Splitting Turbo yeast in half

by **Crusty** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:50 am

Hi guys,

After doing a little research, I have stumbled accross some info on splitting turbo yeasts in half & using 6kg sugar, add half pkt Turbo & do the same for the next wash. According to these guys, Turbo yeast produces an average 18% ABV which is too high, causing off flavours & making a poorer end spirit. These guys say that between 10-14% ABV is far superior end result than the standard 18% ABV wash.

Do any of you guys split your yeasts & do this or are the home distillers crew talkin baloney?

I am expecting using triple distilled & my new T500 to get approx 3.5 litres @ 94%.

What would you expect to get splitting the yeast as far as volume is concerned?
Brian

by **BundyRed** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:53 am

I got 3.5L using Turbo heat wave and the T500 still at 94%.

I have never bothered to test the strength of the wash before.
Would I be correct in saying that if you remove all the alcohol from the wash, the lower ABV start level it will produce a lower end result in litres collected.

Say if that is right than 18%ABV start from 25L wash would = 25L x 18% / 94% = 4.8L and 14%ABV start would be 25L x 14% / 94% = 3.7L.
If this is right than it doesn\'t mater what the wash is, your only taking the alcohol out of it. It could result a higher sugar cost for the same result, but if it has less off flavours it may be worth it. By the time I had filtered the end product I had no off odours.
I was going to give the Triple distilled a go now the weather has cooled off and would like to test the Essencia Super 6 yeast.

by **Crusty** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:13 am

Thanks Bundy,
I have a wash going at the moment, triple distilled & temps are pretty good sitting at 23deg. The guys from home distilling were mentioning how horrible turbo yeast is & how a wash at 18% ABV is far too strong. They all seem to be aiming at 10-14%. I assume you would collect less volume but according to them, the collected spirit has next to nil off flavours, smells or impurities. Most of these guys aren\'t even filtering.
Brian

by **BundyRed** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:56 am

Filtering is a must no matter how good the wash smells as it removes the Fusel oils and other crap as well as odours.

I herd and tried carbon in the wash on the last batch. I was told carbon is put into the wash to absorb the fusel oils as they are being produced during fermentation. So in effect the carbon is removing some of the nasty stuff before you refine the wash by running it through the still. It stilled up fine, so I guess it cant hurt. I don\'t think you are meant to use active carbon, I used left over carbon from when I use to leave the spirit sit in carbon before I had my Z filter.

by **Jimmy** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:59 am

You don\'t always NEED to filter, but many people like to. That only applies for neutral spirits of course, if you\'re making whiskey or whatever then you don\'t want to be running it through carbon or it\'ll strip the taste too. If you\'ve fermented and distilled it well then there won\'t be any crap in there anyway. With a turbo, you are pushing the yeast quite hard hence the off flavours - the guys at HD seem to be making sense in a way. However, if you\'re only going to go for 10 - 14% then why bother with a turbo, just use bakers yeast as it will go that high and is much cheaper. Some turbos are also carefully measured out with nutrients and so on so I guess the manufacturers would claim they don\'t work so well if you halve them - the yeast will multiply but the nutrients will not - but I guess it\'s whatever works when you try it!

by **jack_man** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:13 am

I have a ferment bubbling away as we speak I split a classic turbo 3 ways and added more yeast to a jar put it in a measuring cup with some tomato paste(4oz) stirred untill it almost over flowed and mixed it with my sugar wash.. 30 liters water 14lbs sugar 1 lb brown sugar and said yeast and nutrients... wish me luck!!

by **Admiral Toad** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:17 am

Hi Jack

Ive settled on 7kg using Vodka star over 12 ish plus days producing 16% and I find its a good neutral wash especially if you double distill.
Even fussy vodka drinkers approve !

AT

by **Capt-Cudellez** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:11 pm

BundyRed wrote:If this is right than it doesn\'t mater what the wash is, your only taking the alcohol out of it. It could result a higher sugar cost for the same result, but if it has less off flavours it may be worth it. By the time I had filtered the end product I had no off odours.

Well, I find a neutral wash going in, will produce a more neutral quality output, so for me its not all about how much product I can get out of it. (Flavoured washes are different - I've stilled some right nasty stuff and got lovely sweet stuff out.)
Also it sounds like you are filtering and drinking everything - it may taste okay when its been filtered, but it still contains undesirable things, if you are including all the heads, it must be headache juice - thats why whisky and I don't get on

Jimmy wrote:However, if you\'re only going to go for 10 - 14% then why bother with a turbo

That is good advice - I'm not anti-turbo, they are just a bit pricey for what they are, they are much less hassle, but too expensive if you are not pushing a higher ABV (where the quality then suffers) I don't push beyond 11% with my wash as I find it can add days and days to the ferment time -other push higher but this is what works for me and that's all you can go with at the end of the day.

For yeast and nutrient - I get 300l of wash done for less than £11.50 at my last calculation (and thats including a pricy additive of Tesco malted Wheats for £1.17

) - less than £1 per 25L so significantly cheaper than a turbo - but it is slightly more work (but not much).

by **Admiral Toad** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:43 pm

CC

All I can say is I left a sample of double distilled vodka star with my local HBS proprieter who is a qualified judge in home brew wine etc, he said it was the best home distilled alcohol he had tasted

For a relative newcomer as I am that will do me for now

AT

by **Capt-Cudellez** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:05 pm

Admiral Toad wrote:CC

All I can say is I left a sample of double distilled vodka star with my local HBS proprieter who is a qualified judge in home brew wine etc, he said it was the best home distilled alcohol he had tasted

For a relative newcomer as I am that will do me for now

AT

Thats a good result mate - I think you picked me up wrong - I did a turbo a while back and went up to 15% - the result was as neutral as what I do with my wash.
Its just expensive using them- I prefer to process higher volumes of slightly lower ABV as I get a good result that way.
The chat was about only running a turbo to 10-14%- pricey, or pushing to 18% - can be nasty.

by **Admiral Toad** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:12 pm

CC

Fair comment but my latest VS yeast under 2 quid so a litre of 40% neutral is about £1.20 truly that will do me for a hobby x

AT

by **Stingray** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:19 pm

I have a vodka star fermenting at the moment , i am looking forward to tasting after hearing all the claims ,
I have not heard anything negative about it as yet
:-)

by **Normski** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:43 am

I was given a pack of Alcotec 24. I used it in 1 gallon Demi Johns to make a sugar wash. I used 11g with 1Kg sugar. It regularly drops to well below 990. And takes a little over a week.
I have done side by side tests with Vodka Star. Both almost identicle results.
Im not sure how far you can split VS, But as I have regularly sucsessfully used 11g of Alcotec 24 per gallon, thats more than slitting in half. Closer to splitting it in four. But remember this is to let it take as long as is needed to ferment.