Wineo's plain ol' sugar wash
A neutral sugar wash “without a bunch of extra stuff in it to cause flavours”. Wineo's answer is simple: use plenty of yeast and only the minimum of nutrients. The result is clean enough to make a neutral spirit even in a pot still.
- Makes
- Neutral spirit
- Still
- Pot or reflux
- Ferment
- 1–2 weeks, then a week to clear
- Wash
- about 9–11% ABV
- Difficulty
- Easy
About this recipe
wineo set out to make the plainest possible sugar wash for neutral spirit. Many sugar-wash recipes add tomato paste, cereals or a cocktail of nutrients; each can leave its own flavour. wineo's insight was that a generous amount of yeast does most of the work itself, so only the essentials go in: a little acid, nitrogen (DAP), calcium (gypsum) and magnesium (Epsom salts).
He pot-stills it and finds it very neutral and very clean - run through a reflux still, cleaner still. His advice to newcomers using turbo yeasts: try this, and leave turbos and carbon filtering behind.
Ingredients and calculator
Distiller's yeast, or twice as much bread yeast.
Method
- Dissolve the sugar. Dissolve the sugar in hot water and stir until it has dissolved completely.
- Add the nutrients. Add the DAP, gypsum, citric acid and Epsom salts, and stir until they've all dissolved.
- Make up the volume. Pour into the fermenter and add enough cool water to make the full batch. The starting gravity should be 1.070–1.080; for best results, don't go above 1.080.
- Pitch the yeast. Once the temperature is at or below 35 °C (95 °F), sprinkle the yeast on top.
- Stir it in. After 15–20 minutes, give it a good stir to mix things up and work some air in. Cover with a cloth or fit an airlock.
- Let it ferment out. Depending on the temperature, it works off in one to two weeks. Don't rush it: let it ferment to dryness.
- Let it clear. Give it another week to clear before running it.
Fermentation
The large amount of yeast gives a strong start, and patience gives a clean finish. Letting the wash ferment fully dry and then clear for a week is part of the recipe, not an optional extra: it keeps yeast and its by-products out of the boiler.
Distilling
Pot-stilled, it gives a clean neutral; refluxed, a cleaner one. Discard the foreshots, and cut tightly for neutral spirit - 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
The starting gravity is low.
Add a little more dissolved sugar, towards 1.070 - but no higher than 1.080.
It's still cloudy after fermenting.
Give it the full extra week. A cool spot helps the yeast settle.
Variations
- Bread yeast in place of distiller's yeast: use twice as much - ½ cup per 6 gallons.
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From the forum
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