Wash stalling again...

[diesel4ever]

Okay I'm wondering if my water is to acidic again. I have tried Bakers yeast, redstar wine yeast and now distillers yeast that's supposed to be tolerant to 20% alcohol and they all do the same thing. I start a batch out at 1.080sg and everything seems to start fine though nothing spectacular of an initial start like some people describe then after a few days the bubbler just stops. My last batch with the new distillers yeast stopped bubbling at 1.060sg. The mash looks to be boiling with little chunks flowing around but no tiny bubbles. It also smells and tastes REAL sour. Can I add baking soda to this to reduce the acidity? Is this even my problem?

[Hawke]

Not enough info.
What is the mash? are you testing a cleared sample?
Get some Ph test strips, you want to keep it between 4.5 and 5.5 Ph
If it is 'boiling', then it is still fermenting. There may be a leak in your lid, bypassing the airlock. (got one fermenter that only bubbles at the height of activity)

[diesel4ever]

Sorry the wash is a 5 gallon batch with about 10 lbs of sugar, 2tsp of distillers yeast, 2tsp of Fermax yeast nutrient which I have no idea what's in it. That is all. Is baking soda safe to add or will it harm yeast? I could only find aquarium ph testers around here which have a narrow range of 6-7.5 and I tested a warm unclear top sample of my wash and I know it's at least 6.

[Hawke]

Baking soda is safe, but it almost sounds like the Ph is too high. Baking soda would make it even higher.
You might need some citric acid to lower the ph.
If it is still boiling though, it's still fermenting. Let it go a day or two and test the sg again.

[diesel4ever]

Okay so optimum PH is what? I'll have to find some litmus paper. are my washes supposed to smell real sour (kinda like vomit?)

[Hawke]

Shouldn't smell like vomit, but should end up sour. (Or like a very dry wine)
I bought some broad spectrum strips from the local brew shop.
If you don't have one close by, try Brewhaus.com

[diesel4ever]

Well this is wierd. I've left my lid and bubbler off for about 6 hours and now it has a head on it. Don't know it just needed some air or if it knew I was talking to you and decided to get back to work. Spec. gr. is currently 1.048 so I'll check it in a couple of days. It has been 14 days since I started this wash. Thanks Hawke.

[blanikdog]

Well done, diesel.

blanik

[rad14701]

Sounds like your wash wasn't properly aerated... Some yeasts have a greater lag time than others, by design, and may require longer periods of aeration... For example, bakers yeast is engineered to have a very short lag time due to its intended use, which is why we can get fast ferments using it... Some wine yeasts have very long, 24 - 48 hour, lag times which result in longer ferments... Washes with longer lag time yeasts should not be airlocked too soon...

[diesel4ever]

Okay so how exactly are you areating? I now realize that must be my problem because I left the lid off my bucket all last night and this morning there is like a 1/2" thick head on my mash and it smells like fresh baked bread rather than vomit which is a huge improvement in my opinion.

[Hawke]

An aquarium pump for an hour or so.
An O2 tank hooked to an aerator stone for 30 to 60 seconds.
A paint or mud mixer attatched to a drill for a few minutes.
Pour back and forth between buckets several times.

[Hack]

An aquarium pump for an hour or so.
An O2 tank hooked to an aerator stone for 30 to 60 seconds.
A paint or mud mixer attatched to a drill for a few minutes.
Pour back and forth between buckets several times.

Another idea, when you fill the fermenter, pour it in from a height large enough for it to splash a bit, a couple three feet. This is all I've ever done and it seems to work fine for me.