Has anyone experience sugar inverting due to a strong base instead of an acid?
I'm on my 7th sugar wash batch of my own recipe; the 6 before were total successes.
I keep very detailed notes on all of my fermentations and they have been almost identical up to this point:
- 5 gallons of spring water heated to 101F, add 8# of sugar to target 1.065 starting SG, 16 brix
- Hydrate 25g Lallemand Distillamax HT @ 100F for 20 minutes in 250mL spring water
- Pitch yeast after 20 minutes.
- After 1 hour, add .5g/L (half total dose) of both DAP and Lallemand Distillavite GN yeast nutrient.
- sample every 12 hours, add 2# of sugar when brix drops to 10, which happens twice for a total of 12# of sugar. Add 1tbps sodium bicarbonate when pH drops to below 4.0 to raise to 5.0;
- add the 2nd half of DAP & Distillavite GN @ 24 hours
These fermenters finish @ 96 hours, 11.5% EtoH, " I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent. Curiosity, Obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my knowledge and understanding "
– Albert Einstein
Thanks for the responses. It’s a curiosity as to how the elevated fructose came to be. I use the same brand of sugar and water and use a sous vide circulator to heat my water before adding the sugar so the temperature is well regulated. The only change I made to the batch was upgrading from a plastic 6 gallon fermenter bucket to a 9 gallon beer buddy heated stainless ferm. (Besides for the obvious upgrade in quality, I wanted to move my fermentation to my basement which is cooler than the main floor so I wanted to be able to maintain temperature.)
My take on your concern..
I would try calcium carbonate and see what result it gives;
If the behavior is similar is calcium hydroxide, then i would reverse back to using sodium bicarbonate, as there seem to not effect the fermentation and getting good results..
Mars" I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent. Curiosity, Obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my knowledge and understanding "
– Albert Einstein