StillSmart

Just tried this buffer method with my version of wineos wash and it has produced amazing results. my starting water ph is ph7,i boil 5 ltr water and add 1 tsp citric then desolve 5kg of sugar then leave this to stand 20 mins for inversion then made the buffer,i have no scales so used 16 tsp of citric and 16 tsp bicarb in 0.5 ltr of water added this to the sugar solution and topped up to 25 ltr resulting in a ph of 5.9.and a start sg of 1.078 during this time i made a yeast starter of 1 tsp gypsum 1 tsp youngs yeast neutriant 5tsp dap 3tsp brewers yeast 0.5 tsp epson salts and 12 tsp dady(distillers active dried yeast)after adding this the ph increased to ph6.3 i put the lid on the fermenter and it started bubbling within the first 15 mins.after the first day of fermentation th ph had dropped to ph 4.6 and stayed at this level until completion on day 5 at final sg of 0.986 = 12abv

Well seeing as how youngs yeast nutrient is almost completely DAP (google the other ingredient and its shown as a different source of nitrogen, so I can only presume its there for anti-caking), did you conclude it as necessary to use that and DAP or would just one of them suffice ?

Plus given that the point of a pH buffer is to prevent the possible pH swing that gluconic acid/glucono delta-lactone weirdness and/or carboinc acid/dissolved CO2 can cause, maybe it would just have been easier to chuck some potassium carbonate in and maybe some bentonite, so the Kcarb sorts the acidification and the bentonite provides a healthy amount of nucleation points for the carbonic acid to attach to and come out as gaseous CO2, after a gentle stir (within the 1/3rd sugar break of course, soas to stay within the usual points in the ferment while still allowing it to produce the requisite amount of alcohol) ?

Only dap is required in wineoes recipe all the other ingredients have been added to try to give it enough neutrients to prevent it from stalling wich was a ph problem.you can make it ferment out with the use of calsium carbonate but you still have ph swings so the buffer method works and results in a better tasting brew with a lower Fg before using the buffer i was happy if i could get the Fg below sg 1.000 now its in the 0.980s range.as regards the bentonite usage ive only ever used it for fining.after saying all this now i know about the buffer i think i'll try going back to winoes original recipe
Cheers