Brettanomyces

[workpress]

At the brewery we are making beer at 3500L per batch and I have been collecting the leftover sparge water about 600L and fermenting them in my small 80L still to capture the alcohol after I distill it with plans to fill a barrel different all grain spirit. I only get about 3L per run as the abv is low and I do not want to add sugar to boost it up at this point.

My question is the last time I did this my mash cooled naturally and picked up a Brettanomyces, yes it smells like horse sweat not bad but not good, I pitched my yeast anyway to see what would happen.

The SG started at 1.025 has not changed much after a week it is 1.020 and nothing appears to be happening apart from some froth on the top of the mash the ph is 3.8 low as heck...

any ideas, would be helpful, however I may dump it and that would be no real loss, only time and yeast.

[still_stirrin]

The pH is too low for the yeast. And it’s even keeping the bacteria at bay too. Add calcium hydroxide to raise the pH. You should hydrate the pickling lime before adding it to the wort however and gently stir it in. Bring the pH up to 4.5, or so, and the yeast will have a go at the sugars in the wort, provided they’re fermentable. But, with only a 1.020 to 1.025 specific gravity, the fermentation will be slow.

Salvaging the 2nd runnings from the brewery’s lauter tun is an excellent opportunity. But, it may give you only “marginal” results. There is a reason why the brewery doesn’t “chase the product” that far down … little value for the effort to recover any goodness. Still, it may be worth it for you to try as long as you can get the yeast to work.

Good luck with it.
ss

[TwoSheds]

I think SS has your answer about the stall.

Cool idea to reuse the sparge water. I wonder if there is anything else you could use to boost the gravity or flavor? Throw in some spent grains and gluco-amylase and see if you can extract a little more on-the-grain?

Or can you get the partly filled cans/bottles or other waste product and add in some runs from those too? (hops may be an issue here)

Love the recycling aspect of this!

[workpress]

Thanks for the help SS , I will bump up the PH and see where it gets me, I will continue to learn from this...
my small still is great to have running in the background, I know the volume is so low but with little effort I am slowly filling that barrel.

" Throw in some spent grains and gluco-amylase and see if you can extract a little more on-the-grain?" Hey TwoSheds I did a test like that too and on a batch in the lauder tun with enzymes and there was no noticeable change, i think that is because our brewhouse is running at 87% efficiency.

However on the last batch I added 100KG of sugar to the sparge and jumped the sg up to 1.065 so that will be worth it in terms of volume.
it will be a flavored sugar wash, I am unsure how to use this ethanol? Will it age nice? I am going to look into that...

This Forum is a great wealth of Knowledge, thank you all.

workpress

[Ben]

Runnings below 1020 tend to be a little astringent. Give your first batch out of the still a taste before you get too far down the hole! Cool project though

Brett can be really persistant/difficult to get rid of. For whiskey though it could be great! Fruity, funky, leathery. With enough age it can make a "cherry pie" like taste, which would be a classic bourbon thing.

I am convinced what makes UJSSM get better over batches is the infections, lacto and brett... working their little selves into your spirit.

[workpress]

I jumped up the PH of the mash to 5.6, and added 25KG of sugar plus 10Gal of yeast cone from the ferment of Hefeweizen beer. so after two days the fermenter is rolling nicely. i think it will be ready to distill later this week.

I will keep you guys posted, and thank you for your advice.

[Nanacooks]

I know this is old, but did any of the Hefe yeast carry over in the distillation?