alcohol ban! need advice please

Oh the excitement, and the ups and downs of ones first brew!
 
Update,sadly my brew did not start to ferment.
I tried two different batches with different yeast,kveik and saf33.
Same dead result.

I experimented.
I added sugar to the dead batches and yeast sprang alive, currently fermenting.

Brewed up another batch and added sugar to the wort.
Then pitched yeast.
Fermentation started about a 2 hours later.

That leads me to believe I'm not getting any sugars from my mash,or a very low percentage.

My grains were ordered crushed/milled.
I got the same result of no fermenting from two different crushed grains from two different suppliers.

So I'm doing something wrong with my mash biab.

My method is bring water to 67 degree celcius.
Add grains to bag and keep at temp of 58 to 70 celcius for a hour.

Remove from heat and sparge about half times original water over the bag.
Then I bring to boil till it foams and kill heat until it's just boiling.
I keep that on for almost 60 mins.

Then I move the pot to a chilled sink and when it reaches 25 degree celcius I pour to fermenter, splashing that bastard around to get the air in

I pitch saf33 or kveik when temp in fermenter is 23degree celcius.

I give it another soft swirl and leave it.
What am I doing wrong?
 
Brewer #329768 said:
Update,sadly my brew did not start to ferment.
I tried two different batches with different yeast,kveik and saf33.
Same dead result.

I experimented.
I added sugar to the dead batches and yeast sprang alive, currently fermenting.

Brewed up another batch and added sugar to the wort.
Then pitched yeast.
Fermentation started about a 2 hours later.

That leads me to believe I'm not getting any sugars from my mash,or a very low percentage.

My grains were ordered crushed/milled.
I got the same result of no fermenting from two different crushed grains from two different suppliers.

So I'm doing something wrong with my mash biab.

My method is bring water to 67 degree celcius.
Add grains to bag and keep at temp of 58 to 70 celcius for a hour.

Remove from heat and sparge about half times original water over the bag.
Then I bring to boil till it foams and kill heat until it's just boiling.
I keep that on for almost 60 mins.

Then I move the pot to a chilled sink and when it reaches 25 degree celcius I pour to fermenter, splashing that bastard around to get the air in

I pitch saf33 or kveik when temp in fermenter is 23degree celcius.

I give it another soft swirl and leave it.
What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Just to add to that,my dead fermentation was running since Friday,past 24hrs,and no activity at all.
 
Brewer #329768 said:
Update,sadly my brew did not start to ferment.
I tried two different batches with different yeast,kveik and saf33.
Same dead result.

I experimented.
I added sugar to the dead batches and yeast sprang alive, currently fermenting.

Brewed up another batch and added sugar to the wort.
Then pitched yeast.
Fermentation started about a 2 hours later.

That leads me to believe I'm not getting any sugars from my mash,or a very low percentage.

My grains were ordered crushed/milled.
I got the same result of no fermenting from two different crushed grains from two different suppliers.

So I'm doing something wrong with my mash biab.

My method is bring water to 67 degree celcius.
Add grains to bag and keep at temp of 58 to 70 celcius for a hour.

Remove from heat and sparge about half times original water over the bag.
Then I bring to boil till it foams and kill heat until it's just boiling.
I keep that on for almost 60 mins.

Then I move the pot to a chilled sink and when it reaches 25 degree celcius I pour to fermenter, splashing that bastard around to get the air in

I pitch saf33 or kveik when temp in fermenter is 23degree celcius.

I give it another soft swirl and leave it.
What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Hydrometer is what you use to guage how much sugar is in solution before you ferment the wort and also at the end to find if fermentation is finished.
You can also use it to find out how much sugars you extracted from them grains you mashed.;).

This kviek you can ferment alot warmer than 23 c more like 30c all the way up to 40c.

Good luck on the next batch.
 
What Ben said.
How do you know if fermentation took place or not. You need to measure your gravity when you are going into the fermenter, and then after fermentation. If you did take gravity measurements, what were they?
 
Agree with the above. You absolutely got some sugars from your mash. It’s rather difficult not to. Conversion efficiency might not have been great, but you got something.
 
And kviek can be lightening fast I pretty much missed my last krausen with it. And sometimes I find it doesn't throw much of one either you'll see the wort moving but not much krausen
 
I would add that your conversion likely suffered because of the WIDE range of your mash temperature. I can't comment on the 58C end, but the 70C end is pretty high. The other factor that could impede conversion would be pH, any idea what that may have been?
As others have noted, you had to have had some fermentable sugars, and Kveik would have burned through them wicked fast, to the point that it may appear that there was no fermentation. Gravity readings are the only way to know for sure.
 
