Why Long fermentations?

[hackbrew]

My fermentations have been slow and long. I typically brew all-grain (5 gals.) and mainly use Wyeast 1056, make a starter, and use pure oxygen in the cooled wort. I usually get a good quick start, but it takes about 5 days to reach full kraeusen and then another week or so to slowly disapte. In the past my fermentation's for the most part would be finished in 3 - 5 days. I like to brew on consecutive weekends, and I pitch on top of the previous weeks yeast cake, but again many times the previous brew is in mid fermentation. Fermentation temps. have been pretty consistent at about 70 degrees.

The only variable that has really changed is my process is my water. I was using city water and now I am using well water (no real water analysis) . My well water goes through an ion exchange water softener. For my mash I use all softened water, and then I mash out and lauter with all non-softened water. My mash efficiency is about 75% and my attenuation is very good. The beer taste good and comes out on target. So I'm not complaining or worrying, but I would like to understand what is actually going on differently.

 

[david_42]

What type of ions in the water softener? If it uses salt, that's probably your problem. Yeast doesn't perform as well with even moderate levels.

Salt will also make many beers taste better.

 

[hackbrew]

Yes, it uses salt as an exchange system. I am using 1.25 qt/lb water to grain ratio in my mash process. So in my recent batch I used 15 qts. of softened water to mash with and then about 7 gals. of harder water (no softened or very little salt) to sparge with.

Should I just use bottled water for the mash water, or should I add something back to my softened water to compensate for the salt? If the later, what can I add to the water prior to bring down or adjust for the abundance of salt?

 

[ChshreCat]

Salt will also make many beers taste better.

Did you mean "better" or "bitter"? Not arguing either way.

 

[hackbrew]

I think he meant bitter. Anyway, is there something I should be adding at mash time or in the boil to correct this fermentation problem?

 

[tunoffun]

Your water softener is taking all the Calcium out (probably the main reason your fermentation is being affected). The sodium is just an added bonus... negatively speaking.

 

[redalert]

Try ramping up your starter. The more yeast the faster the fermentation.

 

[funkswing]

Couple of questions:

1) where do you live? What state, what part of the state, geoprovince? Just trying to get an idea of how hard your well water is. The harder it is, the more Na you will have being exchanged into your "softened" water. You generally do NOT want too much sodium in your brew water. We can talk about why later.

2) Why do you use softened water for the mash, then not use it for the sparge? Any reason? The pH of your hard water is going to be higher than the pH of the softened water (more than likely, b/c of the CaCO3 from the rocks that well water comes from). When the water is softened, NaCO3 (common name = baking soda) will be formed, which has less buffering capacity than CaCO3.

The city water is going to be softer (perhaps a lot softer) than your well water. My guess is that your well water is causing too high of a pH for optimal fermentation. With the Na saturation from the water softener perhaps playing a role too.

You should really get a water test done on your well. Mostly for piece of mind, secondly for brewing purposes.

 

[hackbrew]

I live Southern New Jersey. For last weeks brew I mainly used all softened water to brew with (Mash/Sparge). I stepped up a starter twice, lag time was about 4 hours. I guess if I have too much sodium in the water, I should cut it with some bottled water?

 

[funkswing]

I guess if I have too much sodium in the water, I should cut it with some bottled water?

That is an option. Or you could cut your unsoftened water with bottle water, that way you know for sure Na isn't an issue.

Oh New Jersey, there's your problem!!! :cross:

J/K, take a look at this web site

Its a list of wells in NJ that are monitored by the USGS. Which one of those sites is the closest to your home? Regardless, all the specific conductance values are pretty high (~400), which means you have a lot of dissolved ions in your groundwater (e.g. Ca, Na, Mg, etc.).

So, I would just dilute your well water (unsoftened) with spring water or DI water.

When I get home I'll try to figure out more precisely what your ion concentrations and hardness is in your area. Then we can more accurately prepare your water for brewing.

This way you can mimic beer styles better, cause after all, beer is mostly water!