TURBO yeast- any experience using?

So has anyone ever used this stuff to ferment a high gravity wort? I have a wort that is stuck at 1.050 already at 15% alcohol, and I want to add the TURBO to ferment it down further. Thoughts?

What are you trying to make?

Hooch thread! Hooch thread!

mmm
Turbo yeast is good for hooch....I can't imagine it would be good for anything else.
If this is something you intend to drink....try Premiere Cuve. It'll handle the alcohol, and it'll restart without making a mess....although at 21%+ABV, You're pretty unlikely to have anything that is worth a darn anyway.

i am making an imperial stout. i made it 8 months ago and it is very sweet still. i tried beano and that didnt do much. i tried redstar preimier cuvee and that didnt do anything. will turbo ferment to dryness?

It should.
I wonder about pitching a starter of a higher tolerance yeast?
Turbo yeast is a bit of a dirty dog. I'd be scared to put it into something that has already had that much effort into it.

Turbo yeast might ruin it, I haven't found a good use for the stuff yet, it doesn't even make good hooch, it leaves an "off" flavor.
It is a yeast and nutrient all in one, you can probably find more info. about it on:homedistiller.org/forums

kaj030201 said:

i am making an imperial stout. i made it 8 months ago and it is very sweet still. i tried beano and that didnt do much. i tried redstar preimier cuvee and that didnt do anything. will turbo ferment to dryness?

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Your Imperial Stout is way out range for the style. Your O.G. must be 1.162 which is way high for an Imperial Stout (normal range is 1.075 to 1.115).

If you get it down to the range of an Imperial Stout I brewed on New Years Day, (1.022), you will end up with a beer with over 18% Alcohol by Volume.

Let's see your recipe for this libation.

You could pitch some bugs to make it sour...

With 15% alcohol, your beer is going to be pretty toxic to most, if not all yeast you pitch. Maybe try pitching an active starter?

Since its so high its going to have to age a bit anyways. Maybe let it bulk age for another few months.

I fermented a few things with Turbo Yeast in the past for various reasons. It made everything it touched taste bad.
Also that stuff really does go crazy in the carboy. You do not use an airlock with it if you use the whole bag.

I would think a wine yeast or barleywine yeast might do better. But I have no experience with anything that high in alcohol.

Since it's too high, I would recommend blending it with a lower alcohol % brew...

EdWort said:

Your Imperial Stout is way out range for the style. Your O.G. must be 1.162 which is way high for an Imperial Stout (normal range is 1.075 to 1.115).

If you get it down to the range of an Imperial Stout I brewed on New Years Day, (1.022), you will end up with a beer with over 18% Alcohol by Volume.

Let's see your recipe for this libation.

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3 lbs. American 6-row Pale info
4 lbs. American 2-row info
.5 lbs. Weyermann Carafa III® info
.5 lbs. American Caramel 80°L info
1.5 lbs. Belgian Special B info
3 lbs. Dry Amber Extract info
.5 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract info
1 lbs. Candi Sugar Dark info
1 lbs. Oats Flaked info
.5 lbs. Barley Raw info
1 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 45 min. info
.5 oz. Centennial (Pellets, 10.00 %AA) boiled 75 min. info
.5 oz. Nelson Sauvin (Pellets, 11.00 %AA) boiled 3 min. info
Yeast : White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale info




but this wasnt a normal 5 gallon batch. i started with about 7 gallons and boiled down to about 2.5.

I brewed in february and it has aged until september on bourbon oak chunks and now it is aging on sauvignon oak chunks for 14 more months.

thanks for any more input!

Turbo yeast is specially formulated to ferment sugar water only, it has the wrong nutrients and Ph buffers to work in beer especially most of the way fermented beer.
I would never use turbo yeast, Ive played with it and it doesnt even make good hooch. I would make a large starter maybe a gallon or more of white labs super high gravity yeast and pitch that, it can handle the alcohol content so a good dose of healthy yeast and maybe some yeast hulls and or nutrient to restart fermentation. If there are more sugars to ferment that should do it. A campaign yeast might also work but it could leave it too dry.
It looks like an interesting recipe (maybe more of a barley wine than a stout) I hope its worth the wait and the hassle.

I've used turbo yeast to dry out a barleywine. Based on my reading, I cooled the keg to 60F before adding the yeast and kept it cool.

On the other hand, if WLP099 isn't doing the trick, I really doubt any other yeast will help.

add to the fermenting bucket or bottle a aireation device areate it for 5 min a day itll get it where you want it to be

Try Lalvin EC-1118 or K1V-1116
Lalvin Strains

giligson said:

Try Lalvin EC-1118 or K1V-1116
Lalvin Strains

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will either ferment until dryness? i have added 4 packets of pasteur champagne yeast already, with no results. will the lalvin strains work any better?

kaj030201 said:

will either ferment until dryness? i have added 4 packets of pasteur champagne yeast already, with no results. will the lalvin strains work any better?

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No they are roughly the same type of bug
But - did you start your champagne yeast with a starter?
The general process is to start one of these with a starter and then add dilute in your wort to get the yeast ready for the alcohol shock. They should never be pitched dry - as if it were a virgin wort etc.

giligson said:

No they are roughly the same type of bug
But - did you start your champagne yeast with a starter?
The general process is to start one of these with a starter and then add dilute in your wort to get the yeast ready for the alcohol shock. They should never be pitched dry - as if it were a virgin wort etc.

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well, by starter, do you mean dissolve in warm water for 15 minutes? thats what i did. should i make a starter using some dme and an airlock?
also, you said "bugs". will they change the flavor profile at all? my idea of a bug is something that leaves that "belgian-y" flavor. i may be way off though.

If you ever decide to give up, then you can water it down to 8% and throw in some sour mix and sour beer dregs, then wait 6 months. I did that to an underattenuated autolyzed mess I had one time, and it turned out great.
Alternatively, you could brew 2.5 gallons of a 5% beer, then rack your high gravity beer on to it while it is fermenting. The drop in ABV and the active healthy yeast might continue to work on your beer.

I think it is basically done unless you pitch something that's going to chew on the more complex sugars you have in there. You've got a lot of unfermentables (by standard Sacc yeast) in there and 1.050 is probably where it will stay.

The dark malts, the amber extract, and the dark sugar all provided stuff that isn't going to be available for standard beer yeasts to eat, not to mention the extended boil probably helped contribute even more. Beano should have helped but since it didn't, that tells me that you've gone about as far as the yeast will go without some help.

Have you tasted it? Does it taste too sweet? What was your starting gravity?