So I need some fermentation advice

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ryan0914

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So I brewed a 11.5 Gal batch of my porter base last Sunday with about 500ml yeast cake from stepping up starters. fermentation took off and was slowing and the gravity was 1.022 by Tuesday, so on Wednesday I split it up. 5.5 went in with 10lbs of cherries pureed with 10oz of coco and a vanilla bean. this one is started up going strong. the other 5gal i put in with 3 vanilla beans about 1cup of bourbon and .5lbs of honey. This is the one im having trouble with. there is a little activity but not what i want. i know honey is difficult to ferment and takes a while, but im worried that the bourbon overstressed the yeast that was still suspension. im planing on ageing these for a good while, at least a month.
-What does everyone think. Should I add in some more of the yeast cake i saved.
-along with the yeast should i add some boiled and prepared DME for better fermentables.
-or should i just leave it
I'm not exactly sure what I should do hopefullyI can get some advise from everyone.
 
My guess would be that the fruit sugars from the cherry puree are much more readily fermentable than the honey. I doubt that 1/80 ratio of bourbon would cause any stress on the yeast but I could be wrong.

I would wait it out since you were going to let them sit for a long time anyway (always good to let them sit longer than you anticipate it actually requiring). If the hydro reading remains unchanged after a week or two, then we need to start brainstorming.

Most importantly don't panic and rush into anything leading to a future thread "Should I have done this/Did I mess it up?" haha

PS so other with more knowledge can help, what yeast strain is your cake from
 
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