fermenting time

[Blue_Duck]

Hi Guys.

This one has got me baffled, as you know i do some concoctions.The latest one
is a wash with 1kg of flaked maize/500gms of flaked barley/500gms of flaked
rye/1kg extra light dry malt extract/11kg sugar and two sachets of single strain
whisky yeast with a/g, made up with a total of 46ltrs of water.Its still fizzing away after 16 days, i set a similar sized yellow split pea wash using alinsons yeast 5 days ago and its almost done.anyone had any similar experiences?

cheers B_D

[Easydrinker]

You don't state how much Allinsons's you used,(I use 100g to 25 lits of yellow split pea,sometimes 4,sometimes 5 Kg sugar and it finishes in 3 days,with probably unnecessary heat).
I can't imagine the sachets that you used are anywhere near that quantity,and would expect them to take awhile longer.
Is that of any help?
Robert.

[RumJohn]

@Blue Duck: There are a lot of possibilities, but my first answer would be to suggest that the split pea was a much more friendly environment for the yeast.

[chill]

It is also within the realm of possibility that the whiskey yeast packages were we stored improperly or are expired. That would result in a low pitch rate and an extended fermentation. I have had that happen to me.

Chuck

[Anavrin]

What's was the starting gravity and where is it now?

I've only done one large batch (38lt) and it didn't seem to fully ferment dry, also it held a lot of gas, I was de-gassing it for ages, always had loads of bubbles but the gravity wasn't changing over a few days, I've left it for another week.

Can't think of anything else

[Blue_Duck]

sorry should have added more details, i dont bother trying to take a starting reading i never could get a proper reading with grains in,its sitting at 10.34
this morning,still plenty activity,temp sitting at 23%c with a quilt wrapped round the fermenter.might chuck another sachet in and hope it livens things up.

The split peas done, its sitting .990 this morn. i only add a dozen 7grm sachets of alinsons to my double batch its always worked that way for me. I use the sachets opposed to the tins, the tins never quite worked the same for me.


thanks for the replies. cheers B_D

[Blue_Duck]

Well,i checked this evening after agitating and adding another sachet of yeast
this morning it has come down a couple of points, like Anavrin said doing a larger
ferment it doesn't always zero out, i have noticed that with various washes, if i can
get it down to 10.10 i will be happy because my last bran/malt/mollasses finished there
and the results were good. I might have miscalculated the sugar content on this one,
gonna have to rethink when using yeast with A/G, might be more sugar getting released
that the yeast can cope with.

cheers B_D

[Anavrin]

I think if using grain you have to be very careful with the mash temperature, maybe even lower it a couple of degrees to ensure your getting a conversion where most of the sugars produced are of the fermentable type,

I know if you mash a little higher than normal temp, say 68-69 it's good for making a more full bodied beer because some of the converted sugars add to the gravity but arnt fermentable, lower temps 60-64 will make thinner, dry beer, this is where we want to be I guess, we're not interested in drinking the wash but we want as much fermentable sugar as possible to get as low final gravity as possible.

[Blue_Duck]

I hear you Anavrin, but it wasn't a mash as such. I used flaked grains to avoid the mash procedure as my mash tun isn't quite finished yet. I relied on the method of adding the boiling water to release the starch, and let the yeast with the ammo-gl to convert any unfermentable sugars. Your feedback is appreciated, its bookmarked till the tun is finished. Then i might give the all grain method a go.

cheers B_D

[Blue_Duck]

Well this bugger is still going, its down to .10 at the moment but still active.
still at 23%c. Unlucky with the ferment but i consider myself lucky that its still healthy, no off tastes or smells. Hope the end product was worth the wait.

cheers B_D

[Easydrinker]

Yes, a bugger when a mash stalls,and I hate re-starts myself.
But I also hate waste.
Good luck with this wash of yours.
I would have expected nutrients to be there,did you check Ph.?
Tell me that I am wrong by all means,but how much Allinson's did you use for a split pea wash of similar size? I suspect that the two sachets of yeast used on this slow one were each intended for 5 Litres......
Probably asking too much for 46 litres.
These days I use LOTS of yeast,and am disapointed if a wash hasn't finished in four days max.
Robert.

[Blue_Duck]

Well it managed to get down to a couple of points off zero,quite happy with that result. Its racked into 2x fermenters and i'll prob. strip tommorow,i have a single strip of this already done, so thats a spirit run sorted for the weekend.

@ Robert, i use a dozen sachets of alinson yeat for double batch of split pea, it always works of in about 5-6 days.
I think the two sachets of whisky yeast are getting overworked with double batch's, might go back to doing them in singles again.

cheers B_D

[Blue_Duck]

Well i finally got the time to do this run, put 24Ltrs of 37% of strip in the T500 boiler with vino's pothead design started her up on full power for around an hour.When the bend became hot i powered down to 900w using my cheapo 3000w scr controller.6 quids worth and it works pretty good.tossed 1.5ltrs of heads/fores.powered up to 1200w collected 6ltrs hearts down to 70% as it still smelled and tasted good.turned off, I know there still a fair bit of alc. left,i dont want a cupboard full of jars as i've got what i wanted. Going to nuke this on j/d chips so i have drink for the UNfestive season.

CHEERS B_D

[Easydrinker]

Some here may consider you wasteful,but what do you or I care, if you are happy?
I hope your UN-festive season is at least as good as the one that I for-see for myself!
Robert