Wino's Sugar wash stuck?

[vault13]

Hey people, I have two Wino's sugar washes that I put down Saturday afternoon, I followed the recipe exactly accept for the second wash I used a cup of bakers yeast and 70 grams more sugar than the recipe. The starting SG was 1060 for both washes. Its now Tuesday morning and the airlocks are not moving at all and they both read an SG of 980 and taste dry, no sweetness at all. These washes cant be finished already can they? I felt all the the while that there isn't enough sugar but decided to follow the recipe to the letter at lest for the first wash.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[olddog]

Did you test the PH level when you started the wash? I used to get wash's going slow until I started testing the PH level.

[rad14701]

vault13, with good yeast your washes could very easily ferment to dry within a couple days and if the SG is .980 and they taste dry they are done... pH problems can slow or stop fermentation but shouldn't have an effect on SG readings... Let the wash clear, rack, and run when you get a chance...

[vault13]

Hello Olddog, thanks for the reply, no I never did test the starting ph, I guess I should buy a kit, but I did follow the recipe very close and both washes went off pretty hard for the first 36 hours and then declined from there.

cheers

[vault13]

vault13, with good yeast your washes could very easily ferment to dry within a couple days and if the SG is .980 and they taste dry they are done... pH problems can slow or stop fermentation but shouldn't have an effect on SG readings... Let the wash clear, rack, and run when you get a chance...

Thanks Rad, Your pic always cracks me up when I see it and I've seen it a lot
If it does turn out these are done then I am very impressed with Wineo's recipe as you might remember reading in my first post my mate uses turbo's and I don't think even they finish that quick, I couldn't believe it when I saw the hydrometer sink that low.

Thanks

[smeag]

PH is key to speed for me. My water is 7.5 but after mixing WPOSW to the letter the next day my PH has dropped to 3. I add about a TBS of Calcium Carbonate per gallon to get it back into the high 4's or 5
cut my time from month and a half to 10-14 days

[vault13]

Sweet! It certainly adds more weight to my obtaining a PH kit, I havn't run any of these washes through yet but I am on my third and my washes seem to rocket through in 3 days. The first wash is finally finished, it started bubbling again after increasing the wash temperature but the second was done and racking and thats the one I used a cup of yeast on with 70g of extra sugar. The third one I used an even 4 kilos of sugar (370g) more than recommended and a cup of bakers yeast with an extra 700ml of water and its goin harder than the others, it may not turn out well though, as it may be a bit too much sugar and stress the yeast but its a nice rounded metric figure so if it works without crap flavors I'll stick to it.

[SaltUbar]

Hi Smeag,

i am using the WPOSW and I am trying to reproduce the short ferment times talked about on this site. I have done 4 washes now and each one is fermenting to about 25 days. (with the exception of a WPOS where I used a turbo. Fast but the product tasted of bananas.

I am trying to get a handle on bringing the Ph up part of the way through the ferment. I have added 7 teaspoons of Calcium Carbonate plus 1 teaspoon of DAP. Can you confirm that you added 1 tablespoon per gallon (US) which equated to 14 tablespoons.

Thanks.

Regards Ubar

[rad14701]

SaltUbar, the nutrients that would probably be most helpful in faster ferments would be Vitamin B complex and additional Nitrogen...

Another contributing factor would be wash temperature... I have to keep my wash above 75F in order to maintain a rapid ferment... Below that things get sluggish in a hurry... My washes ferment the best between 75F - 80F...

[HookLine]

75F - 80F = approx. 23-27 ºC

[SaltUbar]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice, I have been experimenting with Wino’s sugar wash using the recipe exactly but changing one thing at a time. I have found the following;

1. Increasing the DAP x 2 slows down the fermentation;
2. Boiling the water prier to pitching yeast results in significant slowing of fermentation
3. Adding spent yeast prior to pitching doesn’t make any difference
4. Adding a vitamin B complex pill speeds up ferment greatly
5. Keeping the temp at or around 30 degrees C is the best
6. Aerating the wash by stirring vigorously prior to pitching really helps yeast multiplication
(frothed up through the air trap and out of the 55lt barrel I am using)

I am currently trying to keep the Ph above 5 by adding Calcium Carbonate as the fermentation works. I have added 7 teaspoons on my current wash but it didn’t seam to make much difference. Although I was not successful in making the Ph go much higher than 4 I am going to try again with another wash to see if i can keep the ferment going more vigerously at the tail end of the fermentation. The current wash has gone from an SG of 1.058 to 1.012 in 4.9 days

Interested to know what you are trying.

Regards Ubar