StillSmart

Just bought an air still and it came with the triple distilled yeast/carbon/finings etc - i've done plenty reading on here and my next wash will be one of the sugar washes seen on here - but thought i might aswell try the triple distilled stuff so i have something to compare future washes with.

Anyways - i pitched the yeast last night and woke up this morning to the airlock bubbling away like a machine gun!

I've noticed its giving off a sulphur/egg type smell - is this normal for this yeast? having never done this before im not sure how it should smell if at all (ive done beers/wines etc but never a wash for spirits)

Thanks

That smell means the yeast is stressed or lacking in nutrition. The stress caused by Turbo yeasts is exactly why people recommend not using them. It should not effect your final results (they won't taste like sulphur).

Chuck

You have already started so might as well use the fermentation, but I doubt you will be happy.

I have stopped using turbo yeast for anything that I want to drink. I would use it to make junkahol for still cleaning as it is quick, but for everything else I use wine or beer yeasts.

Recently I have been using lager yeast because it can tolerate low temperature fermentations.

Thanks for the replies - hopefully my bucket wont be too difficult to clean aswell, that carbon looks like its going to make a hell of a mess of it!

Well I disagree with the others about turbos. I've not had any problems with them at all.

It's a bit late, but the diagnosis of stressed yeast is spot on when hydrogen sulphide is smelled.

It just means that you need to stir/agitate the batch a lot, then get some extra nutrients in there. Normally something like tronozymol, Fermaidk, fermax, nutrivit or something like those is best, but if you have nothing else available you can usually get away with boiling/microwaving a coupleof teaspoons of bread yeast in 100 to 150 mls of water to kill it off then letting it cool some before pitching it in followed by a handful of raisins then stirring the hell out of it to aerate.

If left alone the H2S can form mercaptans that will permanently damage the wash. Now whether that would be removed by distilling or double distilling I don't know as I've not had this problem with turbo wash and not done it deliberately to experiment.......

I used to use the SS triple distilled all the time, the carbon is no problem and the finings should have dropped it all out. I only changed to using vodka star as its cheaper, especially if you get it in bulk off Ellie-Claire (no shipping cost). Plus I don't usually bother with carbon in the wash or finings to make it cheaper again but I always double distill and carbon filter. My wash is made with tap water but let down to distilling strength (less than 40%) and drinking strength with reverse osmosis water.

Gives a nice, clean neutral. Drinkable or for flavouring with essences.....