Failed fermentation

[Joerg]

Now it happened, I might lose a batch. Or maybe not? A barley wine
started out at 1.092. Using harvested BE-256 Belgian style yeast it had
an unusually sluggish start. Nothing for about 30 hours and then it
began very slowly. Judging by the dried gunk under the primary fermenter
lid if must have kicked up a good kraeusen though.

Three weeks later (yesterday) I transferred to secondary and the gravity
had only dropped to 1.047. It also had a slightly sour taste but I
transferred it anyhow. Since it then just sat there with no airlock
activity I pitched another pack of yeast but only had US-05. Airlock
activity came back after some shaking but it is anemic, at about one
bubble every 5-10 seconds. 24 hours later still not much and no kraeusen.

Is there hope? Anything more I can do? Maybe pump some air into it with
a hose?

If I lose this batch it would be sad but considering that this would be
the first loss in 234 batches it's still ok I guess, statistically speaking.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

[Donald]

Joerg . . .

On Wed, 16 Mar 2022 10:39:32 -0700, Joerg <ne...@analogconsultants.com> wrote:

>
>Is there hope? Anything more I can do? Maybe pump some air into it with
>a hose?

That's a good track record.

How about raising the temperature? I mention it in case it may have slipped your
mind.

Sound like you already did that most would do when you get a stuck fermentation.
One other thing you might try is yeast energizer to kick start it back into
action.

Donald


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main

[Joerg]

On 3/26/22 1:35 PM, Donald wrote:
> Joerg . . .
>
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2022 10:39:32 -0700, Joerg <ne...@analogconsultants.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Is there hope? Anything more I can do? Maybe pump some air into it with
>> a hose?
>
> That's a good track record.
>

Yeah, I try to be really careful when it comes to sanitation. I think
that has paid off over the years.

> How about raising the temperature? I mention it in case it may have slipped your
> mind.
>

Tried that. The only thing that got it going a little bit was vigorous
shaking of the secondary fermenter (a glorified office cooler water
bottle). Even that only aroused very tepid airlock activity.

> Sound like you already did that most would do when you get a stuck fermentation.
> One other thing you might try is yeast energizer to kick start it back into
> action.
>

Interesting, thanks. I'll have to see what yeast energizer is. What
really concerned me was that the pitching of a fresh packet of US-05 did
absolutely nothing. Right now this fermenter just sits there with the
airlock showing a very slight and constant pressure. In a week I'll dip
a straw in there and sample a little for a taste test. If ok I'll let it
sit for another couple of months. If it's sour or funky I'll dump it
because it will likely have become unfermentable.

Luckily the Belgian Quadrupel which I fermented about three months ago
with the same BE-256 yeast strain came out great as usual. I bottled
that on Monday, along with an IPA.

> Donald
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
> https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
> https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
> https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main
>

Thanks. Though I haven't had much luck with groups.io. The access is
cumbersome. Usenet is so much easier.

Most of my ham radio groups are on the 30, 40 and 80 meter CW sections :-)

--
Regards, Joerg (AJ6QL)

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

[Joerg]

The saga had a happy end. This week I bottled the Barley Wine and
another beer. Before investing any more time in it in case it's gone, I
sampled some from the secondary fermenter with a sanitized straw, into a
beker. Tasted ok. Not super-special but good enough to bottle. Then I
brought it outside for bottling the next day. This involved a fair
amount of shaking and a temporary loosening of the airlock (so the
StarSan in the airlock won't get sucked into the brew during the
hand-truck roll).

Not sure if it was the shaking or the fresh air getting into the
fermenter but the next morning I saw it bubbling away vigorously and
forming a kraeusen. So I bottled the Pale Ale first to give the Barley
Wine until early afternoon. By then it was down to 5-10 airlock bubbles
per minute. Racking into the bottling bucket I sampled again as usual ->
shazam! Best Barley Wine I ever had, with a nice smooth Brandy taste.

Best of all, since my wife doesn't like Barley Wine and none of my
friend do, it's all mine 8-)