Made a rum wash 5 days ago. 10# black strap, 5# brown sugar, 5 gallons of water. Boiled 1 oz bakers yeast in 2 gallons of water and dissolved all the fermentables in the hot water. Added 3 gallons of cold water and pitched another 1 ounce of yeast when the temp reached 100F. Starting gravity was 1.085. Strong fermentation within 12 hours. SG is sitting at 1.020 now and fermentation has slowed considerably. Wondering if I should hit it with another yeast to drop the SG closer to 1.000. Any thoughts?
Discussion
Drink it all and start over.
Well, at some point won't adding more yeast just not do anything? Doesn't the amount of yeast/sugar compared to volume of water choke out growth/activity at some point?
The yeasts ability to tolerate alcohol is a major culprit. Some strains can tolerate a higher level of alcohol. I originally used bakers yeast. I've found it doesn't do well much over 6% so I added some distillers yeast hoping it would finish out the ferment. Got a couple of more points but still finished higher than I wanted at 1.012. Started with too high of a gravity wash.