Home Distiller

Ok so having been around the forum for a little while and reading the posts I saw various posts about the birdwatchers recipe so I thought I would give it a bash so I mixed up the following.

6kg sugar
200g tomato puree
Lemon juice
Wine Yeast from wilko 2 x 5g packs (just because I had it kicking around and wanted to see what it was like)

starting SG 1.092

it has an aquarium heater in it to regulate the temp, currently sitting steady at 25 C (77 F)

now in my first plain sugar wash (with off the shelf nuturiants) using dried bakers yeast within about 4 hours it was bubbling through the airlock, this one however the yeast seems to have clumped up on the top and there doesnt seem to be any CO2 being produced as the airlock isnt going and there doesnt seem to be any bubbling in the fermentor.

I started this last night so I will check it when I get back from work and drop a hydrometer in there and see what the SG is and see if it has done anything.

what I wanted to know is, the clumping at the top is this normal with this wash or do you think its crap yeast?

I was thinking that if it hasnt done anything by tonight that I would skim the yeast off the top and just put some dry bakers yeast in like I did with the plain sugar wash I did. What are your thoughts?

wow, i just did some googleing and someone asked wilko what strain of yeast their wine yeast was and they got this back

"The wine strain used in the Gervin universal wine yeast is EC1118"

so I have EC1118 in my sugar wash, I have heard mixed thoughts on this, some say its very slow, some say the opposite.

is the "clumping" a thick foamy looking substance? Probobly just krausen, totally normal.

I looks more like the yeast its self has just clumped up at the top and hasnt got mixed in to the wash, I know with fruit washes you have a cap that forms on the top but i wasnt expecting one with this recipe.

I did as the yeast packet said and just put it on the top, I then let is soak up some wash and mixed it a bit but it doesnt seem to have broken up in to the wash.

I just went and bought another fermentor I might do another version of the wash tonight but with dry bakers yeast and see what it does.

I'll take a pic tonight and post it up so you can see what I mean, doesnt really look like your pic. Maybe its ok, it just seemed weird that I have this cap on the top which I didnt have with my frst sugar wash, the only difference is the tomato paste and lemon juice.

I use 75g Allisons dried active bakers yeast with a 25 litre wash, it's a yellow tin, 64p at Tesco or asda. Just sprinkle it onto the top of your wash without stirring in.
Also it's recommended by Birdwatcher and others to use Epsom Salts.(1/4 of a teaspoon).

If you stirred the yeast into the wash then what you are seeing is called a krausen, not clumping... This is normal and nothing to be concerned about... However, you did mention a "sugar wash" but never stated anything about nutrients... Yeast cannot live on sugar alone, they require nutrients... And no krausen or cap will stop CO2 from being produced... Only lack of nutrients, infection, or cool or extremely hot temperatures will do that...

rad14701 wrote:If you stirred the yeast into the wash then what you are seeing is called a krausen, not clumping... This is normal and nothing to be concerned about... However, you did mention a "sugar wash" but never stated anything about nutrients... Yeast cannot live on sugar alone, they require nutrients... And no krausen or cap will stop CO2 from being produced... Only lack of nutrients, infection, or cool or extremely hot temperatures will do that...

this is a sugar wash with tomato puree and lemon juice as per the birdwatchers recipe which is the nuteriants apparently

Gaztops wrote:I use 75g Allisons dried active bakers yeast with a 25 litre wash, it's a yellow tin, 64p at Tesco or asda. Just sprinkle it onto the top of your wash without stirring in.
Also it's recommended by Birdwatcher and others to use Epsom Salts.(1/4 of a teaspoon).

yep I got some of that, might try that in the next one

Epsom Salts, I have seen birdwatchers with it and without it, not sure were to get some from.

oh and about the cap, it looks more like the picture now so I think its just like you guys have said.

Epsom salts - found on the drug aisle in the grocery store. The stuff can also be used for soaking your feet or put some in the bath water. Go figure.

Epsom salts is Magnesium Sulphate ........Yeast needs or likes magnesium , from memory this helps stop flocculation ( the clumping together of yeast cells) in the later stages of fermentation. Could be wrong , have been before.
Plenty of information out there if you google "flocculation of yeast"

picked some up today, was thinking I might disolve it in warm water and add it to the mash, what do you think? or should I leave it until the next batch?

as long as you dont soak your feet it in first!

Can't help you with your situation, and I'm sure it's all good by now... but what I wanted to discuss is the comment about it taking 4 hours to get a bubbler going. I have seen this in several posts, yet I have done 3 BW washes now, and all are bubbling as soon as I put the lid on. Not sure why I am getting activity when others are not, but it seems to me that the yeast SHOULD be working as soon as you pitch it. (Bear in mind that I hydrate my yeast for 10-20 minutes in 110° water with a bit of sugar in it before I pitch it).

Bubblers only work if you have an air tight fermenter, the slightest leak and it won't work.
I have stopped using air locks as a guide for that very same reason and use measurements from a hydrometer instead, it's pretty fool proof.