Stilligent

Birdwatchers sugar wash

Sugar, water, a little tomato paste and ordinary bread yeast. Few recipes have been fermented as often as this one, and for good reason: it is cheap, forgiving and makes a clean neutral spirit - the classic base for vodka and gin.

Makes
Neutral spirit
Still
Reflux, or pot (two runs)
Ferment
5–14 days
Wash
about 8–10% ABV
Difficulty
Easy

About this recipe

A glass demijohn of golden, bubbling sugar wash under an airlock, beside bags of sugar and yeast and a stainless still.
A Birdwatchers wash under way: plenty of fine bubbles and a thin head of foam as the yeast works.

The Birdwatchers wash takes its name from the distiller who first shared it, and it has been refined by thousands of home distillers since. It is also known simply as TPW, the tomato-paste wash. The paste is there for the yeast, not for flavour: it supplies the nitrogen, vitamins and minerals that plain sugar lacks, so a basic bread yeast can ferment cleanly without commercial nutrients.

The result is a wash with little character of its own - exactly what you want for a neutral spirit. Run through a reflux still it becomes a clean vodka, or the base for a gin such as Odin's Easy Gin.

Original recipe discussion ↗

Ingredients and calculator

The Birdwatchers ingredients laid out: a jar of sugar, a jar of tomato paste, lemons and lemon juice, yeast, Epsom salts and a large bottle of water.
Everything a Birdwatchers wash needs: sugar, tomato paste, lemon juice, Epsom salts, bread yeast and water.

Dry bread yeast tolerates roughly 12–14% ABV.

Recipe calculator

Scale the recipe to your batch, in metric or US units, and see what to expect.

Units

01Batch

Kilograms
SG –Potential –
Ingredients
White sugarAim for a starting gravity of 1.060–1.070; up to about 5.6 kg at most.4.5 kg
Tomato pastePlain paste, no added herbs or preservatives.250 g
Lemons, juicedOr ½ tsp of citric acid.1
Epsom saltsA pinch: magnesium for the yeast.⅛ tsp
Dry bread yeast70 g
WaterTo make up the total volume.to 25 L

02Fermentation

Ready to distil–
Fermentation time–
Starting gravity–
Wash strength–
Pure alcohol–

03Distilling and bottling

Hearts from the still–
Water to add–
Spirit at bottling strength–
Expected cuts
Foreshots–Discard
Heads–Keep as feints
Hearts–Keep
Tails–Keep as feints

Volumes are typical for the still chosen. Make the cuts by smell and taste, never by volume alone - the guide to making the cuts shows how.

Estimates for planning, assuming a healthy fermentation. Your settings are remembered on this device.

Method

  1. Mix the bulk of the wash. In a clean fermenter, dissolve about four-fifths of the sugar in about four-fifths of the water, warm enough to dissolve it easily. Stir in the tomato paste, lemon juice and Epsom salts until there are no lumps.
  2. Adjust the gravity. Take a hydrometer reading. Add sugar to raise it or water to lower it, aiming for 1.060–1.070 (most distillers stay below 1.070), then make up the full volume.
  3. Bring it to temperature. Warm the wash to 26–30 °C - 28 °C is the usual target. An aquarium heater in the fermenter works well.
  4. Pitch the yeast. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the surface and leave it; there's no need to stir it in.
  5. Ferment. Fit an airlock, or cover loosely so carbon dioxide can escape and nothing gets in. Keep the temperature steady. Daily gravity readings are optional but show progress.
  6. Let it finish and settle. After 5–14 days the gravity should reach about 0.990. When it stops falling and bubbling has ceased, leave the wash to settle for a few days - ideally a week - so the yeast and paste drop out.
  7. Siphon off the clear wash. Leave the sediment behind; it scorches easily in a boiler and adds off-flavours.

Fermentation

A white fermenting bucket full of orange-tinted wash under a thick head of foam, with sugar, tomato paste, lemons and a hydrometer on the bench beside it.
A Birdwatchers wash about a day in: a thick head of foam over a wash tinted orange by the tomato paste.

A healthy Birdwatchers wash starts within a day and ferments vigorously for the first few days. Temperature matters more than anything else: below about 24 °C it slows markedly, and above 32 °C bread yeast produces harsher by-products. A rotten-egg smell early on is common with bread yeast and usually fades; copper in the still removes what remains.

Distilling

For vodka or a gin base, a reflux still gives a clean, high-strength spirit in a single run. On a pot still, strip several washes, combine the low wines and run them again slowly. Either way, discard the foreshots and collect in jars - see making the cuts.

Fermenting a wash is legal in many places; distilling it often is not. Distil only where it is legal to do so, and check your local licensing first.

Troubleshooting

It hasn't started after 24 hours.

Check the temperature first, then the yeast's age. Bread yeast that has been opened for months may be weak.

It stopped early, well above 1.000.

Often a drop in pH, which sugar washes are prone to. Some distillers add a buffer such as crushed eggshells at the start. Check the temperature too.

It smells of rotten eggs.

Stressed yeast produces hydrogen sulphide. It usually clears by the end of fermentation; copper in the still deals with the rest.

Variations

  • Inverted sugar. Simmer the sugar in part of the water with the recipe's lemon juice or citric acid for 30–45 minutes, and leave the acid out later - it stays in the wash. The yeast gets a quicker start, though no extra alcohol: see the guide to inverted sugar.
  • Other yeasts. A distiller's or wine yeast tolerates more alcohol, but higher gravities bring more off-flavours. The recipe's strength is its simplicity.

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