Home Distiller

Dear Shiners,
I have made two attempts at a sugar wash for neutral spirits and have had poor results both times. I suspect my problem is poor yeast nutrition, espeically after reading this post:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =40&t=5230

Still, I want to run my recipe by you and confirm that I have isolated the problem:

Ok, my recipe and results:
5kg of white cane sugar heated in 5 liters of water to dissolve and diluted to 20L in tap water. 7 tsp of yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate from Brew Store) were added. To adjust the pH, 15 tbs of lemon juice concentrate were added (~3 lemons worth of juice) bring the pH to ~5. When the mash cooled to 92F, an activated packet of EC-1118 was pitched. The starting specific gravity was 1.140, indicating an expected yield of ~15%. After 10 days of fermenting, the final specific gravity was 1.09, giving me a ~7.5% yield. Thoughts on why this mash worked so poorly? I have had much better yields on my apple washed.

Overall I think I am missing nutrients the yeast need. I have read in several of the tried and true recipes that tomato paste is used as a supplement. I though this wouldn't be needed if I added more DAP and might add off flavors.

1.090 is where you should be starting it at.

Go check out the tried and true recipes. Birdwatchers would be a good one for you.

The thread you linked is an excellent tutorial. (I have a printout of most of it in my distillers notebook.) The advice there should get you on the right track.

For now, I'd suggest you cut the sugar to 4kg for your 20 liter batch. Should give you a starting SG around 1.08-1.09. Trying to push the wash to 15% can stress the yeast and cause them to shut down early. I think I'd also cut the DAP to 5 tsp and add one or two crushed vitamin B tabs (or milti-vitamin).

You are pretty close.

if your going to play with recipes you should study up some on yeast nutrients.

How are you testing pH? I'd cut down on the lemon juice too.

Run Wineos wash. Crazy to fumble around when there are known washes that work and produce consistent results.