HELP! Spontaneous ferment... Or something...

[Fart Vader]

Hmm.
100% wheat malt (my own malting).
55lbs, 28gal water.
148F/64C for 3 hours then let it cool overnight.
SG 1.07 (yay, awesome for home malt)

Woke up this morning to check on the temperature and found Mount St-Helen's erupting!
I've never seen anything like it. I had 4-5 inches of space, but this thing went ballistic, bubbling like crazy.

Spontaneous

So, I went to work, came home 10hrs later and found all activity stopped.
Smells like dirty feet now.


Do I let 'er go?
Do I pitch some yeast?
Do I dump it?

[HDNB]

the guy at the wine store sez you left too much room for the airlock to work

dity feet sounds like you got a bacterial ferment going. try a yeast bomb fast and maybe something will come of it.

good luck and happy mopping!

[NZChris]

Check the SG

[Fart Vader]

good luck and happy mopping!

Ya, sticky stinky stuff.
Sucks man!

NZ, SG was 1.07 last night, before the eruption.

I scooped up a 20L bucket of overflow. Man did that thing go crazy.
Temp was at 38C this morning when I noticed the monster in the basement.

Yeast bomb coming up !!!

[Fart Vader]

Just took another gravity reading.
Down to 1.065

[still_stirrin]

It's not a bacterial ferment. Those don't usually make a big Krausen head. More likely you've got wild yeasts from your home malted wheat. Not a bad thing...many brewers "dream" about it. You say it smells like "dirty feet"...as in "musky"? I think you're smelling the acids from the high Krausen.

Dip your finger into the beer and taste it...I bet it will be quite nice...dry and tart. It is indicative of the mashing preparations done properly with adequate O2 introduced as the wort cooled. Wham-O....you got fermentation...with a parasitic yeast (you're fermenting "on the grain", right?).

Double check "what ya got" and I think you're quite alright. The worst thing that happened is the mess it left in your brewery. The product will be quite alright. Check the gravity....
ss

[kiwi Bruce]

What a mess...sorry you lost so much. Hope it turns out OK...do keep us informed.

[shadylane]

Do I let 'er go?
Do I pitch some yeast?
Do I dump it?

I'd definitely pitch some yeast, and lots of it.
Look at the bright side, If you decide to dump it, your already half way done
posting with SS and KB

[Fart Vader]

Dip your finger into the beer and taste it...I bet it will be quite nice...dry and tart.

Ok, I took a swig from the latest gravity test.
Sweet, tart, cheesy.
Interesting, but ...

I think I'll ride 'er out.

Interestingly as I started this batch I was kind of hoping for a wild ferment.

What temperature do you guys suggest?

Like I mentioned this morning it was going bonkers at 38C.
Crank 'er up to 30C and let it go? (without a bomb)

[Truckinbutch]

Ride it out and run it . You will never know otherwise .

[shadylane]

Ride it out and run it . You will never know otherwise .

+1 Worst comes to worst, It will be a learning experience
I figure the ferment will work out it's own problems, It's hard to stop yeast
Just a suggestion
If using Bakers yeast with wheat malt.
Don't be bashful, pitch yeast while the mash temp is high
And pitch more yeast as the temp is dropping.

[HDNB]

SS, the krausen makes me think yeast too, but how do you explain the ferment stopping?

only time i've seen similar was on my last ferment where it took off and then stalled and then the gravity went up. i tried repitch but when i ran it i squeezed every drop to get a reference and it came in at 3.5% out of an 8% potential.

i also ened up cooking that one way too long and took too long to cool because of equipment problems, sounds very similar to the extra hours you had on yours too, Fart. wuz the bubbles big belches or regular fizzy ferment?

[Pikey]

So you lost a ittle bit of sugar to a ferment which then stopped dead ? I'm thinking Lacto.

Fire the rest of what you had planned in there and ferment / run it as planned.

[shadylane]

Fart. wuz the bubbles big belches or regular fizzy ferment?

