StillSmart

I have been brewing beer for years, and have just tested my 5kg sugar wash brewed with Vodka star @ 22C. Wow...I'm serously impressed I did not realise my hydrometer could read so low F.G.

And it tastes all right, not like vomit in a bucket which I expected.

Now I understand the packet contains nutrients to help the yeast eat a bucket of dull white sugar.
I would like to reuse the yeast from the wash which has just finished, is this possible and or desirable?
Can I dump water and more sugar on the yeast cake and add some nutrients?
What nutrients would be suitable?

Regards,

I've not used vodkastar myself yet but its on my hit list for my next wash, a lot of guys get away with only using only half a pack in a 25lt wash, so there might be enough left over to start another but im guessing not as all the nutriants are gone but i might be wrong.

I would not try to re-use it. At £2.80 a pack why bother. Better still try the lentil wash recipe by aidanmac

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2679&p=16078&hilit=lentil+recipe#p16078

My wash before last was a lentil wash, it looked like a bucket of piss by the time it'd finished and cleared, it stripped ok and I assumed the colour was from the red lentils, and just while I remember I thought I'd ask if this is this normal?

I personally wouldn't bother trying to get another wash out of it, tried it myself with wilko's nuetrients i ended up having to pitch another packet of v/s.
bit gutted as well because i was getting mine for £1.79 from discountbrew, seems i might have bought the last 6 packets at that price, they haved revamped the site and it has gone up a quid,as with most of their products. >:(

B_D

Anavrin wrote:My wash before last was a lentil wash, it looked like a bucket of piss by the time it'd finished and cleared, it stripped ok and I assumed the colour was from the red lentils, and just while I remember I thought I'd ask if this is this normal?

Lentil Wash will finish with a yellowish tint much like a white wine. Perfectly normal, but if you want it to finish with a different colour you could try adding some food colouring to the wash at the start

AM

I've done a lot of wine and beer brewing in the past. Yeast cultures being 'immortal' and forever going from one brew to the next becomes a given. Different mindset needed with spirit washes though.

afaik, the main nutrient in store bought wash yeasts is dead yeast. Also, I read of different strains of live yeast being used. One for early days vigour, another for getting the higher %abv at end of ferment. Not sure how much that applies to VS but all the HBS offerings seem to be variations on the same theme.

If a 2nd wash with VS works great, it would suggest to me that there is something lacking in the recipe. As in, why am I paying for stuff I don't need on the first wash?

If you're going for cheap, the tomato paste wash gets good reports.

John51 wrote:If you're going for cheap, the tomato paste wash gets good reports.

If you use tomato paste you need to check your water first because tomato paste (purée) has a huge amount of Citric Acid added so it doesn't suit all water profiles.

AM

Thanks for the comments chaps


I was wondering if Vodka Star was a combo of stains myself, hence would be no good for reuse as the wrong percentage of strains would be present.


I might pitch some of the sediment in a demijohn with sugar and lentals (if I can find some in the cuboard) and observe the results.

Don't use VS myself, but use alcotec48. I pitch one packet into a 50L wash with 10kg of sugar.
The yeast has no problem munching through 10 or 11kg of sugar with the nutrients in the pack as long as the initial Sg is low enough. It can have a bit of lag getting going, so aerating the wash can help if you have that problem.

Have tried VS,but worse result than Alcotch 48 at half pack strength/dilution.
Does that help anyone?
My own variation on a lentil wash currently coming up trumps.
Robert.