StillSmart

Provided the yeast really is fresh – no more than 12-18 hours old and kept at between +2C and -4C and is bakers yeast, sacchoromyces cerevisiae the usual pitching rate for a distillers wash is 6gms – 7.5gms of solid pressed yeast per litre. This will give a fast fermentation to the attenuation limit (point where all the sugars have been used up and yeast is in decay phase.) However, there are a number of tweaks which will speed up the fermentation. The first is to put the weighed yeast – in the case of your 25 litres it will be approx. 150gms – 187gms (an approximation is fine) into a small container of about 1 litre with 100gms of your sugar dissolved in it. Keep the temperature of this solution at 30C to 35C (about blood heat and wait until it begins to froth (2 – 4 hours). This will have avoided the initial lag phase and will take you straight to the log phase which, as the name implies, indicates that the yeast is reproducing logarithmically. Adjustment of pH (hydrogen ion concentration) and temperature are vital to ensure an even fermentation. If you have them, the addition of nutrients such as maltose and peptone will help reach maximum alcohol. Most of these nutrients are available in malt extract and 25gms, a large tablespoonful will be sufficient. (Later I will explain how you can obtain these nutrients from a cheap bottle of vitamin tablets).