06-12-07

So I had two ferments going on the porch, now I have one still a brewin and the other in the fridge. GAB060807 stopped this afternoon after i took about 500 ml from the bottle last evening and replaced it with the comparable amount of sugar, yeast and water to replace what i had snatched from the bottle. I took the 500 ml out because no more C02 was being produced at the time, this was evaluated by me squeezing and getting no denting action. The 500 ml of solution seemed to be sorta potent since i think i got a little buzz (it was a three day old ferment) but i did eat some home made sushi from a neighbor shortly before drinking the 500 ml so... really who knows. Like i said though i added back 500 ml of sterile water (i boiled then cooled the water in an ice bath before taking out the 500 ml) and did some quick math to add back an equivalent amount of sugar and yeast to match the original recipe, about 1/4 a cup of sugar and a 1/16th of a teaspoon of yeast to the 500 ml of strile replacement H2O. Fermentation wasn't starting so i thought i would give it the night, the next morning (06-12-07) it was a good and bubblin with C02 producin action. I left GAB060807 alone all day today just checked it every now and about 8 o'clock this evening i gave it a squeeze and the bottle dented.
There were no bubbles so I figured the fermentation bit was done with, maybe because there is simply to much alcohol in the bottle now for baker's yeast to survive in. I have been sorta supporting this claim because I found a website that says that baker's yeast can only hang out in about 6% alcohol max. Again i drank about half of the two liters tonight and i feel a little something. Six % at least would be required since i am such a lush (how about them scientific method skills HA!?)
Then again maybe GAB060807 isn't 6% and I simply choked the yeast with to much sugar or i let to much oxygen into the system when i took the 500 ml out and was to impatient to give the system enough time to deplete the oxygen trapped in the bottle upon closing it last night to begin signs of fermentation again.
Though I don't buy the idea that i stopped fermentation last night when I added oxygen or sugar back into the system last night because I saw it bubbling today and only ceased signs of fermentation earlier this evening. Thats why i support theory one or maybe simply all the sugar had been gobbled up by the time i checked it earlier this evening. Even with me putting more sugar in the bottle i added more yeast so the sugar to yeast level was never out of whack. Plus i was careful to not disturb the turb and only siphoned off the top 500 ml, maybe fermentation was on overhaul from the combination of new and already present yeast making fermentation of the small 1/4 of a cup of sugar real quick like over night quick.
I still have not come to a conclusion though. I am thinking my idea of not adding any kind of acid to GAB060807 was not such a great idea since i found on the same website that apparently acids are a must in fermentation. Also i didn't add any tannins, the ginger might have added some acids, but it sure as hell didn't add much and no tannins. I picked about a half gallon of wild blackberries today (there are big advantages to being a botany geek). I'm going to boil these and add ginger root, sugar, lemon and maybe something else ..or not for my next batch of fermentation. I still have one ferment on the porch which since it has been so rainy yesterday and today (was it to cold last night!?) I'm bring GAB060907 in tonight in case temps drop to much. For as much precipitation we get around here, the temperature gradient sure as hell feels like a damn desert sometimes!
I managed to exert almost all of the will power i have to not imbibe the rest of my ferment (it was hard work, daddy needs his medicine) and tomorrow i am taking both the active and finished ferments into the lab for testing on the spectrophotometer, refractometer and with the hydrometer. I think I'm also going to do some titration and chemical analysis, i don't have to go to the greenhouse so its all day lab madness baby!!
Anyways in the mean time will be keeping an eye on GAB060807 in the fridge since I'm not down for midnight splosions and i will post the results of tomorrows lab tests. I will also be munching on tasty wild blackberries and watching turner and hootch in my underwear until the sun comes up. Goodnight all.