Good question

[Fart Vader]

Hey guys thanks for chiming in, as always the help and support are appreciated.
I've had a monstrous lacto before, ironically with Jimbo's all wheat single malt. The infection occurred at the end of the ferment that time.

I decided to roll the dice this time. What the heck, it's only $11 worth of feed grain.
I aerated the shit out of it and pitched some bakers yeast.
My lacto enfected Jimbo's was a very tasty drop, and the smell of this one reminds me of that.

I just can't get over how violently this thing took off.

BTW the activity didn't grind to a halt before pitching. When I disturbed the remaining (somewhat thin) krauzen, lots of co2 was bubling away. Temperature was/is still warm at 34C.

Definitely something going on in there.

[Fart Vader]

Oh yeah about the belches vs fizzy.
It was a continuous fizzy stinky overflowing mess.
Must be 20 lbs in the bucket I scooped up.

[MichiganCornhusker]

It's fine, it just burped up all the floating debris like a hairball.
It might have worked itself into a fermentation/temperature frenzy but it will work itself out if it's still fizzing.
Hope for a mighty lacto at the end with an FG of 1.008, (sometimes wild doesn't finish dry), it'll be delicious.

[shadylane]

10hrs later and found all activity stopped

Give it time, It ain't stopped, it just slowed down a little

[still_stirrin]

...Ok, I took a swig from the latest gravity test.
Sweet, tart, cheesy.
Interesting, but ...

Sweet yet tart....as in "sour", like a lemon drop? That does sound like citric acid, possibly from a lactic bacteria. I think lacto bacteria is quite common on raw wheat and could well be carried through your malting process if you didn't kiln it at a high enough temperature and you ferment on the grain.

But, "cheesy" is another bacterial consequence, possibly butyric acid. This is not common but can occur spontaneously.

Both bacterial infections would be better controlled if they follow a yeast fermentation because they can reduce unfermentable sugars that your yeast can't. But you've got what you got. I agree with other posters here...try to get a yeast to take control as soon as possible.

And since you said the gravity only fell few points overnight, I think you can still get a yeast culture to root and ferment the mash for you.

Don't dump it. Get a good yeast going and get it in there. Then....stand back...you may get another eruption. But, you'll get something special for your efforts.
ss

[Fart Vader]

Well I guess this is my first dumper batch.
Been 3 days now since I aerated the shit out of it and blended in a massive yeast bomb.
Gravity is down to 1.062 and it looks like zero activity.
pH is around 4 from, a start of 5.

Next up: 100% home malted barley.
I think I'll pasteurize this batch after saccharifaction.

[shadylane]

Maybe some alpha and gluco

[Pikey]

EC 1118 is well known for starting stuck ferments And does not need the high temperatures Bread yeast does.

[shadylane]

+1 Pikey
But I suspect all the "fermentable sugars" in the mash has already been eaten.
Fart Vader, I hate to say it, but it looks like the DP on the homemade malt was too low.

[Fart Vader]

Thanks for the suggestions, but this batch is going to be an offering to the composting gods.

[Pikey]

+1 Pikey
But I suspect all the "fermentable sugars" in the mash has already been eaten.
Fart Vader, I hate to say it, but it looks like the DP on the homemade malt was too low.

67 points of unfermentables ? - So you're saying it's all starch ?

Have you done an iodine test Fart ?

[Fart Vader]

Yup.
All converted.

[Oldvine Zin]

Have you done an iodine test Fart ?

Haha that sounds strange
OVZ

[dukethebeagle120]

i ferment almost all the time with green malt.
almost always takes off like that.
i got 30 gallons of corn- green barley malt going now.
all i can say is after a few days it gets slow but steady
maybe this would be interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzsEA2jOovY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Ben Stillin]

I would try something like K1-v1116. It's a killer yeast that eats anything and everything.

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[still_stirrin]

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http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 7#p7455625