Undissolved liquid malt extract

[chemfish]

Anyone ever not fully dissolve liquid malt extract before? Normally I add the stuff to the boil just after I turn the heat off to dissolve it, decided to just drop it into the fermeter on top of the old yeast cake on the weekend and dissolve it in cool water.... which wasn't overly successfull (works for dry malt though). I now have a slug of the the stuff at the bottom of the fermenter with yeast layer on top. anyone know how effectively the yeasties will eat through the stuff when it's not in solution?

I figure worse case I will give it a few weeks, raise the temp for another week (it's at 13 degrees at the moment) then just bottle and hope for the best.

 

[menoetes]

Tricky... Do you have a long mash paddle or something that you can sanitize and get to the bottom of the fermenter with? You could try giving it a gentle stir, it might help the yeast get at that undissolved sugar. Otherwise I guess all you can do is chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

[dammag]

I reckon you'll be OK. I've been in a similar situation and the yeast seemed to get to all the sugar.

I am in the camp of leave things alone unless you know you're not going to risk infection. Maybe give the fermenter a swirl after a few days.

 

[chemfish]

I do have a long paddle but I'm rather uncertain about stiring the beer, It's been fermenting away for a couple of days now and I would hate to reoxygenate the brew. Also I figure if it hasn't dissolved yet a stir probably won't do much. If it was dry malt I wouldn't be worried, when I have clumps of that it dissolves over a day or two, which I was hopeing would happen with this as well.

Wouldn't think there would be so many lessons to learn the hard way with brewing.

 

[Grott]

I'd leave it alone now. Is the fermentation fairly active? same as usual?

 

[chemfish]

Can't say it's same as usual as it's Nottingham and I've never tried it this low before. That said it is definately an active ferment, good krausen on top.

 

[wereprawn]

Don't "know" this but I reckon the ferment may just take a bit longer. Notto is one of my regular yeasts and even at low temps it's a beast. At 15 c I've never had it take longer than 4 days to finish. And often only 36 or so hours at 18 c. So if any dry ale yeast is going to do the job Nottingham would be it. IMO bump it up to 22 c after a week to make sure.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It will disolve eventually before fermentation is complete

 

[TimT]

Ferments do create a fair bit of churn, I'd imagine that'd be enough to get all the sugar dissolved.

 

[philmud]

K&Ks aren't boiled and the water is added to the extract at fermentation temps, so undissolved extract is pretty much a certainty to some degree. You'll be fine!

 

[wereprawn]

K&Ks aren't boiled and the water is added to the extract at fermentation temps, so undissolved extract is pretty much a certainty to some degree. You'll be fine!

K&ks Are always dissolved with a freshly boiled kettle of water in my experience.

 

[philmud]

K&ks Are always dissolved with a freshly boiled kettle of water in my experience.

My coopers kit instructions didn't say to do that (though it's obvs a good idea) & I never had unfermented goop left over.

 

[chemfish]

I've always dissolved them in the boil water previously then added chilled water. This is what it actually looks like at the moment with it's nice layer of juicey yeast food at the bottom.

 

[hoppy2B]

When I started out I poured the goop undissolved into the ferment vessel with cold water and sprinkled yeast on top of the water and it never failed to ferment out. h34r:

I do things a bit differently now. :lol:

 

[Grott]

K&ks Are always dissolved with a freshly boiled kettle of water in my experience.

That's it and then add water to bring it down to the right temp.