Yeast will die at temperatures above
115°F. Be sure you do not put the
yeast in while the mixture is too hot. They are most active near 90°F.
They are living things and produce heat by the action of living. The
fermentation vat will stay warm if it is insulated and inside a building
but care must be taken to prevent it from overheating on hot summer days.
Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of water between 90°F.
and 115°F. and mix it with your
mash. You should use two ounces of yeast per bushel of grain.
Yeast has two biological pathways. If
the yeast has oxygen it will reproduce and make large quantities of carbon
dioxide. If it does not have oxygen, it will produce alcohol and smaller
quantities of carbon dioxide. Therefore, you should exclude oxygen from
the fermentation vat. You must allow carbon dioxide to get out. We
achieve this by covering our fermentation vats with plastic, held in place
with a rubber band cut from an inner-tube.
The yeast is working as long as there
is grain on top of the liquid and small bubbles coming up. Then the grain
falls to the bottom. After two to four days, the batch is ready to
distill.
If there is no grain at the top and
large bubbles are coming up from the bottom, you probably have a vinegar
producing organism in your brew. This is the most common problem with
alcohol crops. The vinegar producing organisms live on alcohol - the
longer they are there the less alcohol you have in your brew. When you
notice them, either distill or discard the batch immediately and clean out
the fermentation vat with boiling water. There will not be as much
alcohol as usual in the brew but if the batch is one or two days old, and
the vinegar hasn’t been there long, it would be worth distilling.
Distillation
Distillation is the separation of two
compounds using heat. By heating the liquid to the point where it boils,
then cooling it slowly, the water re-condenses first and we can then
condense and collect the alcohol. There are a variety of stills
available. For plans on building one, see The Alcohol Fuel Handbook
(ordering information below.)
USES OF ALCOHOL
Once you have the alcohol, certain
modifications need to be made in engines designed to burn gasoline in
order to accommodate alcohol fuel. These changes are due to the facts
that alcohol is thicker than gasoline, that it burns more completely, and
that it burns cooler. There are engines designed to run exclusively on
alcohol. These are, or have been, made by American-based companies but
are not available for sale within the United States.
Alcohol can be used in any heater or
furnace that burns fuel oil without any modifications. The furnace can
then be vented directly into the house, allowing you to use all the heat
produced by the fuel rather than sending over half of it up the chimney.
You will need to provide an oxygen intake from outside if your furnace
does not have one. You can also burn alcohol as low as 130 proof. The
burning alcohol will evaporate the water, and the air coming out of the
stove or furnace will be warm and moist, a very pleasant humidifier.
USES OF DISTILLERS GRAIN
In addition to producing alcohol, you
will be producing a high protein feed product and excess heat. The feed
product is almost equal to soybean meal as a protein supplement for
animals. It is not a complete ration, and must be mixed with other
feedstuffs. The yeast in the product, and the fact that it bypasses the
rumen, increases the efficiency of utilization by ruminants. Depending on
what is mixed with the feed product, it can be fed to cattle, sheep,
goats, horses, swine, chickens, dogs or fish with excellent results. It
can even be added to bread, cereal or baked goods for people.
(Lynn Ellen Doxon is the Author of
The Alcohol Fuel Handbook, which gives more complete information on
alcohol fuel production. It is available from Infinity Publishing at
www.buybooksontheweb.com.)
