StillSmart

I really don't see the advantage of using turbo 48 if you still have to wait 4 or 5 days for it to clear

It is an advantage to the people selling it.

does it still take 4-5 days if you use a clearing agent like turbo clear once fermentation is finished?

i just did a sugar wash for the first time and it stinks really really badly...i would imagine from what i've been reading that this is because of the turbo yeast?

Cheers,

Drewzy!

Yep! That'll be the turbo.

If you're serious about distilling your own spirits on a ongoing basis, whether you use an Airstill or a bigger rig, forget about turbo yeast packages. All they are is poor quality yeast packed with nutrients designed to force the yeast to produce 'neutral' ethanol under stress and stressed yeast cells cause bad smells and even worse tastes and the biggest hangovers you've ever had

The non-turbo route costs less, is cleaner, easier to do and makes lovely neutral spirits, plus, if you want to make spirits with flavour, like Whiskey, Rum or Gin then turbos are definitely out the window.

The turbo pushers will tell you that you can copy any spirit by adding little bottles of essence, that they also happen to sell, to bottles of 'turbo neutral' and you'll never know the difference This is the same as getting some coffee flavouring, used in baking, adding it to a cup of hot water and trying to convince yourself it's the same as fresh ground coffee when, in fact, it's not even as 'good' as the bargain supermarkets' own brand instant rubbish.

Sorry! Soap Box over, I' m really not a fan of turbo yeast packs and tend to get a bit carried away in my efforts to steer people in the right direction

AM

Drewzy wrote:i just did a sugar wash for the first time and it stinks really really badly...i would imagine from what i've been reading that this is because of the turbo yeast?

Is it a sort of eggy sulphur smell? If so you can sometimes get this with non-turbo yeast too, it will clear up when the wash is done, not really anything to be too worried about.

Just to give the other side to AM's ranting (he's getting on a bit, and getting more grumpy by the day )

If I was to have had the troubles I've gone through with stalled washes and washes taking forever to finish when I started out, I doubt I would have stuck at it. Turbo's have there place.
If you don't push them they can also produce neutral very similar to non-turbo washes if stripped and run on a column, instead of saying wow this can make a 22% wash, if you aim for 11-12% the results will be pretty good.

BUT, this then becomes quite expensive per litre of alcohol you produce.

I found you can make one packet do 50L of wash, if you add additional nutrients and vitamins, and make sure the wash is well oxygenated when you pitch so there is no real lag time, this actually makes a turbo not such a bad deal.
Another positive with the Turbos is they have pH stabilisers in them, so the pH never drops low enough to stall, this can be a problem with using non-turbos and a relatively high gravity wash.

If you move away from turbos, you will become a better brewer, which will serve you well when you want to make other things rather than neutral to add essences to, but you will also have more failures, but its worth it, and usually cheaper too (I think I once worked it out I was spending in yeast and nutrients for making 600L of 11% wash, the same cost as a single turbo)

Well said, the turbo yeast bubbled like crazy and and I let it go for 5 days until it hit the mark on the hydrometer before I put the clear in, however it was still bubbling hard. Should I have waited until it no longer was bubbling?

Dunno what Aidans moaning about. I used to use the SS triple distilled turbo with the carbon pack etc, never had it ferment longer than 7 days to finish, plus their finings always has it clear in 24 hours with no problems.

These days I just mix up vodka star, no carbon and I don't bother to clear it. I just leave it longer and it drops pretty clear on it's own.

Yes I do double distill, and all "letting down" is done with reverse osmosis water, but I end up with nice clear neutral to sup with the flavouring of my choice.......

VS isn't really a turbo despite what it says on the pack witnessed by the fact that, as P says, you don't need to use mucky carbon in the wash.

As I remember, the goddamn awful smell from some turbos isn't the eggy smell of sulphur dioxide that you can get from certain yeasts but something a lot more putrid

I'm not a brewing purist by any means, I did the turbo learning curve too and I know from experience that the benefits offered by turbos are far outweighed by the negative attributes and costs......so there

AM

Yes, you need to wait until bubbling (fermentation) has stopped before putting in the clearing agent. I think. Unless that Turbo-Clear has something like camden in it to kill the yeast.

Chuck

What confuses me is that the package say( will make 14% in two days or 20% in 5 days) so if you want 14% then you would have to stop the ferment by adding clear ?

Don't believe what they print on the package I personally never experienced a turbo reaching any higher than 17%. As Chuck says you can use something like couple of Campden tabs to kill off the yeast cells if you want to stop it at a particular point.

AM

To get a lower percentage of alcohol you would just add less sugar. The packaging means that the claim it will take three extra days to ferment the additional 6% ABV. As ABV rises, yeast activity declines until at some point the alcohol kills off the yeast.

You could add camden tablets or something to stop fermentation earlier, but that would just be waste of sugar.

Chuck

edwatters wrote:What confuses me is that the package say( will make 14% in two days or 20% in 5 days) so if you want 14% then you would have to stop the ferment by adding clear ?

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The final strength of the wash is determined by adjusting the amount of sugar that is in the wash, to get 14% you need to use 5 Kg to get 20% you need to use 7 kg (I am lying about the quantities, check with the instructions).

The manufactures are saying that it will take the yeast 2 days to consume the 5kg of sugar (14%) and 5 days to consume the 7 kg (20%) the exact times will depend on ambeient temperature etc.

To put the larger amount of sugar into the wash and then try and stop the fermentation before all the sugar is consumed is a waste of sugar and could cause problems during the distillation process. All sugar used in the wash should be converted into Alcohol by letting the fermentation come to it's natural conclusion in it's own time.

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Edit
Sorry Chuck - posted at the same time

I went ahead and started a new batch today using turbo yeast since I had it and this time no carbon crap and will let it finish completely fermenting before I proceed to clearing.

the smell i got i don't think was the eggy swell your talking about. i smelt yeasty...almost like a batch of wine i made a few months ago where apprantly the yeast strained and in result i got a stuck fermentation.

i will see how my sprits run turns out...if its not neutral tasting or smelling after i carbon filter it, i think i will switch to a non turbo sooner than i would have if i got a product i don't mind.

Cheers!

Drewzy