Hey fellas
I'm doing the macs bwko, had no problems for a coupla years and about 6 of x5 generation goes at it.
2 x 30 litre fermenters with 5 kg of sugar in each and 7 litres of backset in each every time.
This time I may have forgotten the quarter of teaspoon of citric acid.
At the start of the 4th generation 1 fermenter started bubbling out of airlock as normal and the other was very very slow. I added more yeast, waited 2 weeks, distilled them both, all good.
im now at start of 5th gen, i added the citric acid with the backset this time in case that was the cause of the slow start, and now both fermenters are doing nothing after nearly 24hrs, there is no bubbles rising, no foamy stuff on top ,no fizzing sound,nothing at all.
Im pretty sure my yeast is good as I do not disturb the grain bed when racking off the top, I always disolve the sugar in the backset and then wait till cool before adding to the fermenters.
I have never given ph levels a thought as always gone well.
From my research I may have too much backset causing a ph problem, if citric acid didnt sort it what should i try to go the other way?
Anybody got any thoughts?