I’m gonna give you my super cheap recipe for 100% success. This is for a 1000L mash that will yield 130-140L of 95.8% etoh. Adjust upwards or downwards accordingly. I use a 1000L ibc tote (should only cost you $100 used).
Buy a sous vide cooker off Amazon (cheap is fine) set it to 28c and have your water prewarmed. If you have enough hot water in your tank/on demand then you can save the warming step. It’s good to actually heat your water gradually as it allows for the chlorine to evaporate. Put 850L of water in.
Add in 200kg sugar (Costco is cheapest I could find), dissolve it well and stir vigorously (I use a wooden oar from an outdoor sports place). Then top up with your water to about 950L. (Leave enough room at the top so it doesn’t froth over)
buy 10lb of redstar active dry yeast from Costco (should only be 5$/bag. Significantly cheaper than brewing/wine yeast). Since we’re not particular about flavour this will do just fine, also using a large quantity like this will give you a 3-4 day full ferment!
Also buy a:
A) yeast booster (photo attached). This one requires 4g/1000L
B) Some diamonnium phosphate (nitrogen booster). (10g/1000L)
C) 2L tomato paste (yes actually, and not sauce, paste. Try and get it with the highest nutrient content, it’s good for b vitamins as well as some vitamin c and iron)
D) 500ml fresh lemon juice (pH adjust primarily)
E) 200g Nutritional yeast (nootch!) (optional) any off the shelf vegan stuff is great. It should be pretty cheap. It provides some extra nutrient and also floats on top which helps to prevent foaming.
Your Ingredients per batch should run you about $250 total including sugar and boosters.
Add in nutrients first, stir thoroughly.
Add in yeast slowly, it will be very active and can froth up quite quickly. Stir.
once yeast is fully added make sure the sous vide is in to maintain temperatures, also provides some agitation. During the summer this probably isn’t necessary and you might actually need a chiller to make sure it doesn’t get over 34c
add an additional 20kg of sugar after day 3 or once you notice the ferment start to slow. This will give it another quick boost and allow for full flocculation
This will get you really high proof, really fast ferment, and super cheap $$ per litre. I used to use lots of off the shelf turbos and expensive yeasts, but ended up saving hundreds of $$ per month by switching my recipe over.
If you’ve got a proper bubble plate setup you can easily rock your ethanol up to 95.8% on your first pass! Enjoy!
Thanks for this! I was having trouble getting anything over 10% abv to finish in under 2 weeks, but this looks like it’ll feed the yeast much better. I’m guessing 250kg of plain table sugar for that wash?
*edited. I use 200kg, then add 20kg as soon as it starts to slow.
Also, Costco is your friend! I buy the yeast and the sugar from there. I shopped around to tons of places and Costco has the best sugar price I could find!
I run 85 gallon ferments in an open top conical tank that I circulate the wash with a pump during the entire fermentation which speeds it up considerably. Usually finish around .995 from 1.090 in three days.
Very simple recipe:
150 lbs sugar
2lb. block of cheapo bread yeast
1.77 cups Distillers Nutrient W/Ag
Oyster shell in mesh bag (To control PH)
13ml anti-Foam (Wash will foam over without)
Topped off to 85 gallons
I was thinking about an aquarium pump in the bottom good call! The sous vide does stir it, but makes sense to pull a bottom fermenting yeast up to the top!
The oyster shells are a source of calcium carbonate. They just so happen to be great at regulating the PH of the wash just enough to prevent it from becoming too acidic, but also don’t make the wash too basic. I’ve seen some people throw them in wrapped up in a sock, though I’ve never tried it myself.
That’s the specific gravity, or density of the wash as shown on a hydrometer. You calculate ABV by taking the starting gravity before fermentation, and taking the final gravity afterward. Sugar makes the wash more dense, alcohol makes it less dense.
You can use this tool below to calculate that, but it looks like it’s 12.47%. Which means that’s about 10.5 gallons of pure ethanol in there. So you’ll probably pull about 10 gallons of azeo out of that 85 gallon wash, accounting for the tails and stuff you’ll want to leave behind.
Coppertop is correct, those numbers are starting and finishing specific gravity readings. I usually end up with roughly 8 gal. or so of Azeo after making cuts.
You can buy a 5 gallon bucket at places like Tractor Supply in the poultry feed area. Very cheap stuff. I just throw a few handfuls in a mesh bag and hang it in the wash. It’s good to rinse out the fine stuff first.
8 gallons is much more prudent. The foreshots and some of the heads smell like straight up MEK, and the tails smell like wet cardboard. Neither of which you would want in your extraction solvent. Plus once you get into the tails, it’s a real bitch to try to keep the ABV up, and if we’re shooting for azeo, you’re better off just leaving most of that behind anyway.
good call! The sous vide does stir it, but makes sense to pull a bottom fermenting yeast up to the top!