HOW & WHY TO DO A FORCED FERMENTATION | THE MALT MILLER HOME BREWING CHANNEL

A forced fermentation test as a home brewer is an intriguing way to gain insights into the way your yeast performs when brewing beer at home. It can also show up potential issues with your brewing practices which allow us as home brewers to either make adjustments to process' or make recipe amendments.
In this video we show you how to conduct this simple test but also go over the vital "why" you should consider this test in certain circumstances as a home brewer.
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[@StratoJohn]

Interesting, I've had a problem with all my brews finishing above target FG this year. I think the temperature needs re calibrating in my mash vessel, and maybe I should start using yeast nutrient 😂

[@1509alexe]

If you have a stir-plate or shaker table, put your sample on it for an even more effective forced fermentation test.

[@ChristopherSmith-ff1ly]

Great video, got me thinking why not keep your wort in a cube until the sample has finished. If the sample stops at 1.02 is there anything you can do to salvage your brew? Have you ever used a fish tank pump to oxygenate the wort?

[@themaltmiller8438]

Hey! Yes thats one thing you could do I guess, as long as your cleaning and sanitising is on point for the cube. The main things you can do if that is the case is using enzymes to break down the longer chain sugars but you're at higher risk of the beer then over attenuating and ending up very dry. We've not used a fish tank style pump to add air to the FV but we are about to embark on looking into adding pure oxygen... more to come on that in the next few months!

[@charlesjohnson5811]

Would you expect a warmer fermentation temperature to drive attenuation? In which case, the FG on the forced sample would be lower than the main batch

[@themaltmiller8438]

The warmer temps won't drive a lower attenuation as such, but will speed it up

[@mandrews5748]

Is half a gram a good amount of yeast to use, as a rule of thumb? Or did you work out the amount by pitch rate x 500ml x 2?

[@themaltmiller8438]

We doubled the usual pitching rate for the strain roughly

[@martinhudson599]

Really informative video as always. For most 23 litre batches my brewing soft ware recommends making a starter. I assume I could use a small amount of the starter to do this test. If so, how much ?

[@themaltmiller8438]

Yep, no reason you can’t do that! Generally you want to double the pitching rate into the sample you’re forcing through the fermentation

[@stephenlunn3049]

Does this method also work by taking a sample, with a dipper for example, from the fermenter just after liquid yeast or a starter has been pitched and mixed in?

[@themaltmiller8438]

Ideally you would want to pitch yeast separately as you’re meant to use double the standard pitching rate to further the pace of the fermentation.

[@SimonJD1000]

So - did your beer come in at exactly the same point? you could maybe have waited a couple more days before releasing the video and then we'd know the answer!

[@themaltmiller8438]

Haha! Yes, but due to release schedules it didn't line up! It came in 2 points higher, probably due to oxygenation of wort, which is a topic we will be coving in the next few months as we test out some practices. As we have heard from James at Verdant, their yeast can be lazy and will stop doing its job if its life is made at all difficult.

[@SimonJD1000]

@@themaltmiller8438 Interesting, thanks. Will look out for the topic ... BTW as a Best Bitter fan, it would also be good if you could cover your recipe at some point (assuming it turned out good ... ;) )

[@themaltmiller8438]

@@SimonJD1000 It's being kegged today! It's really simple, 4kg Low Colour Maris, 300g English Caramalt, 100g Amber Malt. Target Pellets to around 30 IBU's and then 100g Bramling Cross Leaf for a 30min 80c Whirlpool. Then Verdant yeast!