No fermentation

[karlos_1984 371]

The grain bill was a total of 3kg:

Gladfield American ale - 2.49kg

Gladfield Munich - 0.27kg

Gladfield Medium Crystal - 0.18kg

Weyerman Acid Malt - 0.06kg

I heated 15 ltrs strike water to 70 C

Mashed in the grains and added another litre odd preboiled water from my kettle to top it up. The temp had dropped a fair bit so I had to lift the bag up and add more heat to bring the temp up.

I got the temp back to just under 70 C so put the lid on and wrapped the pot in towels and hot water bottles for 60min mash.

However after 60 mins when I checked the temp prior to sparging it bad dropped to somewhere between 55 - 60 degrees.

Once my boil and hop additions were done, I whirlpooled, FO hops were added then transferred to the cube.

This wort was in the cube for about 4 days when I realised the lid hadn't sealed 100% air tight. So I added to FV and pitched the reharvested US05 yeast. The following day I had no krausen or anything happening so I left it overnight again then added a packet of coopers kit yeast. Still no change in taking a reading at 1032 a few days ago.

 

 

[BlackSands 1,641]

Though the mash temp is obviously drifting down I think it would have spent enough time in the mashable range to ensure reasonable conversion,  I'm surprised that it dropped by that much though given the steps you took to insulate it.  One thing I found with a static mash though is that the temperature readings can be quite unreliable and often seem stratified.  E.g. a reading taken at the top of the pot can often be different to a reading taken near the bottom.  I think it's always a good idea to give the mash a good stir from time to time, especially before checking the temp.  Also, one thing I do which you might find useful is I actually pre-warm my oven to a temp around mash temp and put my pot in there for the hour.  That helps hold the temperature very stable.  

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by BlackSands

[Otto Von Blotto 5,138]

I don't find stirring the mash to be of any benefit other than when checking the temperature, which I do straight after mashing in and then during the two temp rises. Otherwise I leave it alone. 

[karlos_1984 371]

I've got a shit gas oven that doesn't hold temps in the right range. I did think of doing that and have seen KR do it on his videos but when I've tried it with just water it always got too hot.

 

Might just have to get a grain father or robo brew or something n just start doing it properly

[BlackSands 1,641]

2 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

I've got a shit gas oven that doesn't hold temps in the right range. I did think of doing that and have seen KR do it on his videos but when I've tried it with just water it always got too hot.

You don't need it to be left on.  I just warm mine up - takes about 5 minutes and then I turn it of.  It just provides an warm insulated environment for the mash to sit in for an hour or so. 

[ChristinaS1 619]

3 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

I've got a shit gas oven that doesn't hold temps in the right range.

My oven is the same.

I turned to using an insulated cooler, which is what North American brewers typically use. Luckily I already had one that was the right size and it works very well.

Cooler lids are often hollow / not insulated. To improve their performance, drill some holes in the lid and fill the voids with spray foam insulation, then lay a folded blanket on top to further increase the insulation.  You'll find your mash temp will barely budge. For smaller batches I use a 1:7 ratio of grain to water and don't sparge, but for larger batches I use a 1:3 ratio and sparge.

Cheers,

Christina.

PS You can use any shape cooler (to fit your batch size) but some brewers like those tall, round Igloo beverage coolers and install a false bottom, but I just use a grain bag in my rectangular cooler.

Edited October 21, 2019 by ChristinaS1

[Otto Von Blotto 5,138]

A lot of AG brewers use eskies in Australia as well if they're using 3v systems. It's a good idea.

With my urn I just leave it on the whole time during the initial long mash rest, set just below the desired temperature, it comes on once or twice to keep it from dropping too far. It still drops a bit but my FG always seems to be on target or very close to it. I turn it off during the short 72 and 78 rests because they aren't long enough for any temp drop to make a difference. 

[Hairy 2,654]

I have used both the rectangular esky and cylindrical cooler. Both lids were crap so I used to lay a few pieces of aluminium foil over mash. It seemed to work ok.

[karlos_1984 371]

19 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

It would be better to add some aka ghost cells, and also yeast hulls, which absorb excess fatty acids, which may be inhibiting the yeast. You can make your own by boiling a bit of yeast for a few minutes. Use whatever kind you have, whether brewer's yeast or bread  yeast. Dose is about 0.5g/L. 

Cheers,

Christina.

How do we do this? Just boil some water and chuck yeast in whilst it boils, cool, then add the liquid to the wort?

[ChristinaS1 619]

@karlos_1984 Exactly. 

Good luck!

Christina.

[karlos_1984 371]

Do u add any sugar or anything to the boil to act as food for the yeast or anything?

[ChristinaS1 619]

@karlos_1984 No. The wort is stuck and still has plenty of sugar. 

[Otto Von Blotto 5,138]

Dead yeast won't be eating much...

[karlos_1984 371]

Haven't added anything else to this POS brew yet. Have bumped temp to 21 degrees and stirred it up again a couple days ago. Hydro still at 1032. Should I expect bottle bombs if I bottled it just to see what happens..?

[Titan 802]

Hey karlos if its at 1.032 then it will taste sweet, have you tasted it?

[Otto Von Blotto 5,138]

It sounds like you've thrown just about  everything but the kitchen sink at it already, so unless the hydrometer is extremely out of whack which I can't see being the case, I'm not really sure what else could be done to get it going again. 

[BlackSands 1,641]

2 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

Haven't added anything else to this POS brew yet...

Well, why not try Christina's suggestion?  Or....   enzymes... 

[karlos_1984 371]

8 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

Well, why not try Christina's suggestion?  Or....   enzymes... 

Yeah gonna give it a crack. I've tasted it several times. It tasted sweet but really green, but had a bit of a weird bitterness as well, hard to describe. 

Will swing past the lhbs and ask about this enzyme.

 

This beer has been in the FV a week yesterday so after throwing these things at it already hopefully it's not infected.

[PaddyBrew2 1,429]

manrove jacks do an enzyme for low carb beers. think most LHBS's sell it. its used in Brut IPA's as well to get it as dry as possible. Worth a shot

[karlos_1984 371]

Cheers paddy I'll see how I go. I did what @ChristinaS1 suggested tonight. I'll check it again in 24 hours n see if it's fired up at all.

[karlos_1984 371]

Boiled yeast has done sweet FA. Off to the LHBS to see if I can salvage this mongrel.

[PaddyBrew2 1,429]

Your beer is gonna taste like bread 

[BlackSands 1,641]

1 hour ago, karlos_1984 said:

Boiled yeast has done sweet FA. Off to the LHBS to see if I can salvage this mongrel.

It may actually need more time for the benefit of this to kick in, however, I do get that this brew has already had regular amounts of "more time" while waiting for things to (not) work!  

[karlos_1984 371]

Chucked some enzyme in tonight. Liquid form, same stuff used for lower carb beers and brut ipas. See what happens...

[karlos_1984 371]

And it's resurrected, alive and kicking!