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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Poorly fermentable wort (Fred L Johnson)


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Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 13:06:07 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <fljohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Poorly fermentable wort

I just had the following experience with a poorly fermentable wort. I would
greatly appreciate any insight from anyone who could explain why this wort
was so poorly fermentable.

I brewed a Belgian witbier (6 gal) with 50% Weyermann pilsner malt (5 lb),
30% raw wheat (3 lb), 20% torrified wheat (20 lb). I  would have used 50%
wheat or 50% torrified wheat, but I had 3 lb of raw wheat lying around that I
wanted to get rid of. I boiled the raw wheat and the torrified wheat on the
stove top in several quarts of water for about 30 min. I then used a food
processor on the wheat to fully expose the wheat starch to the rest of the
grist. I mixed the blended wheat into the ground pilsner malt and mashed in
with a protein rest (127 degrees F, not the target 122 degrees F) for 10 min.
I raised the temperature of the mash to 152 degrees F by direct heat
(stainless steel mash tun) on a burner, stirring constantly. Because my mash
tun is only insulated on the top with a styrofoam lid and no side insulation,
I give the mash a little heat about every 20 min to maintain the mash temp at
152 degrees F. The total mash time was 1 hr and 50 min. I transfered the mash
to a lauter tun with no mashout and sparged into the boil kettle, collecting
a total volume of 6.6 gal. Mash efficiency was 85.4%. O.G.= 1.050.

The boil was 90 min, adding hops to 17 IBUs and ground coriander just before
flame out. I pitched Wyeast 3944 from a two liter starter, ~ 350 billion
cells after oxygenating the wort with pure oxygen. Fermented at 69 degrees F
for 7 days when the fermentation stopped, but the yeast were not flocculating
very well. I raised the temp to 72 degrees F for the last 24 h. The yeast
were still not flocculating. I crash cooled to 35 degrees F and a good bit of
the yeast fell out, but many were obviously in suspension and still dropping.
I transferred to a keg and discovered the gravity was 1.021! 

I force fermented a 200 mL sample of this beer with an 11 g packet of
Notingham dry yeast at 76-78 degrees F to prove to myself that the
fermentation was not stuck. The gravity only 1.020-1.021 after the forced
fermentation, so I am convinced that the problem was not the yeast. 

Can anyone explain to me how I generated such a poorly fermentable wort?

Fred L Johnson

Apex, North Carolina, USA

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