Fermenting with Lalvin EC1118

[rubelstrudel]

After doing my rounds with various turbos, bread yeasts, wine yeasts and other stuff I finally managed to get hold of a 500g packet of Lalvin EC118 - the gold standard of clean fermentation.

I made my batch of sugar wash with thoroughly cleaned and sanitized fermenters, a couple of tablespoons of CaCO for pH buffering, a teaspoon of yeast nutrients (mostly DAP) and a pinch of epsom salts. Sugar was dissolved in 90C water and the buckets where aeriated with high pressure cold water .

The OG of my sugar wash was 1077 and I made a nice yeast starter with 4 filmboxes of yeast grains to 1L of wash diluted to 1:5. The starter took off and after about 6 hours I shook it and distributed the starter in my four fermenter buckets. Each of the fermenters then started bubbling in turn, and a yeast foam formet on top of each of them after about 24 hours. Temperature of the room and fermenters is 19C.

Now, unlike all other yeast I have used, there was no storm fermentation only a slightly higher rate of activity day 2-3. Everything has been plopping along slowly ever since I started it. About a burp every 30-60 seconds. And this has me wondering, this is so much slower than all the other yeasts I have used. Now, on day 11 the SG is down to just around 1.060. pH is stable at 4.85 and temperature is stable at 19.5C. And if this rate of fermentation continues this batch will not be dry until another six or seven weeks has passed.

For you guys who have used EC1118 - is this consistent with how you would expect things to develop? I am a bit worried that I have done something wrong here.

[Big Stogie]

what temperature are you at?

[Manc]

Hi rubelstrudle

+1 on big stogie
One teaspoon of nutrient doesn't sound like a lot of nutrients for a sugar wash. Can you provide some more details of your amounts

Lee

[nerdybrewer]

That's a little cool, the yeast will continue to work slowly however I'm concerned your SG is still that high.
I would warm those fermenters up to 24 - 25C and see if your bubbles start bubbling more frequently.

[acfixer69]

The temperature 19.5C is fine but you way low on nutrients. Try adding some crushed cereal to one of them and see if it takes off. EC1118 is a slow yeast but two weeks is about right for me as my basement is a steady 18-20C all the time.

[Stew8]

At 21C and enough nutrient in a 30l bucket, I’m getting a bubble through the airlock every 3-5 seconds.
Birdwatchers sugar wash uses tomato paste and it workes like a charm with ec1118.
The ec1118 needs to be hydrated in water at 40c before making a starter according to the pdf below,
https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/wp-conte ... EC1118.pdf

Good luck

[Leon]

I have this yeast, but not tried it yet. I observe that speed of fermentation is down with the number of generations and not adding nutes. I even find the bw recipe a little slow with 200g of tomato paste in 25L. After testing rumwash with boiled yeast for nutes i now know what a fast ferment looks like. So, i’ve teste a bit with ammonium nitrate and agri fertilizer with speed increasing with amount of nutrients. This has made me think of starting at maybe a quarter package of turbo and boil it for nutrients as a test. Easy fix for little money and with proven nutes and your selected yeast. Must try this some Day.

[rubelstrudel]

I rehydrated at 20c. That could be one factor. Right now I added some nutrients but I've got an infection now to, puke smell is starting to come out, so this may be a goner now.

Way to much unfermented sugar to muck around with it. I am tempted to add in a couple of turbo-packets just to convert the sugar before dumping it down the drain. As it is now, every little spilled drop dries up to a sticky sugary spot.

[rubelstrudel]

After another day with some more nutrients the fermentation has picked up noticeably. Its been a while since i did pure sugar washes so I forgot the amount of stuff I used to put in there. First the turbos with all that stuff, then I used fresh bakers yeast and that one comes in soft cubes that probably contain a lot of dead yeast with the live for easy cannibalising.

A boiled pack of turbo is a good idea. I'll probably try that next. But it'll have to wait until I've finished or dumped the current batch.

