StillSmart

Re-using old yeast

2009-03-12T12:52:35+00:00

Hi,
The project was never about saving money on the yeast. Simply to see if it could be done for a wash as I know it can and is and have done it for beer. Beer having its own nutrients is never a problem, but I wanted to see if a sugar wash would stick.
Because of the time it takes, and the turbos cost so little I consider it not worth the effort, also buying different things in from multiple sources to save a few quid over several weeks - again (for me) just not worth it.
I know some hard core distillers wont agree with me, but its not like making beer. Now for beer only all grain will do but for alcohol using essences - a turbo is quick and works fine.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:52 pm

Re-using old yeast

2009-03-12T02:41:57+00:00

Well seeing as how stuff like the still spirits turbo\'s are aimed at getting about the 14% ABV mark, it\'s probably cheaper to use wine yeast.
for instance, Lalvin\'s EC-1118 is supposed (according to the data sheets) to go to about the 18% ABV mark - that\'s about Â£1 per pack, some tronozymol nutrient is about Â£4 per 200gms - I think it\'s about 1 tsp per gallon you\'re gonna get quite a few batches per box - for arguements sake say 5, that\'s 80p per batch.
The sugar has to be enough to get a starting gravity of about the 1080 area to get just over 14% ABV. then maybe you want to make sure about using the carbon - which is what? about Â£1
So you\'ve saved yourself about Â£1.50 per batch straight away. Yes, you might get a bit higher ABV as well if you up the gravity with a bit more sugar - you\'d just have to make sure about it being aerated for 1 or 2 days instead of just the mix when pitching the yeast. Damn, you might want to use a bit less tronozymol and replace the reduction with straight diammonium phosphate (it\'s a little harder to find but cheaper).
If you get the yeast from the states then it\'s already cheaper (about 2/3 of the price due the the state of the Â£ - it used to work out about half price and that included the postage).
compared to the Â£3.25 or so just for a pack of turbo yeast, it\'s not really much messing around to make the wash cheaper to produce.
Oh and if you can get your sugar in 5kg bag\'s instead of 1 kg bag\'s it\'s cheaper or even better if you can get 25kg bags.
Etc etc - there\'s lots of ways of making sure you can save a few Â£Â£Â£Â£Â£\'s
hell, if you\'re not in too much of a hurry, take the 800ml\'s of alcohol at about 60% as per the instructions and use that as \"the heart\", but then keep collecting \"the tails\" right down to about 5% (professionals will go down to 1%) and then just add the tails to the next batch prior to distilling. That way you\'re not inadvertently throwing perfectly good spirit down the drain!

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:41 am

Re-using old yeast

2009-03-10T14:37:58+00:00

Well its been about 2 months since I started the re-use old turbo yeast project, and today I can report its finished.
Its fermented down to 1010 from 1080, and cleared real quick, far quicker than first time arround.
I think the reason it did not stick was that there must have been some nutrients unused from last time.
I think the reason it took so long was that there were only just enough nutrients to keep it ticking over.
Also its worth noting that I started a fresh turbo last monday, and its fermented down to the same 1010 as the reused yeast.
Now given that a pack of turbo yeast is about 3 quid, and takes a week, and the reused yeast takes 2 months - i\'ll be buying my yeast from now on - lol.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:37 pm