StillSmart

Has anybody tried half white sugar and half brown sugar?

By all means mix white and brown sugar, that will have less effect on the taste of your product than dropping from 8 to 5 Kg of sugar per 25 litre wash.
Stick with the turbos if you like them, but less sugar will produce a nicer tasting and fermented out wash, and yes, the ABV will drop if you feed the yeast less sugar.
Your choice and taste buds

Robert.

I have done a few runs with white sugar mixed with black treacle. My reasons are that a lot of the "brown" sugar you can buy is precisely that. Just coloured white sugar, and sometimes not even cane sugar but beet sugar.

A 1 gallon plastic jug of treacle is 7.25 kg and is the equivalent of 4.64 kg of sugar. I have tried both 10 kg to the jug of treacle and 20 kg to the jug, but have not made my mind up yet on a recipe.

At some point I will try an all Demerara run as Demerara is proper less refined cane sugar as opposed to coloured white sugar.

Thanks for the replys. I am soon putting on two 5 gallon washes. I think I will try one with 5kg of white sugar and one with brown sugar.

The obvious question is what are you trying to make?

OK Mash you got me. >:(

I just assumed it was rum but it could be intended for something else.

Spill the beans. What product do you want bumblebee?

I thought Turbo's were generally for making neutral base?

There are other mixtures sold as Turbos but aimed at Rum, Whiskey, schnapps etc. They are essentially just high-ABV tolerating yeast with nutrients. Some don't even tolerate that high of an ABV, recommending 14% max. I recently put on a couple of test batches with wheat germ and wheat bran to see what the result will be (they are still fermenting and few batches back in my queue). With less sugar and something else for the yeast to eat, you can get a decent result with them. Or at least with some of them. The one I have been experimenting with is targeted toward grain based vodka. It seems (I am a poor record keeper) to produce more heads than using DAP and lentils or kale or whatever. But the hearts are decent and the ferment is odour free.

Chuck

This is fairly new to me so I was just trying for something different.

My thinking was that fermentations fall into 2 types....
If you want to add flavours you normally make the cleanest possible spirit as a 'neutral' base. Example. Kale wash

The flavours might be essences or natural infusions.
Example. Still spirits, Odins easy gin or sputnik gin.

In everything else, the flavour in the wash (from treacle, molasses, brown sugar, grains) is there to contribute to the finished product. Example all grain whiskey, rum, Cachaca etc.


Working backwards from the finished product is a cracking idea... until you get reading stuff on a forum and change your mind before its done been there.

+1 on what Mash just said.

Yes, your wash should be decided by the finished product.
There are many ways to get to the end product, and many ways to start.

Robert.

I don't add any flavorings afterwards.

Hi,and welcome.
It does seem that as a new poster here you have not been properly welcomed,please consider that issue redressed.
Secondly, I would put my pointy hat on at this point and say FCK your turbo yeasts, try doing the same ,some simple bread yeast from tesco's is a whole lot cheaper,and works just as well.
Try it,tell me I am wrong.


Robert.

+1 ...I did the same..just like a lot of folks...then I dumped the turbo and just use bread yeast...I can buy it from our local bakery for pennies..but I also keep a tin of dried in.

Give it a go and see for youself BB....trust us you will notice the difference.