Oh, who am I kidding. I will finish it and run it. Even if it smells like puke and shimmers pink.

[rubelstrudel]

I did boil a pack of turbo and spread it among the fermenters, and it took off like a rocket. Now I am a little worried that 5min boiling didn't really kill all the turbo yeast - the ferment now is ferocious. So either my severely undernourished ec1118 went wild with the vitamins, or some of the turbo yeast has taken over. Either way, this ferment is saved, even though my intent of doing a minimalist run is shot.

[Leon]

Probably the nutrients that did this. Yeast wont survive a five minute boil i think. Good to hear the idea is working!

Started a new bw the other day with ec-1118. Used the lees with old yeast bed from last run for nutrients after boiling it with a new glass of tomato paste. 10g of yeast and i get a blurp every 3-5 seconds in the airlock.

I think the reusing of yeast as nutrients might be a trick also.

[StillerBoy]

Now I am a little worried that 5min boiling didn't really kill all the turbo yeast - the ferment now is ferocious.

The 5 min boil might not have been enough..

Reason for the statement is that sometime back, I boiled some liquid malt for about 15 min or more, then stored it in a sanitized jar to be used as a yeast starter, and two days later, there was fermentation occurring.. so on my second try, I boiled for 30 min, this time had no fermentation occurring..

Some wild yeast will survive a short boil and even freezing, as may also be the case on some regular yeast, in my view, as I also had fermenting start after using frozen trub, which was bread yeast.

Mars

[rubelstrudel]

The next time I try boiling a turbo pack I'll make sure to do a longer boil to make sure.

[rubelstrudel]

Update: the wash fermented exceptionally well once it had enough nutrients. And it must have been the ec1118 that did the job. I've never before had a ferment this clean. The first stripping run hardly had any discernible fores. Where I normally find acetone, large amounts of ethyl acetate and other nasties I could not smell more than a tiny whiff of those things. If I had given the ferment enough nutrients from the start it would probably have been even better.

[rubelstrudel]

Og 1070, on the grain sugarhead wash with 100g of powdered calcium carbonate, teaspoon of Epsom salt and a tablespoon of DAP. Using Ec1118 since that's what I have.

It's been going like this for 30 hours now. All it took was enough nutrients.

http://imgur.com/gallery/jlGh7zH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
In 25l fermenters.

[fizzix]

Hey, rubelstrudel I'm glad it's going. For the record I always use 5 level (not heaping) tablespoons of DAP
and have never stalled. When you run out of boiled turbo, I hope that tidbit helps you.
Love that EC-1118 and it's fruity elegance.

[rubelstrudel]

It's been 48 hours now, and the SG is just below 1.000. But the bubbling isn't stopping.
It'll be dry as cinder tomorrow. Maybe I can even strip this on new years day.

[rubelstrudel]

Gotta brag a bit. My whisky wash was ready to go today so I am now running the second strip and this shit is tasty! The low wines are sweet and yummy by themselves. Quite something different from my baker's yeast first try. I guess the 70% maize bill also helped here with sweetness, but there's plenty of malt, smoke and grain in there that this seems to be turning into a success.

[shadylane]

I did boil a pack of turbo and spread it among the fermenters, and it took off like a rocket. Now I am a little worried that 5min boiling didn't really kill all the turbo yeast - the ferment now is ferocious. So either my severely undernourished ec1118 went wild with the vitamins, or some of the turbo yeast has taken over. Either way, this ferment is saved, even though my intent of doing a minimalist run is shot.

If you want a minimalist ferment, use boiled bakers yeast for nutrients.
Some crushed oyster shells in a sock, will add more nutrients and keep the pH getting too low.

[rubelstrudel]

If you want a minimalist ferment, use boiled bakers yeast for nutrients.
Some crushed oyster shells in a sock, will add more nutrients and keep the pH getting too low.

I boiled the turbo for the DAP and other stuff beyond the yeast really, and the simple fact I had it laying around. Now I got a packet of DAP in the mail i think I'll be using that as my ammonia and phosphate source.