I had some turbo yeast left over, and figured I'd try make a couple litres of ginger beer (sugar, grated ginger, a little lime juice) and elderflower wine (sugar, elderflowers, lemon juice and zest) with it. Both have ended up with the same extremely unpleasant bitter flavour. They're currently undrinkable. Is there anything I can do to get rid of it? Currently I'm aging the elderflower wine and hoping for the best; I started the ginger beer later and that's still fermenting.
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I made a shed load of turbo wash.cleared with volcanic ash (cat litter).Then filtered.went well with some elder flower juice.☺– AlanCommented Apr 15, 2021 at 16:54
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2 Answers
Turbo yeast is very aggressive and consumes almost all sugars.
Bitter is most likley from an unbalance in sweet / bitter.
Add a non fermentable sugar like lactos to sweeten and counter the bitter to taste.
answered Jun 17, 2018 at 14:03
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Since the two quite different mashes both gave a very similar taste, I suspect it's not just the lack of sweetness, but some by-product. If it were just dryness, I'd expect the ginger beer to just taste of ginger and alcohol, but there's something else.– MaxCommented Jun 18, 2018 at 6:58
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@Max yeast can't form bittering acids naturally. Although scientists did just recently genieticly modify a yeast with mint and basil to produce bittering acids. If you post your recipes we can help you identify the source. Its pretty safe to say it's not from the yeast. Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 13:59
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I suspect it might have been the yeast nutrient as @barking.pete suggests: in the one case it disappeared after a bit more fermentation, and in the other I pitched a lot of yeast, not realising that the turbo yeast was not just yeast.– MaxCommented Jun 21, 2018 at 10:20
IMHO using turbo yeast for fermenting beer or other fizzy/alcoholic drinks is "less than optimal". It is not a yeast meant for directly fermenting drinks - it is a yeast mix meant for producing high alcohol content in a short time. The mix contains yeast and a lot of nutrient which can impart a biter flavour if not used up during fermentation. The idea of this yeast mix is to produce 24L of 20% alcohol mash for distillation (or to drink only if one has run out of methylated spirit :)
It may be advantageous to go buy some "normal" brewing yeast or, if all else fails, use bakers yeast. It is quite adequate for making ginger ale.
