Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Wondering about yeast bombs. Do you scale them up evenly for bigger washs? :-B

What I have done in the past for large washes is make a small yeast starter with whatever your wash is, then add that to a bigger one and possibly a bigger one then pitch that as your yeast bomb. The idea being you have an already active ferment going to pitch.

Works for me :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I use bakers yeast so just add more. Never had a stuck ferment (that wasn't a turbo) yet.

Sam Yeast starters I have done did not really sped up the process maybe mine were to small..so you reakon add more yeast warra? Hmmm really want this done and dusted asap..thought the idea of the bomb was to give it plenty nutrient..

Prob different terminology.

I would call a yeast bomb pretty much a single starter that may have added nutrients in it (DAP, Vitamins etc).

What I was saying was take say half a litre of wash and add your yeast and keep temp controlled until it is fermenting well, then add this to say 5L of wash and wait for that to be going nuts then add to 10L of wash and do the same, then pitch it into your 200L wash.

You could add some nutrients each time you scaled up if you want.

Is your aim just to speed up the process? Or give a more thorough ferment?

Just speed it up but dont wanna go ott and ruin it..

What do you do with the remainder of the wash while you are building up your starter/bomb?

ThePaterPiper wrote:What do you do with the remainder of the wash while you are building up your starter/bomb?

Yep, aeration and temp will help heaps for speed :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You can't speed it up in any meaningful way by adding more yeast. They grow on an exponential curve, not a linear one. So twice as much yeast is literally useless. You'd need 100x to make it even close to worthwhile.


You can aerate (especially since we couldn't give a fuck about oxidation in distilling), or agitate. But other than that, there aren't many options for the home brewer.

Scale it up Bluc, I'm pretty sure I know what your talking about. Yeast bombs for Rum? Kill the yeast and use it as a nutrient, along with a few other bits and pieces? Tried it a couple of times for Rum, I forget which recipe, made for a good quick ferment though. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yea thats the one tas pugirum I think is where I read it .

Hey bluc I think I know what you mean. Basically what I've done for mead in the past to get a really fast, strong ferment is take the yeast slurry left over from a previous, drop in a couple of litres of boiling water, allow it to cool and then use that as the base for my must. Works amazingly well nutrient wise and makes for a really speedy ferment, even for mead. Definitely give it a try but I would recommend using a similar wash for the bomb as it can add some flavour.

Yea it was yeast vitamin b dap and pinch epsom salts boiled up to kill yeast and turn it into nutrient...but I dont have any dap so I just pitched the yeast..next year will play with fast ferments..

In an 80 liter tomato paste wash 1/3 hot water from the tap sugar 8 bags table spoon epsomsalts a good stir then dump in 1/2 tin of lowans and table spoon ec1118 then hit it with the gurne to 80 liters bubbling with in 1/2 hr finished in 2 weeks never had a failure

I oxygenate my washes for one hour and then pitch the yeast at 1/3 of the recipe requirement.
The yeast multiplies 3 times as it uses up the oxygen and then goes anaerobic to produce ethanol.
I use EC1118 so it saves about $20 for every wash.

That’s interesting, do you agitate the wash to oxygenate or do you use a fish tank air stone?

A&O wrote:That’s interesting, do you agitate the wash to oxygenate or do you use a fish tank air stone?

I use a 760 watt air pump going through a 2 inch plastic pipe with a gate valve for control to a 3/4 copper pipe ring with lots of 1mm holes drilled into it.
It's a rather violent oxygenation, I have to put vegetable oil on top to minimise the foaming.
I've never had a problem with not enough yeast doing it this way.

Aussiedownunder01 wrote:In an 80 liter tomato paste wash 1/3 hot water from the tap sugar 8 bags table spoon epsomsalts a good stir then dump in 1/2 tin of lowans and table spoon ec1118 then hit it with the gurne to 80 liters bubbling with in 1/2 hr finished in 2 weeks never had a failure

Not having a dig but I normally fill from food grade hose with nozzle to aerate sprinkle few tablespoons of bakers ontop and its usually done in 7-9 days.
I was gunna use a yeast bomb hoping to have it finish in 3..

Sounds like you’re looking for some sort of TURBO powered yeast, B.


:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Nah not turbo :puke-huge: I have had rum washs finish in 3 days in real hot weather.. thought I would give this one a helping hand but all moot point now as I didnt end up doing it..