Carl Gijam- turbo yeast manufacturer

[stillvodka]

Hello Distillers,

I found this article, it's quite interesting, it's worth a read i think, or you may of already read it.

> >
> > I'm Carl Giljam, my company is Hambleton Bard Ltd. We manufacture
> the
> > Alcotec Turbo's and other distillation products. I will try to
stay
> > clear of the obvious temptation to push our own products here but
I
> > feel I need to comment a bit on the use of the Alcotec Turbo's
> after
> > having read through some of the posts.
> >
> > We have got a few emails to the company regarding this and I have
> > chosen to reply in this form rather than to each emailer in
private
> > because it seems to me to be in the general interest.
> >
> > AMMONIA - BLUE DISTILLATE PROBLEM:
> >
> > The bottom line here is simple:
> > Do NOT neutralise your wash prior to distilling.
> > If you add sodium bicarbonate you will produce ammonia.
> > If you don't add sodium bicarbonate you will not produce ammonia.
> > Ammonia in a copper still will make your spirit turn blue.
> >
> > The modern Alcotec's (AT24, AT48 and the new pot still AT which
> will
> > be available in 2004) are all designed to produce a slightly
acidic
> > wash to keep yield of ethanol high and glycerol low and also to
> > protect against any bacterial contamination.
> >
> > The recipe will NOT produce any ammonia in itself as sometimes
> stated
> > in this newsgroup. We have proved that in many lab tests, both
> > in-house and at external labs. The misconception that a modern
> turbo
> > is basically a load of DAP and some yeast could be no more wrong -
> > this was the case in the late 80's and the industry has developed
a
> > lot since then. The recipe as it is today will under normal
> > circumstances produce any no ammonia at all. Problem is when
people
> > change the recipe by adding things. The changing of recipes is
one
> of
> > our main sources of problems. We have very few complaints where
the
> > original recipe has been followed.
> >
> > ACIDIC WASH MUST BE NEUTRALISED
> >
> > No. This is not true in general. The modern ethanol producing
> industry
> > today uses acidic washes as an important part in producing more
and
> > cleaner alcohol and we are using the same technology.
> >
> > It is of course important to control the level of acidity in the
> wash
> > - it cannot be allowed to bee too high. All modern turbo's do
this
> as
> > an integral part of the recipe and it is important that the users
> do
> > not interfere with this. If you do - it is very likely you will
> move
> > away from the optimum wash.
> >
> > It will also depend on what type of still you use - a modern
> reflux is
> > preferable to a pot still from a purity point (i.e. to avoid
> carrying
> > over acidity and impurities).
> >
> > I could only agree with the neutralisation if you used a non-turbo
> > recipe with lots of nutrition combined with a simple pot still
> later.
> > And even then - if the pot still was made from copper, I would
> > hesitate.
> >
> > POT STILLS VS REFLUX - OR TRADITIONAL VS MODERN
> >
> > A pot still is not as good as a reflux when it comes to producing
> > clean ethanol. The only really good use for a pot still is when
you
> > make Whisky etc and you actually want some impurities carried
over.
> >
> > If you have a reflux still - no acidity at all will be carried
over
> > from a turbo yeast wash. If you use a pot still instead, some
> acidity
> > will be carried over - but an extremely low level which will not
> > affect taste or your health in any way. Neutralising the wash by
> > adding ammonia will produce more impurities than it will remove.
> >
> > COPPER STILLS
> >
> > Best would be not to use them. It's true that the Whisky industry
> and
> > other distillers found copper parts to be an essential bit when
> > designing the optimum still - but we are talking here about very
> small
> > copper parts in a very well designed stainless steel still. Common
> > home-stills can very well be 100% copper (and not of very good
> design
> > really) - and that's not very good at all. If you can - go for a
> > stainless steel still and preferably a reflux.
> >
> > Enough of that - I realise that there still is a lot of people out
> > there with a massive amount of copper in their stills. So - for
> you it
> > is ABSOLUTELY VITAL that you do not add anything to neutralise
your
> > wash. Addition of sodium bicarbonate will result in the formation
> of
> > copper ammonia salts (blue in colour) when wash comes in contact
> with
> > the copper.
> >
> >
> > COMMON RECIPE ALTERATIONS
> >
> > We see a lot of changes to the recipes, mainly from people
> complaining
> > or asking us technical questions. The most common change is
> scaling up
> > the recipe to a larger volume.
> >
> > Some guidelines:
> >
> > ALCOTEC 24 : Forget it. No good with more than 25 litres. I know
> some
> > people still use it for more and get a "good" result. But what
they
> > don't realise is that they would have got the same result (3 days
> > fermentation, final alchol around 10-11%) with a cheaper turbo.
> Also -
> > if you add, say 12 kgs of sugar into 50 litres and then get 10%
> > alcohol in a few days - there is a lot of residual sugar left and
> this
> > is unnecessary (will cost you money and produce a not-so-good
> > distillate). Better then to use a different turbo (AT48) and aim
> for
> > lower alcohol to start with, i.e. add LESS sugar than recipe.
This
> way
> > you get no residual sugar, less impurities, cheaper.
> >
> > ALCOTEC 48 : Can be used with larger volumes but you need to cut
> down
> > a bit on the sugar level. If you simply scale up the recipe there
> is a
> > risk the wash overheats (due to the smaller surface/volume
ratio).
> We
> > don't issue guidelines here - you will have to experiment a bit.
> >
> > ALCOTEC STACKABLE: We have thought about releasing a stackable
(up
> to
> > 200 litres) Alcotec 3-day turbo. This product already exists - we
> sell
> > it on the Scandinavian market under a Swedish name. If any of you
> out
> > there regularly make more than 50 litres (say up towards 100L or
> more)
> > we can send you some samples for evaluation. We don't know if the
> > market for large fermentations is big enough outside of
> Scandinavia,
> > that's why we are dwelling on this one.
> >
> > ALCOTEC 8 & ALCOTEC 6: (the older versions of Alcotec's). These
are
> > both less temperature tolerant than the modern recipes above. So
> it is
> > not a very good idea to scale up recipes here. If you have to do
it
> > you really MUST cut down on sugar content, maybe quite a lot plus
> cut
> > down on the amount of turbo's. We don't give any recommendations
> here.
> >
> > LARGE FERMENTATIONS: That would be, say 100-500 litres. Using
AT48,
> > you will need to cut down on the sugar here, you would also
> preferably
> > want to cut down on yeast but not nutrient. Now this is difficult
> > because the turbo is pre-mixed (yeast+nutrient). So you will have
> to
> > cut down on both unfortunately which will give you a non-optimal
> > result. It is possible to introduce some simple cooling (throw in
a
> > number of frozen 5L containers of water some 12 hours from start)
> etc.
> > See our website for more info (http://www.turbo-yeast.biz onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow).
> >
> > VERY LARGE FERMENTATIONS: 500 litres plus, often in the industry
> up to
> > 10,000 or 50,000 litres. Cooling MUST be provided (normally water
> > cooled mantle tanks) and then you can actually scale up our
> recipes to
> > 100,000 litres and they work fine. We provide the alcohol industry
> > with bulk turbo mixes for very large fermentations, the main
reason
> > they use our products is to produce up to 18% alcohol in one
> > fermentation, rather than 12%. The difference, 6% of 100,000
> litres is
> > a lot of alcohol.
> >
> > Best regards from,
> > Carl