Please help with timely suggestions!

[Tweaker]

I left town on short notice. I made 2 worts, but one had an OG that was 1.041 when 1.050 + was expected. It was a True Brew kit that I added an additional grain to.

Rather than add yeast and ferment my fourth very low alc content batch, I elected to wait until the next night when I would get home. The plan was to re boil it and reduce the water, thus bringing OG up to advertised.

Surprise! I get home just now and IT IS FERMENTING WILDLY! I added no yeast!

Do I

1) Let it ride with wild yeast (I don't even understand why it is fermenting) and evaluate when it naturally stops

2) Boil it immediately, stopping the unknown yeast activity and then start it with proper yeast

3) Add proper yeast now and hope for it to overcome wild yeast that are popping now

4) Get ready to toss the beer and accept that I humped the hound, wasted $40, and learned something

This is crazy! This hobby is a whole lot more complex than I realized at first.

 

[malkore]

NEVER toss a beer until you know without a hint of doubt that its undrinkable.

That usually requires at least a month or two in the bottle to age/mature.

Now I assume by 'fermenting wildly' that your airlock is gurgling away pretty steadily? like it burps every 2-3 seconds, or faster?

Otherwise if its burping once every minute, I doubt its fermenting...probably just temperature changes causing gas to fall out of the wort.

also your OG being a little low...let me guess that you did a partial boil, and then topped it off to 5 gallons? if so, your water and wort just isn't mixed completely, and your hydro sample was inaccurate. you literally have to mix water and wort for 10 minutes to get it uniform.

the only way you miss OG on an extract kit, is by bringing the total volume over 5 gallons (or whatever the recipe states).

 

[HOOTER]

5) Pitch the yeast as soon as the wort reaches pitching temp because your OG reading was probably wrong (unless you completely botched the recipe) and just letting un-fermenting wort sit around is asking for trouble.

Your wort needs to be thoroughly mixed before taking an OG reading. There's a good chance your OG was wrong but even if it wasn't I personally think you should pitch and just go with what you've got, but that's just me.

 

[Tweaker]

NEVER toss a beer until you know without a hint of doubt that its undrinkable.

That usually requires at least a month or two in the bottle to age/mature.

Now I assume by 'fermenting wildly' that your airlock is gurgling away pretty steadily? like it burps every 2-3 seconds, or faster?

Otherwise if its burping once every minute, I doubt its fermenting...probably just temperature changes causing gas to fall out of the wort.

also your OG being a little low...let me guess that you did a partial boil, and then topped it off to 5 gallons? if so, your water and wort just isn't mixed completely, and your hydro sample was inaccurate. you literally have to mix water and wort for 10 minutes to get it uniform.

the only way you miss OG on an extract kit, is by bringing the total volume over 5 gallons (or whatever the recipe states).

It would be more accurate to say fermenting "normally." That there is any activity just blew me away. Normal krausen, normal bubbling, slightly lighter colored krausen.

I did exactly that. I added 5 gallons precisely. I have made the mistake of under mixing when measuring OG previously. Trust me when I tell you that I really agitiated this one. I am boggled that with the extra grain it would still be low. This is a continual source of frustration!

 

[Tweaker]

5) Pitch the yeast as soon as the wort reaches pitching temp because your OG reading was probably wrong (unless you completely botched the recipe) and just letting un-fermenting wort sit around is asking for trouble.

Your wort needs to be thoroughly mixed before taking an OG reading. There's a good chance your OG was wrong but even if it wasn't I personally think you should pitch and just go with what you've got, but that's just me.

I think you are giving me advice for the FUTURE, and trust me I will follow it. What I need to know is what to do NOW with this wild arse brew!

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I voted to add your yeast now. Too much yeast won't hurt, but you will have added the right yeast for the style of beer. The yeast you use affects the flavours different ways, so, IMHO it can't hurt to pitch your yeast.

 

[HOOTER]

I think you are giving me advice for the FUTURE, and trust me I will follow it. What I need to know is what to do NOW with this wild arse brew!

I know this doesn't help with the current situation, but I have no clue what you should do to be totally honest. If some wild yeast got into your wort then that would indicate improper sanitation procedures, because boiling/sanitizing kills yeast. I guess boiling and pitching couldn't hurt. I don't think doing nothing is a good idea, and throwing away the whole batch isn't either. I guess that's what I'd do, but I don't know anything about this sort of thing.

 

[olllllo]

When you say added grains, you mean steeped grains right? And not a partial mash.
If extract with steeped grains then those steeped grains add nothing to your gravity.

Now if by added grains you just tossed them into the fermenter, well there's your wild yeast.

You might have had some dried yeast at the bottom of the fermenter that just took off.

Or it might suck.

I'd let it ride.

Needed:
Recipe and technique.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

olllllo has it. Let it ride and learn for next time.

 

[olllllo]

In short, whatever yeast you intend to add will never be able to overcome what has clearly taken hold now.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

In short, whatever yeast you intend to add will never be able to overcome what has clearly taken hold now.

That thought had ocurred to me too, but then I thought, well, yeast is cheap, so what the hell.

 

[olllllo]

Well we don't know if it's wet or dry. Cheap vs $$$.

Don't want to raise hopes too much.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Well we don't know if it's wet or dry. Cheap vs $$$.

Don't want to raise hopes too much.

True. It was a kit, so I was assuming it was a cheap dry. I see though, that most of the smart guys are going with option one....So I hereby change my vote to option one! My proposition for the aforementioned altered vote is in the mail. It is in triplicate, notorised and duly initialed.

 

[Saccharomyces]

What the heck, worst that can happen is it needs a good 12-18 months to age and it'll be a nice lambic.

