Blackberry

[hounddawg]

do you have a PH Meter ?

 

[hounddawg]

give me a minute, so i can back read entire thread,,, BRB
Dawg

 

[silverbullet07]

do you use yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, and what is your PH? on the peach you said started at SG of 1.010 and FSG of 1.010 ? the blackberry should of went completely dry, K1V-1116 is the same workhorse as EC-1118 , so something is amiss ? check your PH for one thing , airlock them to keep from spoiling till this gets figured out
Dawg

I used nutrient at the start. My ph I adjust to blackberry 3.34 and peach 3.37. My peach Sg 1.100 fsg 1.010.

 

[hounddawg]

hum, you did everything well, even good to me,,, @sour_grapes ,, @Rice_Guy , you boys see what i seem to be missing hear,
Dawg

 

[hounddawg]

3.2 to 3.6 I'm good with on my PH, @cmason1957 @Arne anybody?
Dawg

 

[silverbullet07]

Everytime I use the PH meter i calibrate it With the solution. I kept the temps 69-70 and the when it seem to stop I warmed it to 74-75. Did not help.

someone told me to not rack it from primary until dry but it stayed at 1.010 for three days.
thought maybe it had to do with unfermentable sugars. Just funny the concentrates have done this to me. The wine made from fruit did ferment dry.

 

[hounddawg]

i tagged some names when they see this they should chime in, heck you did just like i do, i just got another load from coloma today, their concentrates have been going good for me,
the names i tagged ought to figure out what's up. your OSG are all ok, your PH seems fairly good, @Scooter68 ,, I'm not sure, i got several gallons from them I'm ready to start, both peach and pear, i got 6 gallons of concentrate from them. thawing right now, but I've got 5# 6-gallon carboys bulk aging from them already, that 30 plus gallons or wine went fine, now I'm kinda worried about what just got today peach, 1 & 1/2 gal from them & i pulled 4 gallons out of the freezer to day of pear also from them,
Dawg

 

[hounddawg]

Everytime I use the PH meter i calibrate it With the solution. I kept the temps 69-70 and the when it seem to stop I warmed it to 74-75. Did not help.

someone told me to not rack it from primary until dry but it stayed at 1.010 for three days.
thought maybe it had to do with unfermentable sugars. Just funny the concentrates have done this to me. The wine made from fruit did ferment dry.

what strength buffer solution are you using, you need 4 that calibrates it close to wine

 

[hounddawg]

just keep them airlocked till it gets figured out,
Dawg

 

[hounddawg]

shoot, i got to put mine back in cold storage i just remembered i got doctors tomorrow,
in the mean time i hope one of those i tagged chimes in, and i'll be mulling this over, like i said I'm starting several gallons i guess day after tomorrow,
Dawg

 

[silverbullet07]

what strength buffer solution are you using, you need 4 that calibrates it close to wine

It comes with 3 Different solutions to calibrate it. A 4.0, 6.? And a 9.?

 

[silverbullet07]

i tagged some names when they see this they should chime in, heck you did just like i do, i just got another load from coloma today, their concentrates have been going good for me,
the names i tagged ought to figure out what's up. your OSG are all ok, your PH seems fairly good, @Scooter68 ,, I'm not sure, i got several gallons from them I'm ready to start, both peach and pear, i got 6 gallons of concentrate from them. thawing right now, but I've got 5# 6-gallon carboys bulk aging from them already, that 30 plus gallons or wine went fine, now I'm kinda worried about what just got today peach, 1 & 1/2 gal from them & i pulled 4 gallons out of the freezer to day of pear also from them,
Dawg

Thanks..I started up a raspberry yesterday and it is fermenting well. We will see if it stops like the other three. I decided to just plan on it stopping so I started it at 1.110

 

[cmason1957]

I used nutrient at the start. My ph I adjust to blackberry 3.34 and peach 3.37. My peach Sg 1.100 fsg 1.010.

3.2 to 3.6 I'm good with on my PH, @cmason1957 @Arne anybody?
Dawg

Yes, ph of 3.2 to even 3.8 can ferment just fine.

Only thing I saw that seems suspect is the adding of nutrients at the start. I generally add part of my nutrition a day after fermentation starts up well and then the other half at sometime between 1/3rd and 1/2 of the sugar being consumed.

Thanks..I started up a raspberry yesterday and it is fermenting well. We will see if it stops like the other three. I decided to just plan on it stopping so I started it at 1.110

How do you plan to stop the fermentation at some specific point? The only effective way i know is to add plenty of alcohol to kill the yeast off. You are much better off to decide how much alcohol you want to produce, set the sugar level to provide that, ferment dry and backsweeten.

 

[hounddawg]

Yes, ph of 3.2 to even 3.8 can ferment just fine.

Only thing I saw that seems suspect is the adding of nutrients at the start. I generally add part of my nutrition a day after fermentation starts up well and then the other half at sometime between 1/3rd and 1/2 of the sugar being consumed.



