StillSmart

How much bakers yeast and nutrients should I use in a 25ltr wash with a potential of 11% and also how long on average does a wash with bakers yeast take to ferment out please?

Thank you

The nutrient depends on which one you are adding. I'd add something else besides chemicals, raisins for example, or kale or lentils or wheat germ or crushed malted grain or... I find yeast is a bit unhappy on a pure chemical diet. A Tbsp of the yeast should be sufficient, you can't add too much. As for time, it depends on the temperature, your local water, the yeast, etc etc. Figure 4 - 10 days. I've followed recipes that people swear ferment dry in 4-5 days and for me they consistently run 7-10 days. I don't know why exactly.

@Corp: On the other end of the spectrum - I only use additional nutrition when making cachaca. Golden syrup is rather nutrient lacking.

I do not believe in adding anything to a wash if I can avoid it. I use brown sugar that is heavily loaded with molasses, water and bakers yeast. Nothing else.

Because the brown sugar I use is so easily fermentable, by rearranging my still, I even use it to make neutral for gin and vodka. It comes out clean enough that it does not require carbon filtering.

Hello all, and lets see how few of you I can piss off with a comment that is meant to just help the forum rub along nicely!
RJ it seems is blessed or fortunate that his usual sugar supply is so "organic"/(unrefined) that it also feeds his yeasties with things they need.

Those of us that find refined sugar easier to access have to use other methods of keeping yeast happy.
Raisins is my first port of call.

Trying a whole new wash tonight, will eventually post details elsewhere,but this is using sugar beet, not as a source of sugar, but as a food addition for the yeast, kicking out the Lentils.

I have not seen a wash this black since making Stout over 30 years ago....

@ Corps012588
I throw in 100g of Allinson's to around 25 litres of the old style lentil wash.
To some that may seem a lot of yeast.
If you have DAP or Raisins,throw those in too,soaked and minced or chopped.
I expect to have a wash ready to strip,often kind of cloudy by day 6.
With an Air still you may need to wait a little longer, to lessen the chance of "puking"
MY SG is around 1.700, FG 0.990, but I call end of ferment by slow activity, not hydrometer
My set up allows me to maybe make shortcuts?
There are many variables in a wash,learning what works for you is part of the whole process.

And some of us just keep trying to improve upon what went before
I hope some of that is useful,

Robert.

Black? What makes it black? Are sugar beets not white inside? The ones that I have seen were.

Mate,PM me a postal address, and I will send you some.Really.
Always noticed it was dark when soaking it for the horses, but always used a black bucket for that so thought little of it.
Last night, 500g in 46 litres of water in white buckets is as black as squids ink.
It is kind of exciting,I think I needed a kick up the get start!

I have just taken a couple of pics on my phone,but don't hold your breath,it may take a while for me to get them uploaded

Robert.

Interesting. This is what I have seen here:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/201 ... -popup.jpg

Way to go Robert. I have always wanted to give this a go. But 'Black' .. I can only assume this is some sort of oxidisation.

I have had tons of beet in the past as stock feed, and it all looked like chills image.

To answer the original post. The kale wash is best IMO. Here's the recipe viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3874&hilit=Kale I am trialing running this at 28c at the moment and I think this will be easily done in 10 to 14 days. Cooler = shower.
I

When fermenting sugar based washes - no matter what sugar I use - I boil up some fresh bread yeast to act as a nutrient. I also add a vitamin B tablet and a bit of Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salt) and I also add some lemon juice.

I use this as a generic guide for a 25 gallon wash.

20 kg sugar, 7.25 kg (1 gallon plastic jug) treacle, 200 ml lemon juice, 0.5 teaspoon Epsom salt.

By my calculations that works out to be a potential 11% fermented which is enough. That 1 gallon jug, 7.25 kg, of black treacle is equivalent to 4.64 kg of fermentable sugar.

Last batch was fermented with Fermentis S04 Ale yeast.

OK, I will try harder with a real camera tomorrow, the image quality from this old phone is dire,(don't ask, I need new phone,previous one died, and this was the last working one that I had.)
Now more dirty sludge colour than black, but give me 24 hours.

Robert.

That is assuming that the Add image to post link works for me tomorrow, as tonight it is sitting on it's hands.

Can we please petition Richard Branson & get Robert some broadband?!

Benoit wrote:Can we please petition Richard Branson & get Robert some broadband?!

That would be really sweet, as due to my location I am inter-doody challenged.
Some days it is not much better than the old dial up speeds. Do you remember 56Kbs?

You people would not believe the number of nights that I fall asleep, waiting for an inter-doody response.
Then wake up, and try to carry on.
Why else do you think my posts are usually time tagged in the small hours of the morning?
I swear my distilled product has nothing to do with this phenomenon....
Doing well so far tonight,but managed to start early.

Robert.

I remember sitting listening to all the clicks & dings, the old dear complaining in the background that no one could get in touch because I wanted to look at something trivial on he internet. It's hard to imagine going back to that but unfortunately it sounds like it's still a reality for you Robert, is it the price to pay for great scenery?

@ Benoit, seemingly so, right now!

OK,another attempt at posting pics, but actually reading the writing on the feed sack explains the colour.
It is Molassed!
These 24 hour soak (for Horses,not Sheep) pellets are the same colour as the speedy beet we sometimes use.
Come to think of it, I have never seen a lighter version, they all produce a nearly black liquid, curious that my washes are now sludge coloured,as they near 1.000 on the alc. meter.
Acid from yeasties maybe?

Robert.







Yeah ha! Got there.

OK, my camera skills leave Bathe it Daily with nothing to worry about!

Robert.