PH drop during fermentation

[Stags]

I'm doing an inverted sugar wash and I have a stuck ferment as well. I checked the PH and holy crap, it was down to like 3.6. I added 2 1\2 tsp of baking soda to bring it up to 4.6 or so. Maybe that's not enough? This all went down like an hour ago so I'll give it some time. But maybe I need to bring that PH up to like 5.2 or better?

This is the 2nd time I've done this and never had that problem before, but my PH must have been too low to start.

Gotta be careful with baking soda. Got frustrated with a stuck wash once and dumped the whole box in. Almost had to redo the ceiling on my shed.

[Orpheus123]

Yeah, it's neat as hell watching that stuff foam up.

Anyhoo, I waited a day and nothing. I added another 2 1\2 tsp.

Then, I hydrated another 1.5 TBSP of yeast.

Stirred the wash, pitched the yeast, and it started bubbling almost immediately. Been going for a good 20 minutes plus now...I think I solved it.

My guess is, the PH got so low because I started it so low. Does that kill the yeast? I dunno, but it was a dead stick till I put the hydrated yeast in it.

In any case, it should ferment out and hopefully won't have too much weird flavors due to all the fanagling. We'll see.

[PalCabral]

Yeah, it's neat as hell watching that stuff foam up.

Anyhoo, I waited a day and nothing. I added another 2 1\2 tsp.

Then, I hydrated another 1.5 TBSP of yeast.

Stirred the wash, pitched the yeast, and it started bubbling almost immediately. Been going for a good 20 minutes plus now...I think I solved it.

My guess is, the PH got so low because I started it so low. Does that kill the yeast? I dunno, but it was a dead stick till I put the hydrated yeast in it.

In any case, it should ferment out and hopefully won't have too much weird flavors due to all the fanagling. We'll see.

This has been my solution too. I use the Hornindal kveik yeast for all slow and sloppy ferments, it just does the job. Love it.

[LWTCS]

+1 Shady. There's no reason to lower a sugar wash pH. It will do it on its own.

pH becomes important when mashing grains, as if it is too high, enzymes don't work as well. But the goal is never to lower it for the sake of fermentation; that happens naturally. And it's not a bad thing, provided it doesn't plummet. The lower pH keeps other things from growing in your ferment. Just can't go TOO low, or it also keeps the yeast from doing their job.

100%.
Particularly useful lesson for the commercial guys with big round bellies that have to crawl inside their cookers to clean out the " seized" blob of a corn pile hugging their rakes.

[Orpheus123]

Yeah, it's neat as hell watching that stuff foam up.

Anyhoo, I waited a day and nothing. I added another 2 1\2 tsp.

Then, I hydrated another 1.5 TBSP of yeast.

Stirred the wash, pitched the yeast, and it started bubbling almost immediately. Been going for a good 20 minutes plus now...I think I solved it.

My guess is, the PH got so low because I started it so low. Does that kill the yeast? I dunno, but it was a dead stick till I put the hydrated yeast in it.

In any case, it should ferment out and hopefully won't have too much weird flavors due to all the fanagling. We'll see.

This has been my solution too. I use the Hornindal kveik yeast for all slow and sloppy ferments, it just does the job. Love it.

I've only ever used DADY. I can't tell from various online comments as to what is the best for sugar washes, but I definitely want to look in to others as well. I'll check out your suggestion. Thanks!

[PalCabral]

On Saturday I started another fermentation of my wheated Bourbon. This time I dosed high with Calcium Carbonate just to see if I could fix the issue with PH drop. As it does, USW-6 started fermentation after the normal 10-12 hour lag phase in a furious fashion. 36 hours into the fermentation I decided to check on the SG and do a PH test. SG is already 1.012 and the PH down to 3.75. This is very similar to my last fermentation of this mash, where the PH was 3.8 when fermentation finished. I used 2L of backset in the wash so that would have added to the acidity.

Next time I'll use the mussels' shells. I had them in a muslin bag ready to go but I chickened out. There's just something about tossing in shells into my fermenter I don't like. I'll ferment another batch on this on Thursday or Friday, and I will use the shells then. Let's see.

[NZChris]

I don't like throwing crushed shells into my ferment either, so I don't. The finer the form of CC, the more reactive it is, so the easier it is to overdo it.

Large blocks and shells have a small surface area to volume ratio to react with the acids in a wash, so behave more like a buffer than crushed or powdered forms.

You can put a large block of marble into a wash even when the pH is at the top end of OK and it won't do any damage because won't react much until the pH drops. Put the same weight of powder in a wash and you might kick the can over if the pH goes too high and makes it smell like rotting flesh or ammonia.