I couldn't help myself!

I am new to brewing. I am on my sixth batch, which is Brewers Best American Light extract kit. This is the third time I have made it. I slightly modified the recipe. I used only half the bittering hops and added 1oz Brewers Best sweet orange peel the last 5 min of the boil. The original gravity was 1.044

Somewhere on the net I read an article that mentioned adding “beano” to your batch would lesson calories and give you a lighter final gravity. Cool, this batch is for my wife and both of those are positives in her eyes! So I gave it a try.

I gave it seven days in the primary (the air lock stopped after the 4th day). Then I took a gravity readying (1.004), done. I added 4 dissolved “beano” tablets and racked into my secondary. Less than eight hours later I had a frothy head about ¾ inch, the air lock was bubbling like crazy and fermentation roared back to life. Here are my concerns:

It is the 9th day in the secondary (16th day overall) and the air lock still

bubbles every 50 seconds.

The brew is getting darker, it is definitely brown now.

Should I wait till the airlock stops before kegging?

What the heck is happening?

Anyone else try this?

ANY insight would be appreciated

I think the beano made the wort more fermentable, and it has begun to ferment again. Seems like a low final gravity already, I wonder where it will end up.... Don't worry too much, it will still be beer... I am interested though, to see what others will have to say.

I've heard of people using beano in a desperate attempt to kick start a stuck fermentation. Never heard of anything good coming from it though.

Well what have you heard bad?

All I have to say is you are going to have a really really low final gravity. I have a brew planned with a very high original gravity I want to use beano in. I'm very interested in your results. Also one thing to keep in mind is it will keep slowley fermenting for a long while from what I have heard so be mindful of bottling to early and having bottle bombs.

For what it's worth, amylase enzyme is a cheap (and MUCH BETTER) method of restarting (some) stuck fermentations. Ive never heard anything good coming from using beano either.

Keep in mind that these proposed solutions can ultimately have no stopping point.

The beer can actually ferment down below 1.000 and really dry things out. Also, if bottle conditioning its very important to verify the FG or the beer can continue fermenting in the bottle and explode

1.004 is already very low... you might find your beer to be too dry after adding the beano. I hadn't heard that adding beano would lessen calories. anyone else heard of this?

Don't let these people worry you. Let it go for as long as you can. At some point the enzymes will denature or all the carbohydrates will be fermented. You are gonna have an insanely dry beer which might be what you want for this style.

I'm interested to see what this is like. I'm worried the flavor out mouthfeel might suffer but it might work out.

what makes the beer get darker is the beano gets rid of the co2 (that's what it's designed for). light reflects off the co2 bubbles and makes the beer look lighter. you get rid of the co2, you get rid of the lightness

STILL BUBBLING!!!!
I apriciate the feed back. I keg my beer, so I'm not worried about making a mess in my closet( good point though). I do have an issue with waiting. So far I have picked brews that are quick ( 14 days ). This son of a gun is taking forever! I don't know how much longer I can take it!!! I will check it again tomorrow evening. I will post the final gravity when it is completely done.

It could also be the yeast has settled out a little making it look darker.

Also, if you don't bottle then just keg it when the FG get where you like it.

lumpher said:

what makes the beer get darker is the beano gets rid of the co2 (that's what it's designed for). light reflects off the co2 bubbles and makes the beer look lighter. you get rid of the co2, you get rid of the lightness

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What? This sounds like nothing I've heard before. All beano does is break complex sugars down into simple sugars. Simple sugars can be consumed by yeast yielding more CO2 and alcohol.

DANG!!! Still bubbling!

Getting a bubble every 1:14 seconds, this is the 20th day of fermentation.

any one want to post your guess on final gravity and total fermentation time. When the Air lock is completely done I will take the reading and post it.


What is the lognest fermentation any one has had? what is the lowest FG any one has had?

frontiercdk said:

DANG!!! Still bubbling!

Getting a bubble every 1:14 seconds, this is the 20th day of fermentation.

any one want to post your guess on final gravity and total fermentation time. When the Air lock is completely done I will take the reading and post it.

What is the lognest fermentation any one has had? what is the lowest FG any one has had?

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Have you considered that it could just be off gassing? I'd take a reading.

Off gassing can occur for many reasons other than fermentation

DrHop said:

Don't let these people worry you. Let it go for as long as you can. At some point the enzymes will denature or all the carbohydrates will be fermented. You are gonna have an insanely dry beer which might be what you want for this style.

I'm interested to see what this is like. I'm worried the flavor out mouthfeel might suffer but it might work out.

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..the phrase chewing on cotton balls just ran through my head....


...and the thread title sure isn't going to help anyone out. Check the bottom of the page. How many of these are related?

