by Arismac » Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:48 pm
I have been looking hard at some of the chemistry behind this. I suggest that the yeast "food" Kale or Tomato, is only relevant because of relatively high levels of Vitamin A which yeast needs. But the yeast consumes "food" in order to carry out some hard work in turning sugar into alcohol. This results, if you can imagine, the yeast "sweating" sulphur plus complex variations. That is what we need to get rid of because to most animals, especially us, sulphur tastes bloody awful.
So we bring the sulphur into contact with copper. Some of the sulphur becomes copper-sulphate and we can deal with that by washing it off the copper. In theory we could keep on re-stilling until all the sulphur has been captured by the copper. In practice we simple reduce the sulphur to a level where it no longer interferes with our enjoyment of our tipple.
So feed your yeast whatever it likes, just as long as you keep it well fed. Tomato Paste is cheap, Kale more expensive but I don't think it will make a jot of difference which one you use as long as you employ a good spirit yeast.
Last edited by
Arismac on Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.