How much time does wine yeast take to consume 1 kg of sugar?

[Ian DSouza]

Hello all,

I am planning to buy some wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) from my local Amazon store and prepare an alcoholic ginger ale. I plan to use some grated ginger, one lemon, 1 kg (2.2 lb) of white cane sugar (sucrose) and 5 liters of water. I was wondering if someone could give me some insight into how much time the yeast would take to consume the sugar and convert it to alcohol. The average day temperature where I'm at is 26C (79F). I do not have a hydrometer at the moment but will get it at some point in the future.

 

[The_Antikveik]

About 5 ft (about 1.5 m)?

 

[Yooper]

Hello all,

I am planning to buy some wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) from my local Amazon store and prepare an alcoholic ginger ale. I plan to use some grated ginger, one lemon, 1 kg (2.2 lb) of white cane sugar (sucrose) and 5 liters of water. I was wondering if someone could give me some insight into how much time the yeast would take to consume the sugar and convert it to alcohol. The average day temperature where I'm at is 26C (79F). I do not have a hydrometer at the moment but will get it at some point in the future.

It varies so very much that no one can give you an answer. It could be active in 30 minutes, or 2 days. It depends on the age/health of the yeast, the osmotic pressure of the must, the amount of nutrients, etc. But you can tell if it's fermenting as it will produce CO2 and form a foamy head and then that will stop, probably finishing totally in 5-7 days.