From numerous posts from home brewers stating that their pH meters closely match the estimated pH from the recipe builder I would suggest using the recipe builder to discover your mash pH. It will be more accurate if you enter in values of your source water. Hopefully this would be provided by your municipal water company, if you're on one. If you on a well, then you would need to get it tested.

I agree with @Craigerrr that your mash temperature range is very wide, but, I think the problem may be more on the 58 C (136 C) than the 70 C (158 F). This would be ok if you were doing a step mash; starting at 58 C and adding hot water in multiple steps to aid help the various enzymes do their thing in the temperature range they like best. However, most modern malts are well modified, meaning that step mashes aren't necessary. In the chart below (taken from John Palmer's How To Brew (a must read)) you can see that there is a mash target is between 64 & 68 C (148 & 154 F). If most of your mash was spent near 58 C and only briefly near 70 C you would not have a good conversion of starches to sugars. If you have the ability to keep a fairly constant temperature shoot for 66 C (+ or - 2 C) and hold it there for an hour.
upload_2020-7-19_19-50-17.png


[Edited to correct typo in one temp]
 
Last edited:
Did you taste the wort that went into the fermenter? If it was a bit sweet, then you got sugars.
Then if you would have tasted again after fermentation, or when you thought there was no fermentation, you could compare. Not very sweet anymore, you got fermentation. Still as sweet, nothing happened.
Obviously a hydrometer or refracto meter are better, but I had to go this way with my cider. Thought it didn't ferment. Tasted after 2 days and it was a bit dry and had some bubbles and that put my mind at ease and the cider came out fine
 
It's been about 3 days,I'll give it a taste when I get from work.
Thanks guys
 
Brewer #329768 said:
It's been about 3 days,I'll give it a taste when I get from work.
Thanks guys
Click to expand...
If you have a spigot that you can take a sample from that is fine, but if you are going to open the fermenter and dip in just to get a taste, that may not be the best idea. You are risking infection, or oxygen exposure. Depending on what yeast you used, leaving it and letting it ferment for another week would be the better plan.
 
Ok guys,so I tried another batch this evening.
My wort is sweet after the mash.
That's good.
Sadly I'm still waiting on hydrometer to arrive,next two days.
Kept that mash at a sweet 64 to 68 celcius.
Sparge
And boil to fermenter volume.
Tasted ,it wasn't watery sweet but good,loaded , like soup sweet.
That's good.

Cooled to 34deg celcius and good aeration.
Pitçhed kveik yeast.

Holding thumbs for tomorrow
 
Great!
Now give it some time. Any other yeast I would say forget about it and let it do its thing for two weeks. With the Kveik, give it 5 days to a week it and should be done. Unless you are dry hopping it, leave it be and let it rock and roll!
 
Brewer #329768 said:
It's been burping away through the airlock
Click to expand...
This is great to hear! I still have my fingers crossed for the first two batches but to hear that you had a successful brew day and quick start to fermentation on the latest go, is excellent news! Way to be resilient! 3rd time's a charm. :)
 
Burping through the airlock is good! It is however, not the only indicator of fermentation, don't rush the process. Yeast are living organisms, they work on their own schedule. If I recall, you have a hydrometer on the way. Give the Kveik at least 4-5 days before taking a sample to test. Patience will be your freind!
 
had a quick peep into the fermenter,rich golden color,smells good.
thinking i got it right this time.
tell me,when using the reipes on the site,is it ok to halve or double the ingredients to get to my own batch size?
example:
4 kg pilsen malt
10g saaz
11g yeast
15 liter water

i would downscale to
2kg pilsen malt
5g saaz
5,5g yeast
7,5 lter water.
all mashing and boiling times would remain the same
 
Brewer #329768 said:
had a quick peep into the fermenter,rich golden color,smells good.
thinking i got it right this time.
tell me,when using the reipes on the site,is it ok to halve or double the ingredients to get to my own batch size?
example:
4 kg pilsen malt
10g saaz
11g yeast
15 liter water

i would downscale to
2kg pilsen malt
5g saaz
5,5g yeast
7,5 lter water.
all mashing and boiling times would remain the same
Click to expand...
Click "edit recipe" then click "recipe tools" the click "scale". If scale isn't available then click copy first.
 
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