It is no secret that the quality of moonshine largely depends on yeast. Previously, only dry or pressed baker’s yeast was sold, which was used by everyone. In our time, the range has noticeably expanded, it became possible to choose yeast for moonshine, for example, take alcohol. Special strains have several advantages.
All yeast can be divided into the following types:
- bakery – are used by the food industry when baking bakery products; for home brewing, this is the worst option, which significantly reduces the quality of home brew;
- wine – a special type of yeast for winemakers, because of the chemical properties and high cost in home brewing, they are practically not used, only for the preparation of fruit brews;
- beer – for the first time such a strain was isolated by Carlsberg specialists in 1881. Prior to this, brewing used random strains of yeast that got into the wort from the air, and the beer looked more like mash with hops, rather than a modern foamy drink, beer yeast is also sold as vitamin supplements, but they are not suitable for moonshine;
- alcohol – in industry they are used to produce alcohol, it is on the basis of alcohol yeast that it is best to make mash for moonshine from sugar and grain.
Benefits of alcohol yeast
1. Shorter fermentation period. Braga is ready for distillation in 3-6 days (instead of 7-12).
2. Increased vitality. Alcoholic yeasts die at an alcohol concentration in Braga of 17-18%. This indicator is much higher than that of other types of yeast, therefore, the yield of moonshine, all other things being equal, will be greater.
3. Minimum concentration of harmful impurities. Due to the long fermentation of baker’s yeast, harmful substances accumulate in the mash: acetone, fusel oils, aldehydes. Subsequently, additional purification of moonshine with coal or other methods is required. When using alcohol yeast, this problem is not so acute.
4. No foam. Special yeast for moonshine does not emit a lot of foam, so no defoamer is required to make home brew.
Alcohol Yeast Recommendations
1. Maintain fermentation temperature at 22-28°C. To do this, the mash can be heated with a conventional aquarium heater. The container should be in a dark room, protected from sunlight.
2. Seal the bottle with a water trap or a glove with a hole in one of the fingers so that there is an outlet for carbon dioxide.
3. Do not use chlorinated, tap and boiled water. Moonshine requires spring or bottled water.
4. Braga is desirable to mix every day.
5. First, the yeast dissolves, then they need to be poured into the fermentation tank and only then the main wort is added.