long fermentation wheat/barley mix

[thomas harris]

I made a 6 gallon wort that had 6lbs. of wheat syrup and 6lbs. of barley syrup. I added hops toward the end of a 1hr. boil. When it came time to chill I immersed my copper pipe chiller into the boil and let it steilize for a few minutes. I then turned on the water flow, only to find out the wort chiller had burst during the winter in several places and was dumping cool water INTO the wort. I now had about 8 gallons of wort total, with 2 extra from the leaking chiller. I didn't know exactly what to do, so I added another 6 lbs. of barley extract and boiled it for a few more minutes. Then I ice bath cooled the wort and pitched it into two fermenters. One had bavarian yeast, the other had dry brewers yeast which had been started in water. The one with the dry yeast went into a furious bubbing fermentation, which ended after about four days. I added sugar and bottled this, as it had an alchohol potential drop from 8% to 2%. this beer tastes of wheat beer, but perhaps a bit bitter. The other batch with the bavarian yeast is still bubbling after two full weeks. I've never had one go this long. Should I let it go until the bubbles become less frequent? They are still quite steady at about a dozen or more per minute. The kruasen is still on top of the liquid, and looks like it just formed, having that "toasted marshmallow" color still. I haven't bothered with a gravity reading yet with it still bubbling and all. The fermentation temp has been fairly steady at around 75.

[grapeadmin]

Sometimes fermentations do drag out. I would wait until the bubbles reach 1 per minute, then rack to a secondary for clearing before bottling. Getting a gravity reading would not hurt.

thanks
john
g and g

[thomas harris]

currently producing 6 bubbles per minute. Total fermantation time is now 15 days. The original gravity was 1.063 and now it is 1.033 I see that as an alchohol content of about 4% or slightly less. Why did my other batch turn out so strong. Is it because the belgian wheat yeast used on the current batch is not meatbolizing the barley malt content? Should I give it more time still?

[grapeadmin]

Yeast strains do make a difference and you are correct, some strains tolerate more alcohol and can metabolize more or less sugar. In this case though, it should not make that big a difference. My guess is that perhaps the wheat beer yeast may have been old and there may have not been as many live cells (but is is hard to say for sure).

Maybe try racking it to another fermenter but when you do rack and splash it. The extra air may help get the fermentation going stronger. The other option would be to add more yeast. I think if it were me, I would try racking and aerating it.

john
g and g

[thomas harris]

`the gravity is dropping still. one thing that really seems bad about this batch is the suspended solids in it. just never really settled out to the bottom. is that because of my lack of fast chilling? the beer tastes a bit funky, but i suppose ill just bottle and see what develops. never store your chiller in the garage during winter, even if yer wife insists.

[grapeadmin]

I don't think suspended solids would be a result of slow cooling. Chill haze would. As you suggested, I would bottle it (once it clears) and see what develops.

john
g and g

[thomas harris]

well it's been awhile and let's just say a the drain drank this batch. It was horrible. It smelled like the very bottom of the fermenter, yet had a somewhat " apple" smell too. It was just very bad tasting. It also overcarbonated. Sound like an infection? The wort was not really boiled much after adding my "emergency" extract when my wort chiller leaked and diluted the gravity down. the fermenter took a long time to stop bubblilng. most of my batches before stopped gassing when the s.g. stopped dropping. could some of the infection microbes attacked the sugar the good beasts did not like causing the off flavor and excess carbonation? The bottles were gushers which volcanoed until about half of the contents were gone. In tasting and smelling a bottle again, it has a "medicinal" smell to it. Kinda like toothpaste or mint almost, but not as refreshing, cloying.

[grapeadmin]

Yes, it sounds like a contamination issue to me. When yeast finish fermenting but enough bacteria is present, they will eat up the sugar that the yeast could not. Thus the overcarbonation and off flavor. It could be from the water that leaked from the chiller or bad/old yeast.

john