Brew UK Forum | General Brewing Discussions
ferm rate
noob here. i heard yeast dies at 26 celcius. so why cant you heat ginger beer to 30 celcius for 5 mins to stop fermentation?
makin: ginger beer, elderflower champagne & kit bitter
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Why do you want to stop the fermentation?.
Fermenting: Marynka pseudo-lager
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Wheat beer, ESB, Vienna lager & shop bought stuff
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
What yeast are you talking about? A lot of yeasts have high tolerances and I can't think of many that die over 26c. In fact I've accidentally "cooked" a sherry before at 30c for 24hts and although it had some weird tastes due to the fermentation temp it was still beer.
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
haha. ok, so i heard wrong. lots of sketchy info sources on that there tinterwebz.
but i dont want to stop it, i just trying to learn about it. i would like fermentation to stop naturaly at about 4.3%....so if anyone knows what yeast is good for that feel free to tell me.
i'd also like to know if theres anything wrong (harmful) with drinking it in the middle of fermentation.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
just realised my yeast says 'for wine making and brewing' on the tub. so is it going to ferment up to 15%!?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
No, it just means it can tolerate it. The alcohol content is controlled by the amount of sugar you feed the yeast, to convert to alcohol & C02.
If you were using the recipe given in the 'recipes' section of this site, which make a 6% brew with 2.5kg of sugar. You would just reduce the sugar to around 1.75kg to obtain the 4.3% ish you were looking for.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
No worries Stan, to be honest the best thing we could do is get some more info on what youve done.
1) - What is it, beer, wine, ginger beer etc etc.
2) - Is it a kit, if so which one - if not then is it a recipe that you could post for us to look at.
3) - Did you take a hydrometer reading to begin with before adding the yeast?
Dont worry about the yeast - it means it can tollerate upto 15%, it does not mean it will automatically finish at 15% - that depends on the fermentables (sugar) present in the liquid.
As for stopping it - there probably is a way but lets get the facts first before we get on to that (and it may not be that easy!)
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
ok:
young's u brew dried active yeast from wilkos: 3.1 tsp
2.9 kg sugar (reg. super market)
0.17 kg ginger root
9 lemon (juice)
3 limes (juice) (i think total is about 0.75 liters juice)
7 tbsp honey
about 19 liters of water but barel was smaller than i expected so this was less than i wanted and i not accurate)
if the sugar amount limits the alcohol, will it still come out sweet enough?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
sorry, is this the 6% recipe?:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/ginger-beer#post-5446
if so looks like i get about 8% beer at the end.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
and no. i didnt know we had to take a reading in the beginning so i didnt take reading until day 2(which was 1.054). but i made up new sample of about same quantities and got reading of 1.062. now is 1.044 (day 3)
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Right, looking at those figures and working on about 18ltrs, assuming honey is about 5g per spoon and the yeast ferments to 1.000 (though could go lower if its a dry wine yeast) then yep about 8.5ish %!
You could always have little tasters through the fermentation but dont drink a lot as there will be a lot of yeast in suspension and your belly wont like it!
Do you have a hydrometer to see when fermentation has finished? If not then be careful when bottling as (like you say) it can be lively. I would leave it fermenting for a good 2-3 weeks if you dont have a hydrometer, if you do have one make sure the final gravity is the same for 2-3 days before bottling.
Next time - adjust the sugar to 1.35kg and it should come out about 4.5% as long as the yeast doesn't ferment any lower.
To add sweetness a lot of people add a spoon of sweetner to the glas while pouring. Being sweetener it will not ferment and will make the drink....sweeter!
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
For the 6% recipe I refered to, click 'shop home'. Then it's listed under recipes.
Sounds like you're well under way already though.
I'd say it will end up dryer than you were thinking, so as Nath says, sweeten on serving if you think it needs it.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
thanks guys.
i got hydrometer so i'll know when its done. i'm sure i know someone who'd like super strength ginger beer. in the mean time i'll drink some mid fermentation and maybe get some lower tolerance yeast. sounds easier that way to control abv and sweetness.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
You could always dilute with some water at a later date (though it will have an effect on mouthfeel etc etc..)
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
i'll consider that.
looking around tho, i get the impression you cant use a given yeast as a target. u have to control abv with sugar. so i'll see how i get on with what i have.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Also Stan. Your recipe looks light on the ginger and heavy on the citrus compared with other recipes. Possible to adjust perhaps, but best play it safe and let it happen, as it's your first go.
I bet it will still turn out a very respectable brew.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
We all start somewhere mate, you've done well and you've got a proper mental drink to boot! If you want, to give us a shout next time and we can go throuh recipes, fermentation etc etc. Help ya from start to finish!
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
haha, :)) . thanks guys. i'll get back to you when i sober up.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
fermentation seems to have stopped.
day0 1.062(estimate)
day1 ?
day2 1.054
day3 1.044
day4 1.043
day5 1.042
or is this normal?
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Its still going down and its only been 5 days, dont worry give it 3 or so more days before you start doing anything drastic!
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
to update me noob(newbie) thread:
day0 1.062(estimate)
day1 ?
day2 1.054
day3 1.044
day4 1.042
day5 1.041
day6 1.040
day7 1.038
day8 1.036
even if i hadn't put so much sugar in this rate of ferming seems very slow to me. or is it nothing unusual, but i need to have more patience?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
i made another small batch with different (slightly superior) yeast but day 2 shows almost zero fermenting (1.032 - 1.031-?). but any advice on above post (20) much appreciated.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
well, it went to 34 in last 12 hours, so if this new rate continues, rock on n all tha.
it was gettin some indirect sunlight b4 and i put a dark tshirt over it. one with a nice collar so the yeasts feel good about themselves. maybe thats when the rate picked up....hm. i dunno.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Weird, just looks like this ones gonna be a slow fermenter, at least it's going down. Maybe it was underpitched and it's taking it's time to munch through all that sugar due to the fact it hhasnt multiplied enough? Did you make sure there was plenty of oxygen and the yeast was well on date?
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
erm..in a word, no.
ok...if you could briefly tell me:
whats underpitched? ah, seems to be putting in to little yeast. no, i put what it said on the tub. also, ferm rate seemed fine in beginning.
how should i get oxygen in it? ah, think i'll use a food mixer stick in a drill.
will check date on yeast tub in a bit. ah, might use some yeast nutrient too next time.
but is a fermentation rate, if it goes up and down, unusual?
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