I’m just wondering if anyone has experienced issues with PH rising directly after fermentation and in some cases before fermentation is even finished. More of an issue with higher gravity beers. We drop trub daily or every 2-3 days
Just to give a brief overview I joined a new brewery a few months ago and we are experiencing some things during fermentation that I’ve not experienced in any other brewery I’ve worked at. Typical water profile CaCI2 75ppm(mash), CaSo4 30ppm(Kettle), Zinc 0.2/0.3ppm(Kettle/whirlpool), CaCI2 50ppm coldside to fermenter. We do forced ferments on all beers so we have a fair idea what the terminal gravity should be. We use Stevenson reed hydrometers and calibrate PH meter daily so are confident in our readings.
1. For all high gravity beers we aerate with pure O2 to between 15-20ppm while casting out, we pitch at 1.5 million cells per mL per degree plato. Viability over 90% and oxygen levels checked on Hamilton Beverly. We then aerate again within 24 hours of pitching. High gravity beers ferment really well for the first 2-3 days and taste great then on day number 3-4 the yeast seems to die in suspension and the PH stops dropping we get a PH spike well before we hit terminal. For example 5.1 initial PH then 4.6 day 2 then day three 4.62 gravity sill dropping a few points, day 4 4.8 and then we start to get what seems very much like autolysis as we get that super burnt rubber aroma. We drop trub daily and as soon as PH spikes, dump whatever yeast we can immediately however there’s often very little yeast to dump as it’s all still in suspension. We assume that it’s a nutrient deficiency and are trialing both Wyeast and Murphy and Sons yeast nutrient. While we think it’s made a difference with most we still have issues with some.
2. Normal fermentations much less dramatic but still occurs, beer will ferment to terminal we will crop or drop yeast and then we still see a slight increase before we dry hop. If we are not dry hopping and transfer to a brite tank we sometimes still see a slight increase here and in some cases we will see gravity drop by a point.
3. We do HLP on all of our beers and have had one positive result in the last 6 months.
4. We have sent our wort to be analyzed and found that calcium was low despite our large addition in the mash so now we do a coldside addition as well.
5. Our Brite tanks are actually conical tanks that act as unitanks.
If anyone has any ideas what may be causing the PH spike any theories would be greatly appreciated.
Just to give a brief overview I joined a new brewery a few months ago and we are experiencing some things during fermentation that I’ve not experienced in any other brewery I’ve worked at. Typical water profile CaCI2 75ppm(mash), CaSo4 30ppm(Kettle), Zinc 0.2/0.3ppm(Kettle/whirlpool), CaCI2 50ppm coldside to fermenter. We do forced ferments on all beers so we have a fair idea what the terminal gravity should be. We use Stevenson reed hydrometers and calibrate PH meter daily so are confident in our readings.
1. For all high gravity beers we aerate with pure O2 to between 15-20ppm while casting out, we pitch at 1.5 million cells per mL per degree plato. Viability over 90% and oxygen levels checked on Hamilton Beverly. We then aerate again within 24 hours of pitching. High gravity beers ferment really well for the first 2-3 days and taste great then on day number 3-4 the yeast seems to die in suspension and the PH stops dropping we get a PH spike well before we hit terminal. For example 5.1 initial PH then 4.6 day 2 then day three 4.62 gravity sill dropping a few points, day 4 4.8 and then we start to get what seems very much like autolysis as we get that super burnt rubber aroma. We drop trub daily and as soon as PH spikes, dump whatever yeast we can immediately however there’s often very little yeast to dump as it’s all still in suspension. We assume that it’s a nutrient deficiency and are trialing both Wyeast and Murphy and Sons yeast nutrient. While we think it’s made a difference with most we still have issues with some.
2. Normal fermentations much less dramatic but still occurs, beer will ferment to terminal we will crop or drop yeast and then we still see a slight increase before we dry hop. If we are not dry hopping and transfer to a brite tank we sometimes still see a slight increase here and in some cases we will see gravity drop by a point.
3. We do HLP on all of our beers and have had one positive result in the last 6 months.
4. We have sent our wort to be analyzed and found that calcium was low despite our large addition in the mash so now we do a coldside addition as well.
5. Our Brite tanks are actually conical tanks that act as unitanks.
If anyone has any ideas what may be causing the PH spike any theories would be greatly appreciated.
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