Still Spirits yeast + Essences

[grasmere]

I have only seen negative posts concerning Making spirit from Still Spirits Classic Yeast, are they all that bad? There seems to be a bias against this. I have tried recipes for TPW and Bakers yeast washes and unless I am doing something wrong my Still Spirit washes taste better with the Essences. I am considering sticking with Still Spirits and paying more. I also cannot be bothered frigging around with cuts.
Does anybody on the forum use Still Spirits?

[RC Al]

I also cannot be bothered frigging around with cuts.

Dude! :wtf: :naughty:
Cuts are not yeast dependant and one of the most important aspects of the distilling process
I saw a thing the other day that said that the stuff that gives you hangovers is 30 times more toxic to you than ethanol
Carbon dosent take it all out

Please reconsider!!
Edit; some yeasts are worse than others at producing nasties, but they all produce nasties

[PeterC]

I have used Still Spirits Vodka yeast or Whisky yeast in my ferments and they have been OK. I have not used their Turbo yeasts. I have also used Alcotec Vodkastar which they say is turbo but it only uses 6kg of sugar per 25L so is relatively stress free for the yeast and if kept cooler, around 20-22C it runs about 5 days or so. I leave it another week and it is very clear. It seems a relatively clean product.

I don't find essences all that great. I have played with the Still Spirits Whisky Profile Kit and I don't mind Tennessee Bourbon for mixing with Coke. I find aging on Oak either short term on heavily charred chips or longer term on staves makes more interesting product.

If you don't realize the benefits of cuts then maybe you should read a bit more. I know it is a bit tedious swapping small bottles and so I don't do lots of cuts once I understand my still and my wash. When I run my 50L neutral washes, I discard the first 300ml based on smell alone. As a minimum you need to remove these foreshots. I then collect the first 2.5L as heads knowing I will be well into hearts by then. I then collect 5L or more of hearts and I know when my still is going to tails with less loading on the plates and temperature starting to increase. So I then collect tails down to 30%

All my heads and tails go into the next distillation so that is why I don't get too stressed on the transitions because they don't get wasted. You could do something similar for your batch size and still type.

[southern45]

I haven’t found an essence that I’ve been happy with for taste, although some of my mates who are happy slugging back pre-mix bourbon and cola cans are happy with a flavoured neutral. I sometimes use a a Still Spirits essence for them and keep the finer stuff for finer friends, hahaha! Even still I certainly never use turbo products and I certainly DO take generous cuts!

If you can’t be bothered with cuts, maybe this is isn’t the hobby for you...

[Professor Green]

I also cannot be bothered frigging around with cuts.

I urge you to reconsider that position grasmere. By doing cuts, you'll be removing a number of nasty and potentially dangerous compounds along with any undesirable flavours from your final product and, if you get them right, making a spirit that is far superior to commercial products in every way.

If you don't have the patience to perform the cuts stage of the process then this hobby is probably not for you as it is a hobby that takes time and effort to achieve good results.

Now, on to yeast. The problem with the still spirits yeasts like classic and turbo etc is that they have all sorts of rubbish in them to make the yeast produce to a higher ABV and at a quicker rate. The speed and higher ABV come at a cost though and that cost is off flavours caused by the stress that they endure in the process. If you're not happy with bakers yeast in TPW then by all means try another yeast (Champagne yeast produces clean results but takes for ever to complete), just remember there is a reason every TPW recipe on the internet uses bakers yeast - it works and produces clean results cheaply and without the need for clearing agents. Perhaps TPW is just not your thing. Maybe try a WBAB instead, some folks here here (myself included) prefer it for neutrals - particularly for mouthfeel. Otherwise there is Teddy's FFV which has good reviews from those that have tried it.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.