How do you plan to stop the fermentation at some specific point? The only effective way i know is to add plenty of alcohol to kill the yeast off. You are much better off to decide how much alcohol you want to produce, set the sugar level to provide that, ferment dry and backsweeten.

i noticed the nutrient at the start, but foolishly ruled that out, i add at each 1/4 , or after a few days, then at half way through my SG then at the last 1/4 of my SG running dry, i tried to explain how to use the SG to get the wanted ABV so the ferment stops, but when a lot of times the way i say things are received differently then i mean,,, you remember the thread i started TO EACH THEIR OWN, man i caught flack over that, to me,, to each their own is the polite way of saying please/suit your own self, but many took it as if i was insulting them, after being off the road now better then 15 years, I've lost my ways of phrasing things in a way others take things, I'll never forget in CONN at a micky D's i ordered pancakes/hotcakes and ask for a extra syrup, they kept saying 20, i even counted 1-2 they said 20, then it dawned on me to say SIR-UP 2 syllables, where i live syrup is 1 syllable, and we say wash with a R in it hence warsh,, lol great catch @cmason1957 , and to be honest, most times i pop of at the handle is because someone phrased themselves innocently , but to me i felt they were condescending to me or smarting off to me, you can't count the PM's I've sent asking for forgiveness, to some really great people on here, whom meant no slight to me,
Dawg
hehe where you said you add at 1/3rds i said the same thing to me but called it 1/4ths. if my brain was gasoline it would not run a ant's motorcycle half way around a BB,,,,

 

[Rice_Guy]

first of all you are running high test which I haven’t been doing, I max at 14% calculated. Reading the thread it should have gotten below 1.000.

the black berry started a little high but it would have only been 15% if it went dry. Now it is only 13.9%. How would that have killed it when its tolerance is18%. my peach ended at 11.81% So it has to be something else. So I should leave in primary even if 2-3 weeks?

* I would not let these in the primary, the air exposure will not help the finished quality. If you are positive you want to restart with new yeast the directions are to oxygenate (mix vigorously) and keep in the primary.
* at this point you have developed quite a bit of CO2, your pH could be 0.2 units below starting point which will act as a stressor on the yeast, ,, puts you at 3.0 to 3.1 till you degas
* as Scooter said, Wohoo this stuff will be strong! again this is a stressor on the yeast
* temp sounds fine, above 80F I see an issue and below 55F
* nutrients, ? DAP ? one of the club members describes this as “feeding candy to a kid” and it is best used with step addition as the specific gravity drops. Fermaid (organic/ balanced) is better balanced and less likely to get stuck as well as less likely to go bonkers at the start. If looking for risk factors I would start looking at micro-nutrients.
* racking off dead yeast/ Lee’s, this is a technique to pull nutrients out of the ferment with the intent of creating a stuck ferment.
* 1.010 is a decent tasting gravity with a fairly acid finished beverage. my one rhubarb that stuck at 1.014 was close enough to where I would back sweeten that I waited nine months and then bottled as is.
* think Dawg said “what is your goal?” the other way to get 15% is to add grain alcohol.

 

[JBP]

One more technical possibility - how are you testing your SG? I was gifted a Tilt hydrometer awhile back - over time, it has proven to be reliable in the initial stages and almost useless when nearing the end of fermentation. I had several ferments that frustratingly 'stopped' early (around 1.010, if I remember correctly) only to discover that when I got out my trusty old-fashioned hydrometer, they were going on down as expected and finished dry.

 

[Arne]

And check your hydrometer to make sure it is reading correctly. Think put it in some distilled water and should read 1.000. Arne.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks Everyone. I know this was high ABV. It was a mistake that I made when I added my sugar. I do know how to calculate where I want it to be based on starting SG. I just happened to put more sugar in than it needed thinking I needed more. But now I am glad I did because ABV would have been too low. I can live with the 14.5% and glad it did stop. When I back sweeten it and add volume it will lower some.

However in my peach thread, My Starting SG was calculated and correct. Started at 1.098 and it stopped exactly like this one. Both started and stopped the same day, setting side by side, stopped at 1.010. It is 12% which is fine. I was looking for 14% just because I know I would be back sweeting it and adding volume that will drop the AVB%.

The three concentrates I have done, were in a different room I have in the basement to keep the temperature steady. It has linoleum over concrete. Would the bucket setting on concreate be causing it. My others I fermented dry had a thick rubber backing carpet between the concrete and the bucket. That was another thought I had.

I have another concentrate started now on carpet square. It is 6 gal that I added 6tsp nutrients to. Would it be ok to add a couple teaspoons of nutrient when it gets to around 1.050-1.040-1.030?

 

[silverbullet07]

One more technical possibility - how are you testing your SG? I was gifted a Tilt hydrometer awhile back - over time, it has proven to be reliable in the initial stages and almost useless when nearing the end of fermentation. I had several ferments that frustratingly 'stopped' early (around 1.010, if I remember correctly) only to discover that when I got out my trusty old-fashioned hydrometer, they were going on down as expected and finished dry.

They are just regular hydrometers. Have two and both reads exactly the same. I have had wine that finished dry and it read correctly below 1.000. My last blackberry was from fruit and it finished at .092 and a pear from fruit that finished at .094

And check your hydrometer to make sure it is reading correctly. Think put it in some distilled water and should read 1.000. Arne.

Both hydrometers were tested and correct.

 

[Arne]

yep, temperature will do it to you. Was just going to ask about that. Basement floors are cold and sometimes it doesnt take much cooler to stop things. I always set my primaries on wood when on the basement floor. My temps tend to bounce around some. Should have enough nutrient in that 6 gal. I usually add half up front and then the rest at 1.050 or 1.060 or so. Arne.