 

[Fingers]

Just for the coolness factor of an unknown yeast strain creating a mystery brew is enough for me to vote to let it ride. I think I'd have my nostrils all over that airlock.

 

[HOOTER]

Just out of curiosity for those who vote to let it ride, what's the harm in re-boiling for 15 minutes, cooling and pitching? I just can't think of any. This wort is still very young, and I just don't think it has much hope in it's current state. Boiling (assuming you have the capability for a full boil) would salvage it, unless I'm missing something.

 

[olllllo]

IT IS FERMENTING WILDLY!

The wort is not young.
Once things start to ferment, exposing the wort to light and oxygen are problematic.
Boiling may stop fermentation but the flavor profile has begun and now the wort has an even lower OG. Adding extract and yeast has monetary and time costs- costs that could be devoted to a new batch.

Plus we still don't know what the OP means by "added grain".

 

[HOOTER]

The wort is not young.
Once things start to ferment, exposing the wort to light and oxygen are problematic.
Boiling may stop fermentation but the flavor profile has begun and now the wort has an even lower OG. Adding extract and yeast has monetary and time costs- costs that could be devoted to a new batch.

Plus we still don't know what the OP means by "added grain".

Fair enough. This whole thing just boggles my mind. Has anyone heard of this before?

I, like you, think the "added grain" thing is a possible introduction of wild yeast into the wort, depending on how he did it. A recipe and description of brewing and sanitizing procedures would be helpful.

I guess this can be called an experiment, and hey, experiment's are one of the great things about brewing.

 

[Natas]

How long was it between the time you sealed up your wort and the time you noticed that it was fermenting? I'm having a hard time believing it a wild ferment. I have made several ambient fermented lambics and it takes about 10 days before and noticable signs of fermetation. And that with leaving the lid off the bucket for two days. I'm not saying it isn't, but I've never seen a "infected" batch from wild yeast get going as fast as one day, which according to the OP was about the length of time.
Unless, of course, you were using no sanitation practices, whatsoever. That might get a crazy wild ferment going.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Spontaneous fermentation all the way!!! Let it ride and see what you end up with. What was the original recipe. I would suggest drinking some good lambics and dumping the dregs into this thing to up the bug count. Let it sit for a year and let us know how it is.

 

[olllllo]

I'm going with my dried-yeast-in-the-fermenter theory until we hear from the OP, which by the way, would be nice since I got a PM requesting I respond to this thread immediately.
I had to get out of my bathrobe and into my beer superhero costume.

 

[mmb]

I'm going with my dried-yeast-in-the-fermenter theory until we hear from the OP, which by the way, would be nice since I got a PM requesting I respond to this thread immediately.
I had to get out of my bathrobe and into my beer superhero costume.

Apparently he

I left town on short notice.

once again.

 

[david_42]

Wild yeasts are everywhere. That's why we sanitize, but we also pitch a known yeast in large quantities to overwhelm the natural stuff. Some breweries use "natural" fermentation all the time. I use the quotes, because if you've been fermenting beer in a building for a couple hundred years, the local yeast is a well known quantity.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Well, so many unanswered questions by the OP......

Until he gets back, I would like to entertain you all with an interpretive dance rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" It went down a storm at my citizenship swearing in ceremony! People were watching open mouthed in awe of my talent.



Is the OP back yet?

 

[Tweaker]

Thanks for all your responses, guys. Sorry I was away for a bit.

I, like W, went with the information I had at the time. I broke the 3-3 vote tie (let it ride vs. add yeast now). I added some standard munton's yeast.

I am again seriously without a clue as to the result. Adding yeast caused, or coincided with A COMPLETE END TO FERMENTATION. No bubbles, krausen dissipated.

At this point, I got really frustrated and stayed away from the brew and this site. I am at a really sh!tty place in my life right now. Lost my job, wife and I just got separated. I have been concentrating on two positive things right now. Spending time with my baby girl and homebrewing.

The baby is great, the beer is not so much. After brewing 6 batches, the first 3 had alc. at 2%. I am not very successful at this. The next two are right on for SG and all 5 taste great. Silver lining I guess. This one is a total debacle.

To answer some ?s. I added an additional amount of STEEPED grains. I thought this would have a bigger impact on OG, but I have read that it is only .004. I went ahead and filled the carboy all the way to the directed 5 gals before taking OG. It was way low for a bock at 1.040 vs 1.050. AGAIN! I intended to do a full boil to reduce it when I returned 36 hours later.

I would tend to agree that this may have been a result of less than stellar sanitation. I went from a secondary to immediately filling the carboy up with the next batch. I did clean it and used a bleach mixture though.

I am having trouble getting all the krausen residue off the top of the glass carboy. Cannot reach it with bottle brush. How the h do you do it?

This is, instead of being a pleasurable thing to do to keep my mind off my troubles, becoming a source of frustration. I have spent $500 and can't even get drunk off it!

Anyway, I appreciate your efforts on my behalf and your sense of humor.

 

[Natas]

Sorry to here about your downed luck, things will come back around.
As for getting the residue and other unwanted goobers from carboys, try using Oxy-clean. A scoop or two in the carboy, then fill with water, let it sit overnight, then the next day it'll be all cleaned and ready for sanitation.

side note, I don't recommend using bleach for sanitizing, too easy to use too much, then you've got bleach beer. Not a good thing. Go get some Star-San, or even Iodphor.

 

[bsay]

I voted to add proper yeast now. That's what I'd do anyway. If you're any bit of a science geek/nerd then I'd say let it ride and see what happened. There are a few styles of beer that are made using wild yeast from a particular region, though I don't have my book handy, so I cannot tell you which ones. It might turn out pretty darn good! (Then the problem is repeating it)