Stuck at 1.020
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I am new to making whiskey, however I have done beer for some time now. I started at recipe that had 60% malted corn 14%malted wheat 8% two row(us) I heated the mash to 155 for 1hr then cooled over night. I pitched 5 tsp Flieschman Active dry yeast(about 2 tbsp) along with 2 tsp of DADY yeast. I used a starter for both. My measure OG was 1.043 and about 12%brix (refracted) it fermented great at 88-95 degree until my heat lamp timer goofed up and left the lamp on then it got to about 120 degrees on the bottom of the fermenter and 105 at the top. After this (two days of fermenting and heating up) all activity stopped. I took another hydrgrometer reading at 1.020 which give me about 4% Abv. I took a ph reading and it was around 3 so I added Sodium bicarbonate dissolved in some water to raise the ph to 5.4. Now still no activity after two hours. Is my mash all lost? Or can I distill what I have? I have heard horror stories of sodium bicarbonate not going through the fermentation process and turning the spirt blue and not drinkable. PLEASE HELP I have spent a lot time malting corn and wheat for this batch it would be a shame to loose it.
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d fermented great at 88-95 degree until my heat lamp timer goofed up and left the lamp on then it got to about 120 degrees
That is way hotter than I would ever ferment anything. I ferment between 65-70/ Heat will kill the yeast. If the mash. got up to 120 that will kill the yeast. You can try and save it—but you are most likely going to have some serious off-flavors from the heat. Cool the temp of the mash down between 65-70- and re-pitch a pack of bread yeast. I can usually ferment down below 1.010 with only bread yeast. Wine yeast will drop it below 1.000 normally.
If fermentation does not kick back off you can always do a stripping run with this and then re-distill it- as a 4% starting wash is not going to give you much product.
I would ferment a lot cooler- 65-70 as this have proven to work well for me.
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