Re-using Vodka star??

[MrCat]

Anyone tried re-using the lees from a Vodka star ?? I left the wash for three or four weeks to clear so I didn't need/use finings and then left a couple of litres in the bottom of the fermenter so the lees are untouched.

I'm thinking about just mixing a new water/sugar mix up in a different fermenter and when the temp is right just tipping it into the fermenter with the lees in it.

Anyone tried it?? Was it successful ??

Cheers !

[Capt-Cudellez]

Haven't tried it with a turbo, but I do reuse my yeast.

I have never had great success re-pitching on the lees - I normally have a slower than usual ferment when I have done it. I find I get the best results taking a scoop of the yeast from the lees with a pint jar and topping it up with water, I then sloosh oot the fermenter for the next batch.

I have only ever got 4 ferments from a single batch of yeast - I've heard of some distillers reusing for years, but I find I have to pitch a pack of fresh along with the scooped jar every 3 to 4 generations else I find it slows right down.

Also I've tried reusing yeast after a month of clearing - and it didn't take off - no idea what the maximum you can leave it before the yeast is compromised, but with my rum wash, I normally strip about 3-4 days after its dry, and that yeast is very active and starts fizzing again within minutes.

Also with re-suing a turbo, I guess you might want to add some nutrients and B-vit or you could include 3-4lts of backset to the 25lts wash to try and get some of the left over ones from the first gen?

All of the above is just my personal experience, I have no idea if it is the norm, or something that I am doing wrong or what.

[Jimmy]

According to the winemaking lot, yeast can only multiply 30 times before it has enough, so I guess eventually you'll probably reach a limit if you reuse (although they don't specify if each generation can make 30 more or if that tails off).

Also from the winemaking circles - they don't recommend pitching onto the lees from a first racking, because there will be a lot of off products in the sediment. However, they highly recommend reusing the lees from the second racking and say that it's basically pretty much pure yeast.

A turbo is basically just a high tolerance yeast and a bunch of nutrients so providing you replace those, it should be possible to get more out of it, particularly if you're not just going for super neutral purity, perhaps reuse for a flavoured wash or something like that. Just a few thoughts!

[MrCat]

In the end I kind of did a hybrid. I had left the VS for about a month to clear without racking it, carefully syphoned off the wash and left about two or three litres of lees in the bottom of the fermenter for a couple of weeks.

On saturday I dissolved 13 kg of sugar into 15 litres of boiling water, waited a bit and threw it into the fermenter onto the lees. Then added cold water up to 52 litres and waited for the temp to drop to under 25 degrees to pitch two more packets of VS. The SG was just over 1100

Ok, it's now wednesday morning and the gravity is already 994. 2 1/2 days for 14% and this isn't really a turbo - there must have been a lot of yeast left in the lees.

I can see me repeating this one