shotgunllama
Kvass is boss
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2022
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 2
Okay I'm at the end of my rope here and surrounded by all kinds of confusion and frustration. I am trying to ferment a wash with Hornindal kveik because it supposedly can ferment nicely from a high OG and quite quickly. My recipe was:
A while after starting it, after seeing very little activity, I pitched about 1 more tsp of the yeast cake, still on the first day.
Today, out of desperation I boiled another tablespoon or so of baker's yeast in a little water and then added about 1.5 tsp DAP, and added all that to the mix and gave it a little shake. This was around 4 hours ago, and it seemed like maybe it was bubbling more for 30-60 minutes after I did that, but now it's back to its seemingly dead state and I just can't understand why.
Was there not enough DAP? Or even too much? Kveik is supposed to need a lot of nutrient, and the recommended rate was something like 1/2 - 1 tsp per 5 gal batch for a normal beer, so I figured this is a safe amount.
Is there some problem with the killed off baker's yeast I added? Does that not give enough nutrients to it? It has something like 3 tablespoons of the stuff in it now.
The temperature should be good right? A thermometer registers the side of the fermenter, as I said above, between around 95 and 100 F, which a yeast like hornindal kveik should be quite happy at.
I know the addition of miso is weird, but is it even possible that the approx 1 tsp I added could mess with the ferment this much?
I just can't wrap my mind around why this could have crawled to such a halt when it's hardly fermented any of the sugar I gave it. I used this yeast specifically because it's supposed to be able to ferment a lot of sugar quickly when it's held at a relatively high temperature, but now it seems like I've made some critical and unsalvageable mistake that's screwed my whole batch and I can't even hazard a guess as to what messed it up so badly.
A while ago I also posted about a different attempt at a ferment using the same yeast with a somewhat different recipe but given pretty much the same treatment regarding temperature and technique, and it seems to be stalling too (but at like 1.030, has been going for 11 days). For the record, I also tried adding more nutrient to jumpstart this other stalled ferment but haven't seen any results from doing so yet.
Is there anything I can do to get these big tubs of what are otherwise just wasted money and time to start fermenting again? Or even just any ideas as to why they stopped in the first place? I'm quite frustrated here. Also, I was unsure if this, being a modified sugar wash, should be under the beer category, wine, or somewhere else, but "beginner" definitely applies to me, so I'm hoping for help here.
Per advice I got elsewhere, I tried adding a little lemon juice and taking a sterile whisk to the ferment to see if that reinvigorates the yeast. So far I haven't noticed anything but it's only been about an hour.
- 5 gal water
- 1 tsp miso paste (yes weird but should provide nutrients, and this 1 tsp couldn't possibly have so much salt it's ****ing with the entire 5 gal batch right?)
- 2 tablespoons boiled dead instead baker's yeast
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 dissolved multivitamin tablet
- 1 tsp DAP
- 1 tsp of the settled yeast cake on the bottom of a jar from a packet of hornindal kveik (added once the mix was at/cooler than body temp. When I got the packet in the mail I emptied it into a sterile jar and let it settled in the fridge, then poured off the wort and replaced with filtered water)
- Somewhere between 10 and 11 lbs white sugar to an OG of 1.078
A while after starting it, after seeing very little activity, I pitched about 1 more tsp of the yeast cake, still on the first day.
Today, out of desperation I boiled another tablespoon or so of baker's yeast in a little water and then added about 1.5 tsp DAP, and added all that to the mix and gave it a little shake. This was around 4 hours ago, and it seemed like maybe it was bubbling more for 30-60 minutes after I did that, but now it's back to its seemingly dead state and I just can't understand why.
Was there not enough DAP? Or even too much? Kveik is supposed to need a lot of nutrient, and the recommended rate was something like 1/2 - 1 tsp per 5 gal batch for a normal beer, so I figured this is a safe amount.
Is there some problem with the killed off baker's yeast I added? Does that not give enough nutrients to it? It has something like 3 tablespoons of the stuff in it now.
The temperature should be good right? A thermometer registers the side of the fermenter, as I said above, between around 95 and 100 F, which a yeast like hornindal kveik should be quite happy at.
I know the addition of miso is weird, but is it even possible that the approx 1 tsp I added could mess with the ferment this much?
I just can't wrap my mind around why this could have crawled to such a halt when it's hardly fermented any of the sugar I gave it. I used this yeast specifically because it's supposed to be able to ferment a lot of sugar quickly when it's held at a relatively high temperature, but now it seems like I've made some critical and unsalvageable mistake that's screwed my whole batch and I can't even hazard a guess as to what messed it up so badly.
A while ago I also posted about a different attempt at a ferment using the same yeast with a somewhat different recipe but given pretty much the same treatment regarding temperature and technique, and it seems to be stalling too (but at like 1.030, has been going for 11 days). For the record, I also tried adding more nutrient to jumpstart this other stalled ferment but haven't seen any results from doing so yet.
Is there anything I can do to get these big tubs of what are otherwise just wasted money and time to start fermenting again? Or even just any ideas as to why they stopped in the first place? I'm quite frustrated here. Also, I was unsure if this, being a modified sugar wash, should be under the beer category, wine, or somewhere else, but "beginner" definitely applies to me, so I'm hoping for help here.
Per advice I got elsewhere, I tried adding a little lemon juice and taking a sterile whisk to the ferment to see if that reinvigorates the yeast. So far I haven't noticed anything but it's only been about an hour.