StillSmart

'Tis a magic organic monster,to be sure!
Robert.

does anyone know why it used bread yeast instead of wine yeast?

doesn't bread yeast die above 9% alcohol?

You can use wine yeast if you want but it's very expensive in comparison to bread yeast, you get enough bread yeast to to do two wash's for 70p, it ferments dry, even with 6kg of sugar in a 25lt wash, so no worries about it dying off at 9%

yeah mines well on its way noe.. the caps just dropped after 4 days of intense brewing and its just under 1.000 gravity

Given nutrient and oxygen,I have seen Allinson's bread yeast happily go to 13-14% +.Repeatedly.

Robert.

Most bread yeast are good to about 14% yet there are some gold version for sweetbread and dessert breads that will go up to 16%

SAF gold or Instaferm Gold bread yeasts are wonderful to use can't say enough good things about the Instaferm Gold...

Happy Stillin

FS

Easydrinker wrote:Given nutrient and oxygen,I have seen Allinson's bread yeast happily go to 13-14% +.Repeatedly.

Robert.

so tell us how ?

That's why we use the lentils, to provide nutrient for the yeast, I use Allinsons, always works well for me

beerbeermorebeer wrote:
so tell us how ?

As Anavrin said,the Lentils are the nutrient.
There are various ways of ensuring your wash is oxygen rich,the simplest being a damn good stir.I favour using a cheap aquarium bubbler,for 15 minutes,before adding the lentils and yeast.

Robert.

do we throw the first 400mil or so away like you do with a vodkastar?

Yeah just treat it like any other neutral wash, if you've done a vodkastar in the past and got good results, use that method as a guide for this one, the first 400ml will be fores and heads anyway so just chuck it and start making cuts.

I have just started with some lentil washes, i found some 500g bags at the back of a cupboard. It sounded well worth trying. i have red lentils 500g, toor dal (oily) 500g and also a pack of chana dal 500g. i started 2 washes the red lentil and it has a big crust, toor dal now this is fizzing away very happily, but no crust its very clean inside so looks good. i boiled it just for a couple mins. the red i just got to boil and let them soak for 30 min. will try a chana dal later. its great to find a use for old stuff hiding on the back of the cupboards.

all recipes are, 5kg sugar, 1 tsp citric acid, 25g allinson yeast, start with 20 litres of water just in case foam too much so will add more water when settled a bit. and also fish tank heaters 50w, working very well indeed

JD

Your citric acid may or may not be be needed,depending upon the Ph of your water.
Washes like this are indeed a great way of using up a store-cupboard.
I recently discovered a very old pack of prunes,and am feeding them into washes as a source of Nitrogen,instead of my usual Raisins or Sultanas.
It seems to be working very well.
I do use a lot more yeast than you state,roughly X4,gets the bucket fermented out in 3-4 days.And is pretty inexpensive.
But,hey,whatever works for you is fine by me.
Just sharing,not lecturing.

Robert.

Hi Robert,
I guess its habit from my wine making using acid. Maybe i will stop adding it and try it without acid. We have chalky kettles here, i belive its a hard water area so i thought it would be needed.
Thats interesting about fruit, as i have some old raisins. i don't usually add nitrogen but what would you use of dried fruit/raisins per 21 ltr of wash? or per gallon?
also i read others were using 25g bread yeast, so just thought i would try it out, its doing fine. But its good to know i can add more and speed it up.

I have been routinely adding around 100g of dried fruit to a lentil wash for the last year or so,and using 100g of Allinsons,sometimes the whole 125g tin,to a 25 litre wash.
TBH,I usually do two at a time,and split it between 3 buckets for the first two days,as the foam monster is hard to restrain.
Once it has slowed,I reduce to two fermenters,no air-lock,loose fitting lids.
I expect the washes to be finished in 3-4 days,with the aid of a little heat.
During the bulk of the fermentation it heats itself.

HTH

Robert.