— Checklist  —

• 1.  Aerate the mash/wash
• 2. Check temperature 85F or less … 65F ideal
• 3. Add Yeast Nutrients (not necessary if using a yeast packet that has both yeast and nutrients, or if using grains)
• 4. To get your yeast to be fast acting “Turbo Yeast” – add the Diammonium Phosphate nutrient.
• 5. Make sure the PH is 5.2
• 6. Put in the correct amount of Yeast, don’t over pitch.

1. Yeast Nutrients

Man cannot live by bread alone [Bible verse]. Yeast cannot live by sugar alone. If Yeast doesn’t have nutrients it will not eat the sugars. Nutrients are essential to the yeast doing it’s fermenting in any sugar added fermentation. Divided application is acceptable; half at the start, and half mid fermentation.

If you are using grains or fruits, there are plenty of nutrients in those food materials themselves. There is no need to add nutrients. You can add nutrients if you like but not necessary.

1 to 1.5 teaspoons of nutrients per gallon of water (as per packet). 4 teaspoons for 3 gallon batch.

2. Turbo – (Diammonium Phosphate, AKA DAP)

Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) is a good source of nitrogen for yeast. The added nitrogen will help the yeast remain very active through the ferment.

Add 1/2 to 3/4 grams per gallon (as written on 1 lb packet)   2 grams or 1/2 teaspoon per 3 gallons batch

Take a temperature reading. The mash should ideally be 74 F to start fermentation … The temperature will rise slightly as fermentation is in process.

3. PH Level – a Must

Check the PH. Don’t be surprised if in a 3 gallon sugar wash you need to put in the juice from several lemons or limes to get a PH of 5.2. Yeast are most productive and don’t produce foul oils at their desired PH of 5.2. Yeast above a PH of 7.2 will become active but other yeasts will start up and compete with your pitched yeast and that means off flavors. At PH 5.2 you create an environment where just your ETOH yeast can thrive.

4. Pitching the Correct Amount of Yeast

Amount

DADY Yeast- add 1 to 2 grams per gallon (per instructions on 1 lb yeast package)

1.5 teaspoon for 3 gallons in the liquid of a wash or mash.

DADY (Distillers Active Dry Yeast) is a specially selected strain of Saccharomyces Cerevisae designed for distillers use in grain mash fermentations for ethanol. DADY will produce maximum alcohol yields under controlled temperatures (less than 90° F/32° C). DADY yeast has been cultured to have a tolerant level up to 18% alcohol.

You should introduce the large pre-pitch starter along with additional yeast needed for the batch. When this is introduced to the main mash or wash it will overwhelm with the production of daughter yeast cells. This rapid population of yeast cells will dominate the batch and exclude any foreign yeast and bacteria that have come from the grains that you have introduced from becoming active.

Over Pitch

If you mistakenly “over-pitch” your yeast- just make sure you have a LOT of copper in the mash to get rid of the extra sulfur compounds when the yeast start eating dead yeast cells to stay alive.

Under Pitch

Under pitching causes a long lag time that can allow a bacterial infection to take hold in the mash. If there is sufficient nutrients the small amount of yeast will take a longer time to make a colony in the initial lag period of fermentation and take two or three times as long to establish the colony. But under–pitching will absolutely work provided there are enough nutrients.

Fermenting Process

Cool the liquid to  86F  (30C) a little more than room temperature. Use your temperature gun. The best temperature is stated on the yeast package which is usually 65F to 70F.

Ferment the mash at a constant  77F  (25C).  One of the by products of fermenting is an abundance of CO2. This gas is released by your airlock.  When the airlock stops bubbling the fermentation is over and the yeast has not died, but gone into a dormant state. Air Lock

Note: If you bubbler isn’t bubbling then you probably have a leak of the lid. Carbon dioxide is given off by the yeast and is heavier than oxygen so it will protect the mash from any oxygen if there is a small leak.

Anti-Foaming Agents

Anti-Foaming Agents break up the bubbles that lodge at the surface.  Fruits, grains, and molasses create big amount of foam and can outgrow the fermenting chamber if there is not enough head room.

Fermenting in Mexico

Fermenting Finished

At this point the top of the fermented grain based mash looks like a wart and hence the finished fermented liquid was called a wart!

The air lock has stopped bubbling.

The yeast sediment when it stops producing alcohol turns heavy and falls to the bottom.  Many People referencing this yeast on the bottom represent that the yeast has died. That bottom thick layer of yeast contains both dead and dormant yeast cells. The dead cells have propagated their limit of daughter cells. The dormant yeast cells have stopped because there is now a low ratio of water because of the now present alcohol. They are waiting for more water or the cells have run out of sugars to eat. .. Or the temperature has gone below 65F deg. or above 95F deg.

How Long does it Take?

If there are little sugars for the yeast to eat the fermentation will be quick. If the mash is loaded with sugars, then the fermentation will take a long time. Fermentation can be somewhere from one week (average time) to two weeks depending on the type of yeast, the batch temperature, the amount of starches to break down.

A 3 Gallon Fermenter

Iodine Test

Take tincture iodine and put a drop on a spoon full of the mash liquid. It should dissipate and almost disappear. If the drop turns to a black dot, then there are unfermented sugars.