Turbo Yeast Alcohol for Liqueur-making?

[pHBTa]

I have been making wine for 7 years, beer for 2, and recently started getting into Liqueur making. Problem is, I live in Canada where vodka and everclear are not cheap.

So I'm thinking of using Liquor Quik alcohol (20%) to make liqueuers, since I don't really like 40% liqueurs anyway. Does this work well, is the alcohol content high enough?

Will I need to bottle and store like wine bottles the turbo year alcohol to preserve it -- and if so, will I have to do the same with my later liqueur?

All in all, I'm having a hard time find recipes or ideas for house to use turbo yeast other than for distilling. Is that because turbo yeast alcohol is gross (by which I mean grosser than vodka, for instance)?

 

[pHBTa]

Oh, and I had implied, but forgot to mention that for the forseeable forever, I do NOT forsee myself getting into distilling, as, like I said, I think 40% alcohol is kinda gross on it's own, and I always mix.

 

[Homercidal]

Well you could try it and see if it's go0d enough for your taste. I don't know if I'd care for 20%, personally. I haven't gotten into liqueurs, but most of the hard stuff I have had was 35-40%. Even my favorite cinnamon Schnapps is 100 proof.

 

[podz]

All in all, I'm having a hard time find recipes or ideas for house to use turbo yeast other than for distilling. Is that because turbo yeast alcohol is gross (by which I mean grosser than vodka, for instance)?

Vodka isn't nasty unless you buy nasty vodka.

Turbo booze is pretty nasty unless you triple filter it with a large amount of activated carbon, which can be quite expensive and hard to find. Distillers typically do this after distillation, but whatever - it needs to be done.

Storage can simply be in PET bottles. Some people use it to make cocktails i.e. just mix it with orange juice and drink.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

I have used turbo yeast a few times. The first time I followed the directions on the packet and dissolved I think 6 kg of table sugar in 25 liters of water and used the whole packet of yeast. The result? Undrinkable crap, it was turbo through as it fermented out in about 72 hours and was 19% abv. Next time I used I think 2 kg of sugar in 12 liters of water, a few spices and a couple of teaspoons of the yeast. It took a lot longer to ferment but tasted much better, pretty damn good in fact.

Moral of the story, use less yeast for a slower ferment but much better tasting result.

 

[Homercidal]

I have used turbo yeast a few times. The first time I followed the directions on the packet and dissolved I think 6 kg of table sugar in 25 liters of water and used the whole packet of yeast. The result? Undrinkable crap, it was turbo through as it fermented out in about 72 hours and was 19% abv. Next time I used I think 2 kg of sugar in 12 liters of water, a few spices and a couple of teaspoons of the yeast. It took a lot longer to ferment but tasted much better, pretty damn good in fact.

Moral of the story, use less yeast for a slower ferment but much better tasting result.

I think the OP is not using yeast to make alcohol, but buying alcohol directly. Alcohol that came from turbo yeast production...

 

[Billy-Klubb]

something you can do is drop the amount of 40% by about 1/2 and up your simple syrup by half. or reduce your 40% by half, double your water (make simple syrup as normal), and add glycerin for body.

 

[pHBTa]

I'm making the Turbo Yeast myself. I went with the package instructions to get 20%. Something happened, but things have stopped happening in the last few weeks. What I currently have, and this has been true for the last 4 weeks, is a very sweet, yellowish syrup with what tastes like less than 5% alcohol in it. It doesn't taste rotten, but does taste slightly like coconut water.
I think this is a failure.

Next time I'm going to: a) make less than a gallon of must (so I'm not wasting sugar before I find success); b) simply add sugar until I get the potential alcohol reading that I want, ignoring package instructions; c) use less yeast, as suggested - about equal to, or less than, the average small yeast package available.

 

[pHBTa]

Project tossed for now.

At least my Cardamom Apple Cider is doing well, and my new Grapefruit wine is going to get better attention from me now that my projects in process are down from 5 to 2.