Slow fermentation with Breiss Sorghum and Brown Rice extract. Anyone found a solution, using ale yeast at 70 degrees, tried yest nutrient, taking about 3 weeks to complete. Same stuf with partial infusion goes right off done in few days, must be a nutrient issue, but ive tried a few different ones, any ideas?????
Slow fermentation with Sorghum and Rice extract
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I've not had any problems and mine ferments at about 65-68. Are you doing anything special with the yeast or just pitching it?
i was pitching GF dry yeast, but i diluted and kicked off some whites liquid irish ale yeast in a gallon for a couple of days and pitched it yesterday in 4 batches: the partial mashes kicked off hard in about 8 hours, the extract with Breiss brown rice is going hard in 24 hrs (blew my lock out!!) , the Breiss sorghum is still coming up although its going.
Same temp, same yeast, the order of kicking off was the mashes (w malted oats), much slower was the brown rice, and a lot slower was the sorghum.
Same temp, same yeast, the order of kicking off was the mashes (w malted oats), much slower was the brown rice, and a lot slower was the sorghum.
BRS is low in FAN, without any yeast nutrient it could cause a slow or stuck ferment. Of course, it matters what the proportion of Sorghum to BRS was.
Have my first GF going. With a normal batch with Wyeast smack pack, I blow off a half pitcher through a 1" blow off on my carboy, settles down in 4-5 days. This batch, Nottingham + nutrients, bubbled good, but not enough to hit the hose, and still popping the airlock every 15 seconds after 12 days. Normal? ~75% sorghum, 25% rice.
aggieotis
Well-Known Member
It's hard to say for sure. While it's not totally abnormal to have a few bubbles in the airlock it is a bit on the extreme side. Perhaps the yeast needed a starter before going in the batch, or the fermentation temps are on the low side.
I have noticed before that in some of my GF batches there seems to be less viscosity meaning that while it still makes the same CO2, there is a little less in-carboy head-retention.
Ultimately though, every batch is different, so it's hard to say for sure. Just make sure you use plenty of yeast nutrient.
As annecdote, I just did a batch of with Nottingham that was 50% sorghum and 50% Rice with nutrient (and some toasted grains) and it fermented fully within a few days just like a non-GF beer. And after a few weeks it's starting to taste mighty delicious.
Have you actually taken a hydro reading to see if it's still fermenting, or are you relying on the air lock to tell you that something is happening? Because that something may be 100 things other than fermentation. I've had fermentations look like they were just slugging along that I checked after 4 days to find that they were actually almost done already. They even looked active for the following week, but were actually done the whole time.
aggieotis
Well-Known Member
Good point. Say you had a carboy in a warm closet, then opened the door to look at it letting cold air into the room, then you'd actually have the warm air in the carboy attempting to escape towards the colder air in the room. It would make the airlock have activity when it's really just simple convection.
We would have to know which Wyeast yeast to know if this is normal. Sounds like an English or Hefeweizen yeast though. Notty is a bit more controlled, sounds normal too.
I also wanted to note that the GF beer you made with Wyeast yeast is not very GF. I would recommend not feeding it to anyone who is remotely sensitive to gluten.
Sorry, the Wyeast comparison was for non-GF beers, just using as a comparison. To try to clarify, I have never had a contamination problem, temp is 66 based on one of those stick on gauges, which is normal for the dark corner of the back room in the basement where I always ferment. All things being the same, this batch is just going in slow motion compared to my other brews. I guess I was wondering if the sorghum/rice just didn't ferment as fast as barley. Smaller pitch rate of dry vs. smack-pack? I can't remember the last time I used dry yeast. I know this will make some cringe, but I haven't taken a hydrometer reading for years. I know my system, it's consistent, and I know when my beers are ready to bottle. I suppose I could dig it out and see where I'm at.
Sorgum/rice ferment at the same rate for me, no discernable difference.
Pitch rates of dry yeast are greater than smack packs, by a factor of 1.5 or so, but only when you rehydrate the yeast. Otherwise its about the same.
Hydrometer/refractometer is the only way to really know. If you hate your hydrometer so much, I highly recommend a refractometer. So, so nice.
aggieotis
Well-Known Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a refractometer only worked with non-fermented beer because the alcohol throws off the sugar readings.
Mine says 1tsp per gallon. That is for wine, which is devoid of FAN. For a half Sorghum, half BRS, I would go with about 2tsp, or since yours appears to be 1/2tsp per gallon, 1tsp.
So you are about on, must be something else.
If you have the original reading, it is easy to figure out the final one.
Beersmith has a tool that can convert for you, or here is the one I use online: http://brew.stderr.net/refractometer.html
aggieotis
Well-Known Member
Great link! And figuring it out backwards is pretty awesome too for that 2am finished batch where I forgot to check my OG.
Also very good for figuring out the OG of a commercial beer you want to clone.
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