Still bubbling consistently every minute. Take a reading then take one in a few days and compair? What else can cause off gassing?

That Beano contains alpha-galactosidase and Invertase, both of whic go to work on complex sugars and "debranch" them allowing the yeast to do it's thing on these once unfermentable sugars. They will not stop until 1) they run out of complex sugars, 2) they are denatured through heating. The fermentation may eventually stop when the yeast run out of some other limiting nutrient or the alcohol level gets too high.

In any case, the beer is going to be very dry. Beano does not work on the Maillard sugars from Crystal malts so if there was any crystal malt in the grain bill you might have some body left in the beer.

frontiercdk said:

Still bubbling consistently every minute. Take a reading then take one in a few days and compair? What else can cause off gassing?

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Off gassing can be the result if environmental changes like pressure or temperature swings or simply bumping the vessel

Im trying to figure out whether this batch is still fermenting or done and just off gassing. I am getting a bubble every 50 to 60 seconds... still! Took a reading its 1.002 or maybee .001. I figured it would be lower. How many days should I wait to take another reading that would tell me for sure its done? What if its done and still producing gas? How would I stop the process (heat) or just forget it and keg it?

Still getting a consistant bubble every 50 to 60 seconds. Took a reading. It is 1.002 or mabee 1.001. I expected lower than that. How long should I wait to take another reading that will tell e for sure its done fermenting?

Ooops, double posted, Sorry

frontiercdk said:

Took a reading. It is 1.002 or mabee 1.001.

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Have you tasted it? At this point the quality of the beer is going down hill. You're entering wine FG territory. I would keg it and drink it (if it's drinkable) as fast as you can because it will only get worse.

Keg it already and drink it.

Keg it, cold crash to drop the yeast out and put it on tap. If you get the yeast cold enough they will stop--they stop fermentation stops.

bja said:

Have you tasted it? At this point the quality of the beer is going down hill. You're entering wine FG territory. I would keg it and drink it (if it's drinkable) as fast as you can because it will only get worse.

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It was 1.004 before adding the beano so it really hasn't changed much.

yep, It didn't drop much. I guess beano is only good for a FG drop of about 3 points. I think most of the fermentation must have occured during the fist couple days after adding the beano. If I were to do it again think I would go ahead and kegg it after 7 days in the secondary. I did tast it last night, it was good. Im gonna keg it (even though it is STILL bubbling avery 60 seconds). I will post a follow up on the taste after I get it kegged and carbonated.

Thanks again for the input.

You get less calories because the yeast release some when they turn the sugar into alcohol. Calories measure energy. Heat is a form of energy. Fermentation produces heat (why ferm temps are higher than ambient temps). Energy (calories) in sweet wort minus energy (heat) released in fermentation equals (less) energy (calories) in final beer.

tennesseean_87 said:

You get less calories because the yeast release some when they turn the sugar into alcohol. Calories measure energy. Heat is a form of energy. Fermentation produces heat (why ferm temps are higher than ambient temps). Energy (calories) in sweet wort minus energy (heat) released in fermentation equals (less) energy (calories) in final beer.

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Quantify that. Calories per SG point.

bja said:

Quantify that. Calories per SG point.

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I think there are too many variables. Unfermentables, unconverted carbs, others?

Dynachrome said:

I think there are too many variables. Unfermentables, unconverted carbs, others?

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Shouldn't be. If you know the temp rise and volume, you should be able to calculate BTU's which can be converted to calories. I'm betting it's minimal and not worth taking a risk.

Seems logical to me, less sugars = less calories?

frontiercdk said:

Seems logical to me, less sugars = less calories?

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Less sugar = more alcohol. More alcohol = more calories.

frontiercdk said:

Seems logical to me, less sugars = less calories?

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Alcohol has 7 calories/gram (only fat is higher at 9 calories/gram) while sugar has a smaller caloric density. So, less sugar = more alcohol = more calories.

AmandaK said:

Alcohol has 7 calories/gram (only fat is higher at 9 calories/gram) while sugar has a smaller caloric density. So, less sugar = more alcohol = more calories.

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Then, one gram of sugar must be converted into less than a gram of alcohol -- the yeast aren't somehow creating energy as they eat the sugar and spit out alochol (and CO2, and fermentation heat, and more yeast cells, etc, etc); there must be less energy in the system after the yeast are done.

Otherwise, somebody would've figured out that yeast are perpetual motion machines, and we'd be enjoying infinite free electricity from wort-fuelled power plants. Vast swaths of corn and soy fields given over to hops and barley production, and somebody would have to drink all that beer once it's done... why, yeast, why can't you be perpetual motion machines?!

Beer turned out good. My wife likes it. Thanks for all the help.