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Howdy all! New guy, with Questions!

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T

Tyeraxus

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 29, 2014
2
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0
USA
Good evening all, wonderful site you have here! I'm learning a lot, or at least I think I am.

I have a question about the BOMM recipe, or rather, my attempt at it. It's my understanding that a 5-6 gal BOMM recipe should ferment pretty much to 1.000 fg or so in about a week. Mine hasn't. It started at 1.111, and a week later (yesterday) it was at 1.091.

18 lbs Costco honey
Water to 6 gallons
Handful raisins (because I got BOMM crossed with JAOM in my head for a minute and then it was too late)
5tsp "Yeast nutrient" (DAP with "food grade urea" - came with starter kit I bought)
Cool overnight in beer bucket. Temp was mid-70s at pitch per the cooking thermometer I used.

Wyeast 3468 Forbidden Fruit (in a BOMM experiment thread I read, it said you can use 3468 rather than 1388), smacked and let sit overnight
1.5 tbsp Wyeast "Beer nutrient blend" - recommended by my homebrew shop for Wyeast beer yeasts

OG was measured at 1.111 right before pitch. Shook the bucket daily to aerate. There generally wouldn't be much airlock activity, until I shook it. During shaking, I'd get so much bubbling I'd have to empty the airlock. Gravity yesterday was 1.090, well above where I was expecting. What did I do wrong? Can I salvage it (I certainly hope so, it was expensive, and if it's not drinkable, my wife will be quite cross)?
 
No. The BOMM experiment thread had 3468 as one of the test yeasts, but it did not perform even close to 1388. It also took forever to ferment with the staggered addition of Fermaid K & DAP along with K2CO3 for pH buffering (which you didn't add?). It's only a BOMM if you follow my protocol exactly!

Okay. Back to this batch. My guess is the pH is off and it's nutrient starved. I had no problems getting it to 1.02 or so, but that was with the above additions. Try adding 3/4 tsp K2CO3 and both DAP and Fermaid K. Aerate it really well and put it on top of your fridge if your house is cold. If that doesn't work, then you may have to pitch another yeast like EC1118 or UvaFerm43.

One of these will fix it. No one needs a cross wife.


Better brewing through science!
 
Hmm. Thanks, I must've hideously misread the yeast experiment thread - I thought I'd read that 3468 performed similarly to 1388, but with more sweetness left over. My bad.

The house (apartment) isn't what I consider cold, we stay between 69-75 degrees depending on external temp. Is that too warm?

I'll get some of the additives you mentioned and get to it. If I can save the current yeast colony, how long do you think it'll take to ferment? We'd like to give some mead as Christmas presents this year, that's why I picked the BOMM recipe (or what I thought was BOMM).
 
The above mentioned items should finish it out in less than a month. I would go ahead and start a true BOMM because 3468 is just ok. No worries getting either done for Christmas though.


Better brewing through science!
 
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