Strange Fermentation

horadrim · Post by **horadrim** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:24 pm

Last night I made a sugar wash consisting of the following:

4.54kg Sucrose
0.4g Citric Acid
20g MgSO4
5.5g Finely powdered multi-vitamin
36ml 20% NH3 solution
Water @50C to make 16L

SG of wash was 1.107

Aerated wash with aquarium air pump and bubbler for 45 minutes after it cooled to 25C.

Hydrated and proofed 40g Fleishman's Active Dry Bakers Yeast per package directions and tossed it in when wash was 23C, closed the lid, and hooked up the airlock.

After 30 minutes I opened the lid on my bucket and had a peek at the goods. No foaming or gassing. 30 minutes later, nothing. After checking on it every 30 minutes for the next four hours, no foaming. The last time I checked on it, the airlock was bubbling furiously so I opened it up one last time....there was no evidence of any foam on the sides of the bucket or on the bottom of the lid. It smelled alcoholic, and still tasted sweet. I checked the SG and it came out 1.075, or according to the calc on this site, 4.128% after only four hours.

So what happened that my yeast did not foam up like it normally does?

linw · Post by **linw** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:56 am

Whew, I think we will need someone with a crystal ball to figure out what you did differently this time. Personally, I can't imagine why you would be worried about a wash that is bubbling vigorously. None of my sugar + turbo yeast washes ever foamed but there you go. Perhaps you worry too much?

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:55 am

I've never had any wash foam before. I've used baker's yeast, turbos, lavlin 1118, etc.

horadrim · Post by **horadrim** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 7:43 am

It's just that with my past sugar washes, the yeast foamed up quite a bit after 30 minutes or so after adding it to the wash. One time the yeast foamed so much it filled my gallon jug that is my improvised airlock.

If it's normal for yeast not to foam up it makes me wonder what cuased it to do so in the past.

Thanks for the help guys

linw · Post by **linw** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:40 pm

Perhaps we now need another thread along the lines of, "My current wash is normal so what was wrong with the others?!!".

Joking aside, you must have been getting serious foaming to fill the jug. Mysterious that it isn't doing it now.

horadrim · Post by **horadrim** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 7:15 pm

ha ha linw

Could it be my current wash is normal because this is the first wash that I have added some form of nutrients? My past washes (all three of them

) were straight sugar/water, and very low yield (500ml of 96% from 16L wash).

I guess I must be getting the hang of this brewing thing haha!

pangea · Post by **pangea** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:08 pm

My rye wash had a head of foam about 3/4th inch thick for one day then calmed down and is bubbling slowly.

linw · Post by **linw** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:49 am

horadrim wrote:ha ha linw

Could it be my current wash is normal because this is the first wash that I have added some form of nutrients? My past washes (all three of them ) were straight sugar/water, and very low yield (500ml of 96% from 16L wash).

I guess I must be getting the hang of this brewing thing haha!

I think you have answered your own question. Yeast HAS to have nutrients. I can't be bothered guessing and messing so I have always used Turbos. Works every time.

Professor Duck · Post by **Professor Duck** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:43 pm

There's no need for guessing and messing, just bung in 50g of baker's, 180g or so of tomato paste and a bit of citric acid. You'll save heaps of money. I started a wash like this a few days ago and it's going as well as my first (turbo) wash.

linw · Post by **linw** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:52 am

Might just try that one day but I don't consider <$1 per ltr for yeast is too bad.

AkCoyote · Post by **AkCoyote** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:27 pm

Let's keep this simple. You have bubbles in your airlock? That means you have fermentation. Nuff said. As Alaska Natives say.....wait.

AkCoyote