McKnuckle
Well-Known Member
It's rare-to-never that I have a brewing problem that I can't Google and find a dozen or more instances of people experiencing the same thing. It's all been done before. But not this time!
I brewed a Saison with 100% pils, mashing around 150º. I pitched WLP565 at 68º and after 24 hours, there was no activity. The wort was clear as can be, straw yellow with settled trub on the bottom. So I placed a heating pad under it and went to bed. The next morning, I checked and the temperature was 95º. Whoops... But at least the yeast were churning away vigorously.
After reading about this, it seems a hot temp is tolerated by this yeast, and others report great flavors with no fusels even when fermenting so high. They warned about cooling too much as it might cause the yeast to stall out. So I adjusted things to the mid-80s, and rode it out.
It's now a week later, and the "beer" is basically still... but totally opaque, gummy, and the color of buttermilk. I tried to take a gravity sample, but the liquid in my wine thief was viscous and gooey, dripping "mouse tails" instead of pouring, so there was no point in continuing. I've placed a sample in the fridge to see if it would clear, and nope, after a day, it's exactly the same.
So here's what I think happened: When I heated the fermenter from underneath, it basically cooked the settled break material, causing it to gelatinize and remain suspended throughout the beer. It's not a layer - it's pervasive.
The beer is, I'm betting, toast.
Any thoughts on this theory, or similar experiences?
I brewed a Saison with 100% pils, mashing around 150º. I pitched WLP565 at 68º and after 24 hours, there was no activity. The wort was clear as can be, straw yellow with settled trub on the bottom. So I placed a heating pad under it and went to bed. The next morning, I checked and the temperature was 95º. Whoops... But at least the yeast were churning away vigorously.
After reading about this, it seems a hot temp is tolerated by this yeast, and others report great flavors with no fusels even when fermenting so high. They warned about cooling too much as it might cause the yeast to stall out. So I adjusted things to the mid-80s, and rode it out.
It's now a week later, and the "beer" is basically still... but totally opaque, gummy, and the color of buttermilk. I tried to take a gravity sample, but the liquid in my wine thief was viscous and gooey, dripping "mouse tails" instead of pouring, so there was no point in continuing. I've placed a sample in the fridge to see if it would clear, and nope, after a day, it's exactly the same.
So here's what I think happened: When I heated the fermenter from underneath, it basically cooked the settled break material, causing it to gelatinize and remain suspended throughout the beer. It's not a layer - it's pervasive.
The beer is, I'm betting, toast.
Any thoughts on this theory, or similar experiences?