turbo yeast for cider

My attempt at a quick and higher alcohol content cider with "turbo" yeast by liquor quick leaves a lot to be desired. It stinks! literally. I started it friday afternoon and by saturday afternoon it had consumed all the sugars and stopped , I then added 2 more pounds of brown sugar and it again burnt up all the sugar in less than 12 hours. I pulled some out today when I added a bit more sugar to start it up again and its like drinking cheap vodka with a tiny apple hint and a dash of sewer water. The alcohol will knock you off your feet but I learned an important lesson.....dont use turbo yeast. I have sipped a little to taste but i reckon I need to find a way to kill off the yeast before drinking too much of it since the yeast is so insanely active and hyper. I wouldnt want it to ferment after drinking it.

Turbo yeast is specialized. Flavor was not a consideration when it was developed.

It sure is fast making the alcohol though. If flavor isnt much of a concern you can have some high power hooch in just a couple days. Im thinking if I can kill off the yeast and then add it about 50/50 with fresh apple cider it might turn out pretty good.

It also ferments hot and produces methanol and some major hangover-inducing garbage.

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this is my turbo yeast, dangerous stuff

no matter what yeast you used a high gravity cider will take a few months to the better part of a year to be good

Clayton said:

no matter what yeast you used a high gravity cider will take a few months to the better part of a year to be good

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You mean to be at its full potential , I made a batch in 7 days using Lavlin EC-118 yeast and 2 pounds of brown sugar that was good enough to make you slap your grandma , with a decent alcoholic kick.....and carbonation , only thing is it was really cloudy and tart with a lot of sludge at the bottom. I bottled a bunche of it and after it was 2 weeks in the bottles it was even better. So if you are looking for it to be clear and perfect it may take that long , but for a good smooth and great tasting apple hooch it only takes 1 to 2 weeks.

good smooth and great tasting
hot damn

Is turbo yeast the same thing as the high-gravity yeast Dogfish uses for the 120-minute IPA? I think it can go to 25%.

Turbo yeast was never meant for cider, beer, mead, wine etc. It was designed for something else which I don't want to mention in case the fun police read this.

Yep, turbo yeast was made for liquor and since the end product is distilled it dont matter if the stuff tastes like crap after fermentation. The batch I made wasnt too good at all and it got worse , started out being atleast drinkable but after a couple days was very foul. But I wanted to see for myself and it was a really cool learning experience all except for the waste.

ohiochris said:

Yep, turbo yeast was made for liquor and since the end product is distilled it dont matter if the stuff tastes like crap after fermentation. The batch I made wasnt too good at all and it got worse , started out being atleast drinkable but after a couple days was very foul. But I wanted to see for myself and it was a really cool learning experience all except for the waste.

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Turbo yeast is very popular over here in NZ, it leaves a very foul taste though.

From what i've read,you have to put through a carbon filter,even if you are making liquor. So if you are making wine you should put it through twice,then backsweeten to taste. I'm planning on making a 5 gal batch, trying to get a brandy like wine.

Im going to try it with cider. From what I read, you have add crazy amounts of sugar early and keep adding it. Also keep it on the cool side of the range and you can slow its pace to something you can keep up with. Going try 3 gallon with 15lbs of sugar and 2 pounds of light brown sugar. Worst case too much sugar and if falls to bottom when I cold crash with the yeast and I have a sweet liquor. Also might try a little less sugar and back sweeten with apple concentrate. I will let you know who it came out in a month.

I dunno bout no turbo yeast. Maybe if I was making my own gasohol to save money on fuel, but I aint that cheap

I made a batch of party hooch (that's 1 gal apple juice/1 lb sugar) with Fleischmanns bread yeast and it fermented out completely in six days. Dry as a bone, yuh, but drinkable when backsweetened and it clears quick too.

I think that yeast cost me $1.50/3 packets. Just sayin, spending big bucks to drink something disgusting that hurts the next day is like..... the brewing mistake trifecta.

SMOKEU said:

Turbo yeast was never meant for cider, beer, mead, wine etc. It was designed for something else which I don't want to mention in case the fun police read this.

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I'm intrigued to know more... Kinda like how Listerine was originally floor cleaner?

I'm wondering how safe it is to drink a turbo brew without distilling it. It would be nice to know exactly what's in the "nutrients".

gncraiano said:

I'm intrigued to know more... Kinda like how Listerine was originally floor cleaner?

I'm wondering how safe it is to drink a turbo brew without distilling it. It would be nice to know exactly what's in the "nutrients".

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I drank it , and got sick.........but thats because the swill I ended up with was stronger than I realized and it snuck up on me. Its just a really active and alcohol tolerant strain of yeast but apparently the downfall of the super strains is they are messy , harsh and dont taste too good. Filtration and aging may be the answer to that but I dont know.

I know someone that uses turbo yeast before distilling is wash. I was given a sample of it, and it tasted nasty. It coated my tongue with a "burnt plastic"coating. I couldn't taste anything else for hours.

The reason we use different yeasts is because they impart flavor to beer and wine. This applies to cider as well. A hefe yeast will give you a different flavor than a saison yeast. So to with turbo yeast. Distillers use this yeast to hit a high alcohol content, the process of distilling removes the flavor of the yeast. I equate it to a young barley wine. I bet if you put this cider away for several years and come back to it, it might taste good. Turbo yeast just tastes terrible and needs years or a still to be palatable.


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