is the last time I'm going to waste my time on this reciepe. Sticking with turbo yeasts from now on.

[SuperDavid]

you don't need turbos and you don't need bakers yeast. Actually you might just need bakers yeast, but not as your main fermenting yeast. I use ec-118 to ferment and I use bakers yeast as nutrient, I boil up the bakers yeast and throw it in with dap, multi vitamins, citric acid and some tomato paste and that ferments out very well. I tried wineos sugar wash and birdwatchers and both stalled on me at different times. There is something missing from the recipies I think...the fact that so much yeast needs to be used to get it ferment out makes me thing its not balanced.
so I've combined recipies and thrown in boiled yeast and it seems bullet proof so far. I beleive the boiled yeast is what makes it so good. I believe it gives nutrients that don't come from anything else. Give the boiled yeast a shot and use a chapagne or wine yeast to ferment, see how that goes before you go to turbo.

[diesel4ever]

Thanks superdave. I'll try that. I went ahead and ordered a 1/2 kg package of Superstart Distillers Yeast. My well water is kinda acidic (around 5.5-5. checked with a fish tank test kit a few years ago. I wonder if this is affecting my mash. I need to get something to read PH of my mash.

[Dnderhead]

it could , most washes the Ph lowers as it progreses, staring at 5 it mite be below 4 and in jepperdy half way threw.

[rad14701]

My guess is that you've over-dosed your wash with nutrients to the point of toxicity...

Bakers yeast works just fine and is widely used by folks here... I'd suggest trying either my Gerber or All Bran recipe, following the recipe proportions without deviation, before writing off bakers yeast... I recommend them because they work and are virtually impossible to screw up if you don't deviate... The only thing that might slow a bakers yeast wash is temperatures below 75F... Anything lower will start to make bakers yeast sluggish regardless of nutrients... Both of these recipes have consistently fermented to 14% ABV in ~3 days... No need for turbo's...