Superstart Distillers nutrient question...

[FattyMcB]

I picked up a 1lbs bag of this yeast and am very unimpressed with it. I pitched 3 tbs of this in a 5.5gal sugar wash with 1/2 cup molasses and 6tsp basic yeast nutrient and this stuff is horrible. I have done 3 batches of this and it always quits at about 12% alc by volume. The package says it can go up to 20% alc but no matter how long I let it sit it wont go past 12% alc.

I have seen many suggestions for yeast nutrients but I wanted to get some input from the users on this board who have used this yeast and see what alc % they got and what they would suggest to use as yeast nutrients.

At $6 a pouch for turbo yeast I am looking for a good alternative to getting a sugar wash to 18-20% alc even if it does take more time to get there.

[Dnderhead]

first 12% is not that bad, but you problem is the lack of nutrients. My bottle of nutrients says 5g to each L for 18% -
a teaspoon= about 5 grams ,,you have about 23L., so you need 23 tea spoons or 115 g.. most nutrients, are made
to raise the nutrient level not to replace.like a in fruit wine and not all are complete.and not made for strait sugar.
(read over your bottle .yours mite be different) better, read over sugar wash on H.D.

[rubber duck]

I've hit 24% with that yeast and that was in a beer. Your problem is that you need a lot of nutrients to hit 20%. So since you have been useing turbo yeast I gess your not to concerned about the tast. Try this and watch what happens, go get some bakers yeast and boil half a cup with about 5 crushed multi-vitamins. Add that to your wash with 1/4 cup supper start yeast and start your ferment in the bathtub. Its not going to tast very good but no worse the turbo.

[rad14701]

The crux of the matter is that you'll never get decent tasting product from a ~20% wash - period... Shooting for an excessively high %ABV is the problem, not the yeast or the nutrients... It's called greed...

Keep your washes at a lower potential %ABV and you'll have far better luck and the overall process will take far less work on your part... If you shoot for a maximum of 12% - 14%, or lower, you won't have stalled washes, won't need fining agents, and won't need carbon filtering, and your final product will be drinkable...

Want to see how easy fermenting a successful wash can be...??? Do yourself a favor and try the All Bran wash, following the instructions exactly... I don't think you can fuck it up unless you do something terribly wrong... The All Bran IS your nutrients... Once you run it once you can try varying the amount of cereal... More cereal will yield more flavor... Less will produce less flavor to strip out if shooting for neutral spirits... I can consistently ferment to 14.1% ABV using Fleischmann's baking yeast... If your yeast is less tolerant, shoot for 10% - 12% instead...

If you've read around the forums long enough you'd have read about the numerous members who eventually came to the conclusion that greed is a bad thing and they'll openly admit it too... Place the blame where it belongs... Greed...

Good luck...

[FattyMcB]

thanx for all the replies guys, I suppose I should clarify a few things.

First off I am only shooting for neutral spirits and I am using a reflux still that outputs at about 94% alc until I start getting towards the end of the batch.

I dont believe at that % of alc I am getting much flavor and I believe most of the flavors get stripped out. It is my understanding that when you are doing high alc neutral spirits a turbo is fine, if I am incorrect please let me know.

I was under the impression the flavors only really mattered when using a pot still and trying to make brandys and whiskeys.

As far as yeast nutrients I am using a basic homebrew yeast nutrient. I believe its just diammonia phosphate or something.like that.. (urea?)

I dont have any problems with the taste of my spirits from using turbos and neither does anyone else. I throw away the foreshots and I haveent had any problems with off smells or tastes thus far.... So far I have done 6 5 gallon batches, 4 of them used turbo yeast and the other 2 used the superstart distillers. I did'nt notice any real difference in the flavor.

[ahto]

I have been using Superstart yeast for fuel ethanol fermentation. Very rapid, violent (a lot of heat) and high ethanol tolerant yeast. When fermenting molasses I use 1 g per litre of mash urea (about 45% Nitrogen) and 0,1g per litre of mash yeast nutrients from Gerd Strand. pH is adjusted with acid to 4,8...5,0. Can easily hit 15% within 48 hours.

[HookLine]

Urea is avoided in beverage ferments. It can contribute to forming ethyl carbamate, which you do not want. If you are after extra nitrogen then use di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), that is the standard method of adding nitrogen to nutrient poor ferments. Ammonium nitrate might also be okay, though I have not tried it.

There are some threads on it here. Do a search for "ethyl carbamate" with the Google link at the top of the page.