Hi everyone,
Bottled up 10 gallons of Belgian Wit yesterday which fermented in two separate carboys but in the same fermentation conditions. While I was bottling I realized that one of the carboys didn't ferment fully with a high FG around 1.024, whereas the other carboy fermented fully, hitting the expected FG of 1.013 (for reference, OG was 1.052). Somewhere along the line fermentation in carboy one stopped. Was using Wyeast 3944.
The primary lessons from this is to monitor the gravity of both carboys (duh....). I'm interested in strategies people use when fermenting a 10 gal batches in different carboys to get consistent fermentation. Here are a few areas which could have gone wrong:
1) Inconsistent pitching between the two carboys: I had a starter but in theory I could have put less slurry in one of the carboys?
2) Lack of aeration/oxygenation in carboy one- I think I'll get some sort of oxygen system.
3) In general I think I fermented this yeast too low. Hard cause the resting temp at my place these days is around 62 or 65.
Unfortunately I was in a position where I needed to bottle since I'm going away for vacation and didn't want to let it sit.
Has anyone else experienced difficulty with managing fermentations of the same batch? Do people blend their batches when bottling or kegging 10 gallons for consistency?
Bottled up 10 gallons of Belgian Wit yesterday which fermented in two separate carboys but in the same fermentation conditions. While I was bottling I realized that one of the carboys didn't ferment fully with a high FG around 1.024, whereas the other carboy fermented fully, hitting the expected FG of 1.013 (for reference, OG was 1.052). Somewhere along the line fermentation in carboy one stopped. Was using Wyeast 3944.
The primary lessons from this is to monitor the gravity of both carboys (duh....). I'm interested in strategies people use when fermenting a 10 gal batches in different carboys to get consistent fermentation. Here are a few areas which could have gone wrong:
1) Inconsistent pitching between the two carboys: I had a starter but in theory I could have put less slurry in one of the carboys?
2) Lack of aeration/oxygenation in carboy one- I think I'll get some sort of oxygen system.
3) In general I think I fermented this yeast too low. Hard cause the resting temp at my place these days is around 62 or 65.
Unfortunately I was in a position where I needed to bottle since I'm going away for vacation and didn't want to let it sit.
Has anyone else experienced difficulty with managing fermentations of the same batch? Do people blend their batches when bottling or kegging 10 gallons for consistency?
