by bt1 » Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:13 am
Hello all,
Let's just say you pull your water off the night before to piss off chlorines and then take comfort in the fact that as a potable water, authorities generally deliver a reasonable quality water suited to human use = yeast should be ok...unless it's a dedicated beer style yeast (Whitelabs Lagers spring to mind) requiring specific water qualities and pre start adjustment.
The main issue I found with TPW, is it starts reasonably acidic, progressively gets more acidic and yeast shut down due to pH. Using a buffered pH fixer will prolong ferment period, producing a dryer wash. Dr. Who over at Modern Distiller has a great write up on buffered pH fixers.
Don't get me wrong we want yeast to shutdown go dormant to avoid the extra shite/nasties/Sulphurs associated with true yeast death...but generally due to lack of food.
btw a really dry well fermented TPW can be a sharp one for a whisky base...but that's a personal taste thing really.
btw2 You could choose a better yeast to improve yields and lower FG...EC1118 is a tough bugga, no notable offies, SG up around 1.120, FG on the 1.000 at current Adelaide ambient no heating required.
bt1