Home Distiller

When I brew beer I make a yeast starter to help with a faster kick off with my fermentation. I then will re use the same yeast 6 or 7 times making sure my sanitation is correct. Is there any reason that I should not do the same with my Alcotel Turbo yeast when I use sugar as my medium? Is it necessary to start over everytime? I would be doing my washes back to back with no more than an hour or so delay.

regards,
Don

you can but it will no longer be a "turbo" all or most of the nutrients will be used.
and if your not pushing the ABV to high as doing so can kill the yeast.

It's not going to work the same as a fresh turbo yeast packet, a lot of that packet is nutrient.

Why are you messing around with turbo's? You have the skills and equipment to do better for cheaper.

You would also have to be concerned about additional off tastes and smells if prior washes were stressed during the fermentation process... Turbos are not intended to be re-used... Use them up and then move away from them...

Bread yeast.
Bread yeast
Bread yeast
And then you can re-use them and also using the back wash
get a more better taste.
ArkyJ

Alcotel Turbo yeast second time around will make 90%+ if you though loads of nutrients in it and sugar of course(from a tight arse novice)

Dajavu wrote:Alcotel Turbo yeast second time around will make 90%+ if you though loads of nutrients in it and sugar of course(from a tight arse novice)

What, exactly, are you talking about...??? No, I'm not being a wise ass here...

The %ABV of your spirits has nothing at all to do with the yeast that you use... I don't know where that concept came from but I would strongly suggest that you do some in-depth research into the theory of distillation before contributing further in these forums...

Yeast either converts sugar to CO2 and alcohol or it doesn't... Sugar determines the %ABV of a wash... How much water you remove from the wash determines the %ABV of the spirits... The %ABV that a given yeast can survive in varies whether it is the first wash it has fermented or the 20th... A 5% wash can produce 95% alcohol just as easily as a 20% wash... The difference is in the amount of off tastes and smells in the wash that may carry over into the final spirits...

Know the basics of distillation and know about yeast and what they need...

Bad advice is worse than no advice at all...

ArkyJ wrote:Bread yeast.
Bread yeast
Bread yeast
And then you can re-use them and also using the back wash
get a more better taste.
ArkyJ

I too have had great luck with and became fond of good ol bread yeast.

In all the reading I have done within this forum I have noticed a great disparity when it come to using yeast properly. There are a few here that exhibit a wealth of info concerning yeast, but many who are much less informed. Turbo's use excessive amount of nutrients to facilitate rapid colony growth, which actually makes for less than healthy yeast. The yeast are constantly stressed, and with the high gravity wash, the result is the off flavors and crap that makes Turbo's so unpopular here.

Over-ptiching, using an excessive amount of yeast, can give the same results, whether you use bread yeast or speciality yeasts.

Big R

You are correct, rtalbigr, you can over-pitch any strain of yeast... However, in some instances, slightly over-pitching can be beneficial... A prime example would be slightly over-pitching bakers yeast into certain Rum washes to produce a more distinct buttery taste... But you have to find a balance...

All that said, while informative it borders on drifting off topic... Any yeast can be re-used but the re-use of turbo yeast are often more likely to contribute to more off flavors due to the stress they may have encountered during previous fermentations...

I have been reading the yeast threads, and I actually removed a comment on one another thread since I found this thread more suitable for the question.

How can one remove and store a yeast for a long timer amount of time? It would be nice to have several yeast strains available for different ferments or experiments. Have a Rum colony, or a Vodka Colony, or even a Whiskey Colony. Maybe pitch a Whiskey wash with a Rum colony, etc.

Can these yeasts be dried back out through a dehydrator and reused? If not, what is the measurement of pitching the stored "wet" yeast? Still a tablespoon per X liter wash?

I may have missed this, but this single thread made me start thinking about the possibilities.

PS:
Or even mixing colonies; half whiskey, half rum for example.

I don't know if anyone else has ever encountered this but I'll make mention here... I am going to start rehydrating even my sacrificial yeast used as nutrients because I have been seeing whole yeast floating in my washes recently... I had attributed it to boiling it while inverting the sugar but have even had this occur when tossed into hot wash... My guess is that when tossed into a hot solution the outer layer seals up and any nutrients inside simply go to waste... I'm leaning towards making two starters for my next wash, which may not be for a couple months, and dump on into the hot wash slurry and then use the other as my active colony...

From what I have read, for the home brewer storing yeast long term is really not practical. Generally after two weeks to one month max after cropping yeast it loses both its viability and vitality and the cell start dying off. You can keep the yeast on your wort and extend that time somewhat but you're still going to have problems. Freezing is not a solution because it can destory the cells, and even cold storage (33-35F) has it's limits. Even large scale brewers will use a strain for 6- 10 generations and then start over with a new, pure culture. Best advise, whether top or bottom cropping is that you can rinse to remove trub and seperate off yeast, cold store for two-three weeks and then reuse. Beyond that you lose too much viability and vitality.

Big R

Thanks Big R. At least I know some general rules to limits now. This does make me think of the possibilities though.

Dajavu wrote:Alcotel Turbo yeast second time around will make 90%+ if you though loads of nutrients in it and sugar of course(from a tight arse novice)

what i should have added is we got about 200-300ml 90% +from 5lt of water and 1tablespoon of youngs nutrients 1.5kg of sugar and 150ml of yeast slurry

rtalbigr wrote:From what I have read, for the home brewer storing yeast long term is really not practical. Generally after two weeks to one month max after cropping yeast it loses both its viability and vitality and the cell start dying off. You can keep the yeast on your wort and extend that time somewhat but you're still going to have problems. Freezing is not a solution because it can destory the cells, and even cold storage (33-35F) has it's limits. Even large scale brewers will use a strain for 6- 10 generations and then start over with a new, pure culture. Best advise, whether top or bottom cropping is that you can rinse to remove trub and seperate off yeast, cold store for two-three weeks and then reuse. Beyond that you lose too much viability and vitality.

Big R

I use washed yeast all the time that's been in the jar 4 month+, it's slow to start but it goes. I've also used yeast from my frozen bank that's 18 months old and it fired right up.

As far as a pure culture after 4 or 5 generations I wash it with chlorine dioxide and run the abv up to 8% to kill any wild yeast.

Rubber Duck. Could you write a short "How To process and freeze yeast?" Thanks

here is one of many,,some very slightly,,,,
http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/yeast_harv_freeze.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

If I have to pause between rounds, I just scoop a jar of lees off the bottom with a sterilized mason jar, store it in the fridge. Bring it up to room temp and pitch the whole jar into the next batch to start it off. Seems to work good for me. Flavor is definitely better than the first pitch/packet of yeast. Pitching yeast from different batches/recipes also gets interesting results sometimes. I can't remember longest time I ever stored one. I think it was about 3-4 weeks though. What ever it was...it worked just fine when I pitched it.

pigroaster wrote:Rubber Duck. Could you write a short "How To process and freeze yeast?" Thanks

I've been meaning to do that along with a few other projects. There are a few really good wright ups on homebrewtalk.com