Fermenting question

[Mookie]

Hello everyone,

I am currently fermenting 25L sugar wash.
The recipe I used:

6KG white sugar
305g bakers yeast (comes in cubes)
About 21L mineral water
3 caps of multi-vitamin (got plenty of B vitamins)
23g baking soda

The way I made the wash:
boiled about 35g yeast to kill them - from Viktor recipe
dissolved the sugar and added the rest of the stuff.
Yeast was added at 26-27c.

Initial SG was 1.09.
After 24H I checked the pH levels and had to add some more baking soda until I got pH level of 4.5.

It has been 5 days now.
I had problems to keep the wash at 25c, I think most of the time it was around 20
It has been bubbling very well.

Current SG is 1.03, I got the wash stable at 25c for the last 24 hours, but it almost stopped bubbling now.

What is the current alcohol level in the wash?
Can I just add some more yeast now that I got it stable at 25c and they will do the rest of the job to get it to around 0.9?

Thanks!

[Dnderhead]

should be about 14% (see the calcs on main site)

[Mookie]

should be about 14% (see the calcs on main site)

Even that it only had reached 1.03?

[pHneutral]

http://homedistiller.org/wash/ferment/alcohol" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

according to this widget, you have 7.74% alcohol in that wash, given your numbers of 1.09/1.03.

But something is off, considering you used 6kg of sugar in 21L of water, which should have gotten you 1.109.. which is what I think you meant, and what Dnder was going on

So in that case, if you really do have a SG of 1.03 now, you have 10% or so alcohol.

[Dnderhead]

Yes that is what I did . I went by sugar/amount wash --mines the the .03

[Mookie]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I dissolved the 6kg sugar in 5L water and then filled the bucket up until it got to the 25L mark - so my total volume is 25L, I had to add about 21
L of water to get there.
Sorry for not been clear on that.

I used the calculator from the sugar wash page and I got my initial SG at 1.092 approx.
So now after 5 days I have the SG at 1.03, according to the Alcohol Content of the Wash calculator I got only 7.99% alcohol, which is kinda half the way to the potential alcohol I have in the bucket (14.1%).

I know that the temperature wasn't stable and was too low for most of the 5 days, it was around 20c or maybe even less instead of 25c.
And even that it is at 25c now for more than a day, there are almost no bubbles anymore.

So, what do I do to bring the SG to 0.98 and get my 14.1% alcohol?

Should I add more yeast?
Should I add more sugar and yeast?
Should I change the temperature to more than 25c?
Should I just let it stay for another 5 days at 25c without changing or adding anything else?

Thank you everyone once again

[brewmaker1]

I would say let it go for a for another week at 25 and chalk it up to learning. The fact that it now has alcohol in it will make dumping more yeast in it a waste. You could make a big yeast starter, but it will take a couple days and I don't think you're going to see much improvement.

Others may have a different opinion

[Dnderhead]

Mineral water + baking soda? both has sodium not the best for ferments. even at 20c it should still be working.
you should not need more yeast unless the sodium killed them off and in that case it whould not do any good .

[rad14701]

With an SG of 1.03 you don't need to add sugar because you still have plenty in the wash... Either leave it set or perhaps add some nutrients because it sounds like nutrients were missing from the start... Try simmering 1/4 cup of wheat germ in 1 1/2 cups of water for 30 - 45 minutes, let it cool to under 105F, and dump it into the wash... If things pick up for more than a few minutes then you had a nutrient shortage and may or may not need more... If it doesn't help then you really aren't out anything because you can always use or eat the remaining wheat germ...

[pHneutral]

You could try a bit of DAP (maybe 1/2 tsp) and a pinch of Epsom salts (1/4 tsp), as well, and see if action resumes.

[Mookie]

24 hours after my last SG check, I just got SG at 1.015 temp at 23-24c.
finished day 6 of fermentation.
So it seems to ferment but really slow.
What is the best thing to do now to get it done asap?
Sit and wait for another few days?
Add nutrients so it will ferment faster?

[rad14701]

24 hours after my last SG check, I just got SG at 1.015 temp at 23-24c.
finished day 6 of fermentation.
So it seems to ferment but really slow.
What is the best thing to do now to get it done asap?
Sit and wait for another few days?
Add nutrients so it will ferment faster?

Let it go at its current pace... Most ferments will sow down towards the end... Just start out with a better recipe next time and learn from your experiences... Notice that I didn't say mistakes because you do still have an active wash...

[Dnderhead]

Yes by all means be patient, not unusual for a ferment to take 2 weeks or more, next time leave out the sodium, this is the basic
of what yeast need-- should have nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, iron, zinc, magnesium, foliate, niacin, riboflavin, protein , amino acids in the right quantities .most of these are in grain,some vegetables and yeast halls, salt (sodium) is used in bread etc to slow yeast activity, making finer texture,

[Hack]

Initial SG was 1.09.
After 24H I checked the pH levels and had to add some more baking soda until I got pH level of 4.5.

I usually adjust the pH when I first put the mash/wash together. Then I let it do whatever it's going to do.

Adding baking soda seems a little strange because it will make a wash less acidic. Your water may be different than mine, but I usually have to add something to make my wash more acidic. The water out of the tap here runs a pH of about 7. I usually have to add some lemon juice to bring it down around 4.5.

[spiritsofcatemaco]

I think adding baking soda ore other salts alter the SG...

[Mookie]

The SG is now at 0.98
I did not add anything, just kept it on 23-25c
Thank you everyone!

[rad14701]

The SG is now at 0.98
I did not add anything, just kept it on 23-25c
Thank you everyone!

Great to hear, Mookie... Remember, patience is the most important ingredient...

[cornlikr]

I was having the same problem with what "i thought" was a slow wash. I followed the directions on the sugar nutrients topic and tossed some stuff in. It's finished now after 9 days. Not so bad i think considering the weather we've had and my fermenters sitting under an open shed.