Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey guys, as a novice who's used pretty much nothing but turbo's Mostly still spirits heat wave turbo and alcotek 48.
Why turbo's get such a bad rep here? I've read a bit here about tomato paste washes and lowans bakers yeast and from what you guys are saying
they end up with a much smoother character than turbo's does that come down to the huge amount of nutrients or just sheer stress on the yeast's part
Even with a super tolerant yeast 20 ABV has got to stress the yeast. Does that lead to that rocket fuel taste I'm getting without running the spirit through carbon?

I use a large reflux still that pulls about 94 percent, so up until this point I've never bothered with stripping runs, since I was mostly interested in neutral spirit.
Do you think stripping runs are of any benifit to me if all I'm doing is neutrals or flavoring essence with a little oak.

Really would like some advice guys

Regards

Val

Valoren wrote:Why turbo's get such a bad rep here?

Taste and cost. (rocket fuel)

You can do better for less.

Welcome to the forum, your stuff will only improve from here

It certainly seems that way! What sort of alcohol percentage will I get out of Lowans? Everyone here seems to swear by the Tomato paste wash, Why exactly, Is the tomato paste a yeast nutrient? I guess I wont know how much better the results are untill I try a wash for myself, I use 200 L food grade drums to ferment in so what would I be looking at cost, fermentation time and quality wise, I know turbo's are fucking expensive!

Turbo yeast were first designed for fuel. Hence shit taste.

Your right it stresses the yeast too much and it's a shit strain to start with.

Do a price comparison then a taste comparison to the good old TPW and you will know what we are talking about

So lowans instant yeast is the way to go? I've got three tins laying around from baking bread, What does it ferment out to? 8% 10?%
A specialised champane yeast won't give me any better result than lowans? home brew shop up the road has that many bloody kinds of yeast it makes my head spin!

Hi val welcome here. Stripping runs will for sure help in getting a cleaner spirit but having said that I never bother . yeah turbos, you just don't here to many good reviews about them, kinda think you answered your own question here reading your review of turbo spirit before carbon filtering (good spirit does not require filtering) ;-)

You will get 10% comfortably out of the good old lowans if you go much higher you risk more off flavours.

Home brew shops want to take your money then have you coming back to take more of your money.

Try the recipes here bud.

Valoren wrote: I use 200 L food grade drums to ferment in so what would I be looking at cost, fermentation time and quality wise, I know turbo's are fucking expensive!

You might possibly want to think of using smaller fermenters untill you try a few batches. Running a 2200watt element through a reflux shoud give you a great product, but a 200 litre drum is going to take a while to run through a still like that.
Once you decide what yeast you like, then scale up. A 200 litre will cost a few bob to put on, but you get the reward at the end. No point making it a reward your not happy with.

Champage yeast isn't bad with a neutral drink, but if your local HB shop has a good selection, you might find a good starter yeast there that works well for you.

I go to absolute home brew in St marys NSW. The fella that works there has pretty much every yeast anyone could need, all refrigerated, I'm sure I could ask him to supply me with a good yeast that would go well with a TPW. Just by not using turbo yeast and turbo clear I'm probably saving close to eighty bucks for a 200 L wash!

I used to have 3 200 L fermenters fermenting sugar washes at once but it will be a while before I'm at that point again though.

You could ask for a good neutral or vodka spirit yeast. Bakers yeast will be a lot cheaper and will give more than acceptable results over turbo's.
Turbo clear is a downright waste. Gravity costs nothing, just takes a few days.

I find a strip and then spirit run makes a huge difference. I've tried one reflux run a few times and it is ok but nothing compared to the product from a spirit run. I use lowans for TPW and it comes out clean, don't see a need to spend more $$ for another yeast.

Phil wrote:I find a strip and then spirit run makes a huge difference.

:text-+1: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Giving up turbos is big step for most new ppl,

You'll do it once the understanding is there and you have confidence in the process and the quality of info you have access to. So let's cover what's here already....

There's clearly enough ppl getting good results with TPW's weetbix, pumkin washes are personal fave for what your doing. So its credible.
You know that you can avoid the costs of specialist sugars, turbo yeasts, carbon, filtering by using one of these washes.

yep we do trade off a few abv for flavour compared to some turbos...You won't struggle for volume so why not try this path.

At 94 - 92 % abv it's a very clean spirit, nothing wrong with say taking half your first new wash spirit and watering down with a quality water to about 65% and ageing it on oak...you get some for immediate drinking and use up your essences and you get to try and appreciate the natural oaking method as well later on.

If your chasing yeasts that deliver higher yields and great flavours you can import as I do in early winter ,nice cool time for yeast health during transport, at about 40gm used per wash there's plenty in 2 x500gm blocks.
If your using a purchased yeast of quality from HBS then look into yeast starters and retaining it mid ferment(various methods for this) so you need only purchase once every 4 -6 brews again reducing costs and keeping quality high.

You've already read enough to be curious...take a few steps towards what many consider a better product.

bt1

My issue with turbos were price and taste.

Yes you get a lot more yield but not when you consider a TPW costs about $7-$8 total. I can't even buy turbo for under $10-$12 at my HBS and that's before you get to sugars.

I did I think 4 turbos and I run a reflux still so even after double running it I could not get rid of that harsh high alc twang that I associate with acetone and methanol.

You just don't need a pricy yeast for a neutral with stripping though a pot or a reflux.

Well I have been using turbos for the last 3 years, doing the first TPW from MacStill's recipe now. Will be interesting to report back results. I never had problems with my turbos but admittedly I do a lot of carbon filtering. About 1 week of filtering through 1kg of carbon per batch.

That's a pricy exercise filtering that much carbon. You'll save enough in no time to make more TPW.

Well val,

what have you decided to do here/...be interested to hear your thoughts.

cheers
bt1

funkyphill wrote:I never had problems with my turbos but admittedly I do a lot of carbon filtering.

Have you ever had anything to compare your turbos to know that??? You will only have to smell the TPW in the fermenter to notice its a much cleaner wash.

Yep my house smells like tomato now rather than turbo yeast, much nicer. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Never tried the TPW so I'll know the difference on the weekend.

funkyphill wrote:Yep my house smells like tomato now rather than turbo yeast, much nicer. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Never tried the TPW so I'll know the difference on the weekend.

Wait till you smell a weetbix,cornflake one,you will never go back! :handgestures-thumbupleft: