hypthetical, so that it fits in the beer brewing forum.

[bracconiere]

ok i have a problem with a plant extract, we'll malt for disscussion...it was fermenting fine when i did a top up with a hose and it got plenty of splashing going on. went down to 995 fine.


now for the second time, my batch has stalled at 1.030...the difference i'm think is i'm gently filling from the sink with these two.

i'll have to wait till next batch to know for sure, but my question. if i'm not worried about oxidizing hops here, will gassing it with pure o2 for 20-30 seconds with a good flow help at this point? i just did it, but kinda want a heads up on what to expect tomorrow?

i'm going to do a hose batch tonight, see how it goes in a few days....

 

[ba-brewer]

Assuming your hose water and sink water come from the same source and one is not filtered, where it is drawn from or how fast it flows should not have impact.

What kind of yeast and did your yeast flocculate out? You could of tried to just rouse the yeast back up into solution if it dropped out. I occasionally have to rouse some english yeast to get them going again, but once I start doing that I have to keep it up or they just drop out again.

I am assuming you added enzymes or something to get the things to attenuate so low. Maybe the stuck batch something went wrong with those.

 

[bracconiere]

Assuming your hose water and sink water come from the same source and one is not filtered, where it is drawn from or how fast it flows should not have impact.

What kind of yeast and did your yeast flocculate out? You could of tried to just rouse the yeast back up into solution if it dropped out. I occasionally have to rouse some english yeast to get them going again, but once I start doing that I have to keep it up or they just drop out again.

I am assuming you added enzymes or something to get the things to attenuate so low. Maybe the stuck batch something went wrong with those.

Actually the reason i posted this in the beginner forum, is i have a serious beginner question about aeration at the beginning of fermentation.

If i have basically zero aeration, and VERY and slowly added water through a tube from the kitchen sink faucet to the bottom of the fermenter, would that cause a half ferment? and also, if oxidation isn't a concern, would giving the ferment a dose of O2 kick them back to life, or do they only absorb O2 when they're growing at first?

(and something strange with both batches, they keep fizzing like cider actively fermenting, but BOTH the hydro and refrac tell me no alcohol is being produced and no sugar consumed?)

edit: for me aereation has just been kind part of the proccess with a lot of splashing around...)

 

[bracconiere]

oh and i did try googling this, but all i found was homebrewassociation...i worked for someone that called me associate once, i don't think they respected me....



(i prefer homebrewers i can just talk to lol)

 

[ba-brewer]

If you are adding top up water to wort that was boiled and not doing any stirring or aerating then adding slowly to the bottom would have only the oxygen present from the source, but water gushing from a hose and sloshing into the fermentor would have slightly more oxygen but I would guess not much more.

If you add oxygen later it will trigger the yeast to do another growth phase which may trigger the yeast to start working on the sugar once the oxygen is gone. I have seen articles that say some breweries give oxygen at pitching then a second time like 12 hours laters to get a healthy population of yeast to ferment high gravity beers.

Not sure on the fizzing but no change in gravity. Did you add enzymes? Could that be the enzymes breaking down sugar and proteins?

 

[bracconiere]

If you add oxygen later it will trigger the yeast to do another growth phase which may trigger the yeast to start working on the sugar once the oxygen is gone.

that's the kind of answer i was looking for, thanks! ( you using the word may though, doesn't really leave me any better off! )

 

[ba-brewer]

I say may because if there is something about your wort makeup that the yeast does not like or can not ferment then having more yeast wont change that.

I use english yeasts and there are times that they will drop out and wont get back to work, but a different stain will pick up where they left off.

I also think yeast behave differently in fresh wort verses wort that has been turned into beers. They have an order of what sugars they consume first and those would not be present once it is beer.

 

[ba-brewer]

This thought came to mind, if your extract was not really "malt" then you should add sufficient amounts of yeast nutrient to compensate for what malt would normally bring to the party.

Also as you were interested in oxygen, 5gal of medium strength beer need 1L of pure oxygen. It it best to meter it somehow to under 0.5L/min to give the oxygen to saturate into the beer. Gentle stirring while giving oxygen helps to even it out. If the top of beer foams a bunch it is being applied to fast. I find 0.12L/min is a good rate but it tests my patients.

 

[bracconiere]

well the ferment i did, filled with the hose, is down to ~1.001 already...

i added some wheat germ tea, and a BIG yeast pitch...i did it up either the 23rd, or 24th....so moving along nicely...

 

[bracconiere]

welp, just cheacked that batch again this morning... it's at 0.991 now, pretty much done!

once again i appreciate the help! (whether indirect, or direct. it helped!)