dogbreath vodka wrote:Hey BC
Good thread
Water Quality
The town water you use may contain chlorine which inhibits the yeast.
While not imperative - it is good to use water that has stood for a day or longer
DBV
Urrazeb wrote:some water Co's also add chloramine to the water for the fact that it doesn't dissipate to open air.
I would recommend using vitamin C to neutralise chlorine and chloramine i
blond.chap wrote:The reason that fermentation control has some relevance to distillation is that poor control will result in more generation of ethyl aceteate (heads), proponols and butanols (tails). The more heads and tails you have in your drink, the more booze you have to cut out. You'll also form more acetaldehyde and acetic acid if fermentation isn't controlled, reducing your yield of ethanol.
Urrazeb wrote:Because we can cut it out to a degree tipsy. Brewers have to drink the lot, fores/heads/hearts and tails so I would expect A LOT more care went into beer :handgestures-thumbupleft:
dogbreath vodka wrote:Hey BC
Good thread
Water Quality
The town water you use may contain chlorine which inhibits the yeast.
While not imperative - it is good to use water that has stood for a day or longer (I usually wait a week).
Good point, if you leave a glass of water from my tap for a few hours you can really taste the pool water flavour
Sugar
BC I tend to go on the light side perhaps 1kg to 6ltrs.
In a 25ltr wash I'd use 4kg of sugar
That will give you a yield of 9.4% so the yeast isn't stressed.
1kg/5ltrs = 11.8%
1kg/6ltrs = 9.8%
Yeah, whatever you're comfortable with. It's worth trying a few different concentrations and seeing if you can notice a difference. I'm ok with 12% personally.
DBV
bt1 wrote: it pays to read the yeast specs before settling on a over all rule for the process.
For example an EC1118 yeast it happy up to 18% yields with ideal conditions.
True, but my conditions are never ideal, and I'm more comfortable getting a lower yield. Still spirits turbo yeasts will ferment up to 23%, doesn't mean I want to drink that
For temps again it's yeast strain dependant, A EDV46 a rum dedicated yeast rehydrates at upto 40c and is happiest running hotter at 30 -35c. It's also high yielder specifically bred to cope with higher overall sugar levels around the 15% yield mark.
Most yeasts do suggest rehydration at 35-40, I imagine it's good for the aerobic phase. For a typical yeast strain, it will survive and ferment from roughly 12degC to 43 degC, with a peak fermentation rate at around 27degC. In the wine world there are 2 ways of managing fermentation rate. The first is a cool ferment, where you cool the yeast to slow it down, the further it gets from 27degC, the slower it ferments, until it gets too cold and goes dormant. The second option is a hot ferment, where you slow the rate by heating it up, similarly, the closer you get to 43, the slower it goes.
Anecdotally, a hot ferment will generate more congeners than a cool one. For a rum wash this may well be a good thing, for a neutral wash it won't be.
Long winded way of saying I agree, it does depend, but if you want to cut down heads and tails and maximise ethanol yield, I'd be going with a slow cool ferment.
I'm no fan of a 3.5pH stat as whilst fermenting the wash gets more acidic, as a target end 3.5 pH fine depending again yeast used.
It's true that the pH drops during fermentation, but unless you want some bacterial flavour (like LAB for rum), I don't see a reason not to be safe from the start, unless a specific yeast can't handle it
I guess like most aspects of this hobby pays to do a spot of reading on what your using and well understand what ideal is for your situation.
I totally agree, what's best for rum certainly isn't going to be what's best for neutral etc.
bt1
Kimbo wrote:Good post B.C.
Im going to put a copy of this in the Noobs section :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Cheers mate, hope they like it
Urrazeb wrote:dogbreath vodka wrote:Hey BC
Good thread
Water Quality
The town water you use may contain chlorine which inhibits the yeast.
While not imperative - it is good to use water that has stood for a day or longer
DBV
Not to derail but more to clarify.. some water Co's also add chloramine to the water for the fact that it doesn't dissipate to open air.
I would recommend using vitamin C to neutralise chlorine and chloramine if anything. Though letting it age will help, the vitamin C does it instantaneously.
Lemon arguably contains enough available vitamin C and will lower Ph as well if needed- two birds with one lemon :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This is something I am going to be doing to optimise my washes. I was in the shower the other day and could taste the chlorides :romance-kisscheek: I immediately thought of my poor yeast, just trying to do their job :teasing-blah:
Aidymiles wrote:
I'm sorry to say but vitamin C doesn't actually kill off chlorine or chloramines.
Expensive lab results showed airing completely cleared chlorine/chloramines after 24 hours,
Aidymiles wrote:Urrazeb wrote:dogbreath vodka wrote:Hey BC
Good thread
Water Quality
The town water you use may contain chlorine which inhibits the yeast.
While not imperative - it is good to use water that has stood for a day or longer
DBV
Not to derail but more to clarify.. some water Co's also add chloramine to the water for the fact that it doesn't dissipate to open air.
I would recommend using vitamin C to neutralise chlorine and chloramine if anything. Though letting it age will help, the vitamin C does it instantaneously.
Lemon arguably contains enough available vitamin C and will lower Ph as well if needed- two birds with one lemon :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This is something I am going to be doing to optimise my washes. I was in the shower the other day and could taste the chlorides :romance-kisscheek: I immediately thought of my poor yeast, just trying to do their job :teasing-blah:
I'm sorry to say but vitamin C doesn't actually kill off chlorine or chloramines. :laughing-rolling:
Chloramines are chlorine molecules that have attached to other molecules in the water and are the byproduct of using chlorine to sterilise the water.
The easiest ways to get rid of both is to air the water, boil it or RO if you have one or UV.
I've worked in commercial swimming pools for over 15 years in Melbourne and we have tried just about anything you can think of to rid the pools of chloramines from vitamin C to magnets. We did a test during the drought to see what would work on clearing the backwash water of chlorine and chloramines so we could re-use it.
Expensive lab results showed airing completely cleared chlorine/chloramines after 24 hours, bubbling down to 12 hours and RO as quick as it can be processed. Boiling speeds up the gassing off Chlorine/chloramines significantly (15 min) but we didn't test that as its too expensive to boil 20,000L 3x a week and UV only breaks it down but doesn't get rid of it completely. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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