Thread: Fermentables!!!

Originally Posted by Spike J

OK. Pitched the yeast in last night, 18 1/2 hours ago. Am I right in thinking that there should be some activity in the pot? Because there most definitely is not. Any ideas what has gone wrong chaps?

What was the temperature of the must when you pitched the yeast?
what type of yeast?
do you see even 1 or2 bubbles on the surface?

what type of yeast did you get, and how old is it?

Originally Posted by Spike J

OK. Pitched the yeast in last night, 18 1/2 hours ago. Am I right in thinking that there should be some activity in the pot? Because there most definitely is not. Any ideas what has gone wrong chaps?

The must was at 20°C which is, er, 68°F. The yeast, as with much else of my brewing equipment, was a gift from a friend who runs a wholefood & homebrew shop. Pete is a very good man but a terrible shopkeeper. The yeast came in a little plastic bag without labels, but Pete assured me it would work....

I've made my own kraut and Kim chi quite a few times. I bought a German crock that has a moat for a rim; you fill the rim with water and the lid sets down in the water filled moat. This makes for an airtight seal, but the fermenting product inside can burp when/if it needs to. It's designed specifically for kraut.

My next fermentable I'm just going to try my hand at soon.......KOMBUCHA!! Man is that stuff tasty and refreshing. Fermented tea. Think sparkling cider or tangy ginger ale and you've got an idea of its flavor. Tart, just the right amount of sweet and fizzy. And it has naturally occurring alcohol normally between .5-1.5%.

I just ordered some gallon glass jars last night for my Kombucha project.

Chris L

was your yeast granular or liquid?

My suspicion is that you are getting a slow start due to old yeast and your must being a little on the cool side!
Look for any bubbles on the surface, even one or two as this will be indicative of the beginnings of an active ferment!

Also, you might want to agitate the liquid at this time to introduce some oxygen to give the little yeasties a hand!

Mead can also take slightly longer to start fermenting. Unless the must is pasteurised there is a lot of stuff in there that can make a yeast cells life hard (honey actually has traces of "antibiotics" that is inhibiting yeast cell growth). And as JMS said, it was slightly on the cool side, 25C is a better pitching temp (well, it also depends on your yeast of course) and if it's near or past it's sell by date (doesn't have to be a problem, just not as many live cells) it takes longer for the little workers to start producing alcohol and CO2 For next time you can remember to pitch the yeast a day or so ahead in a starter culture giving it opportunity to grow before pitching it in the must/wort.

It can take up to 2 days to get a visible confirmation, so I wouldn't be alarmed just yet.. Patience is a virtue, even more so when you are brewing!

Thanks Chaps!

The yeast is granular. I have no idea how old it is. Silver has made a batch of it up to bake some bread & it seems to work ok for that. It was mixed with water & nutrient the night before & did not seem to froth like it does when using it for baking. Silver has just shown me that batch & it has frothed right up the jug.

Honey is amazing stuff. The antibiotic properties were used for centuries before the discovery of penicillin. My grandfather kept bees & used a dab whenever he cut himself. The interior of a hive is the cleanest place anywhere outside an operating theatre.

I have agitated, with a sterilised hand blender, the must & am now waiting...

Happy to report nothing wrong with the yeast! The bread turned out fine, have just checked the mead and there is a head on it!

I make mostly bread. My sundried tomato and parmesan foccachia went down a storm even though I found it too salty for my tastes. I've also made bagles and different basic breads (white, wholemeal, farmhouse and so on).

Not fermentable but worth a mention, I make awesome cinnamon and raisin cookies too!

I've been making my own sourdough bread for about 25 years and have been making kraut for a couple now as well. I finally broke down and bought a bread machine last year because of time constraints. The main thing I don't like about it is that I can't rely on sourdough for the rising, I have to add yeast to provide speedy rising in the machine. I grind my own grains and am still working on perfecting the proportions of my bread machine version of multigrain bread, which is made from wheat, rye, millet, amaranth, quinoa, spelt, barley, and kamut. Eventually I'll get it right.

yes, absolutely, tobbaco is fermented as well.