Home Distiller

Okay, so I did up my first sugar wash last night for my newly gifted reflux still:

5KG Sugar + 60g yeast nutrients, I added this to about 5L of boiled water, then topped it up to the 20L mark with cold filtered water. The final temperature was 36C. I figured since the instructions on the E-1118 pack said to rehydrate at 40C, I should be good to just pour in the packet and stir it up good. She dropped to about 24C over night and still no active air-lock activity after almost 24 hours.

When I normally brew my beer, I'm use to just sprinkling the yeast on top of the wort and letting her go. Is it truly essential to rehydrate E-1118, or is it that I should have used more than 1 packet? Could it be a temperature issue, like possible shock or I maybe just added it in while it was too warm?

I'm just use to getting activity within 24 hours with my beers, so I might just be panicking too soon here since it's my first experience with this yeast & a sugar wash, but I was wondering if I should possibly go buy another packet or two, rehydrate correctly and re-pitch or just relax and wait it out a bit longer?

97 F is a little on the high side for pitching yeast. I would say your thoughts on re-pitching are correct. I would add that you go a step further and make a good starter.

On another note, have you done any cleaning runs with you still. We recommend that you do a vinegar run followed by a sacrificial alcohol run. Sorry if you have already done this, just had to ask.

Sounds a little cool,
Just relax it will go.
1118 is strong

EC-1118 is a slow starter. And it doesn't always show a vigorous ferment. 36 is high to pitch that yeast. Just because it says rehydrated at 40 doesn't mean you cam pitch it at that temp. When you rehydrate its usually in a small amount of water or wort. So the temp drops pretty fast. Where if you pitch it in the fermenter with a large amount of wort. The temp doesn't drop as fast. That could be a problem.

USACelt 36 F would be cool but 36 C is hot. Ok to rehydrate but not for pitching.

I would think that most of the yeast would be dead from extended exposure to heat.

+1PP

BTW, welcome to HD Deultima,

I don't think you've given us a proper intro. You should go to the welcome center and say hey, so all of us can get to know you.

Cheers, stay safe.

+2PP... EC-1118 is a slow starter and your temps seem a little high to me which will cause further delay.

Should still kick-off though, keep us in the loop...

i use 1118 alot, i usually hydrate at close to the same temp as the wash. about a cup of water and a cpl spoons of the sugar wash and let sit for an hr. it always starts rite up within a cpl hrs or less.

1118 is my preferred yeast. I normally hydrate it according to the package 40 -43 c or 104 -109 f in pure water. Then pitch when the wash and yeast temp is around 90 F
In a high gravity wash and "sprinkling the yeast on top" a much lower temp than the hydrating temp would be a good idea.

I decided to go ahead and run to the grocery store that has a small home brew supplies section and pick up a couple more packets of EC-1118. By the time I got back home I had a small amount of airlock activity, so as it turns out I was just panicking. First time jitters I guess, LoL

On the cleaning run question. No, not yet, but I was planning on doing a vinegar run to clean it before I used it. I wasn't aware however, that I should do a sacrificial run... Is that really necessary? That almost seems like alcohol abuse to me, lol. It was used before, but may have sat around for awhile.

Thanks for your help guys, I guess it's just a slow starter. I just checked again before I came back to post and she's bubbling away nice now. Next time I will just use less hot water, get that temperature below 30C and rehydrate before pitching, so I don't have to worry about it again.

If a sacrificial alcohol run wasn't necessary. We wouldn't recommend it. When you do a vinegar run it gets some of the gunk out. Water gets some out. And the alcohol gets out what the water and vinegar didn't. But it also seasons the still. The vinegar cleans it out with a little residue left in it. The alcohol will remove that vinegar residue and season the still. Much like seasoning a cast iron pan. I for one tend to not get a really good product until the third run after new cleaning runs.

Use some cheap wine or dilute some cheap vodka for your cleaning runs. You will get some bottles out of the deal.

You got to het past the greed factor. It's all part of the process of making a good spirit. And you can't keep and or use everything you make.