Fermenting Experience With Chia Seeds (Yep Chia Seeds)

[Misterobots]

Hello Everyone!

So I've been a lurker for a while and recently had the urge to post, for the first time, because of a thread about brewing/fermenting Hard Seltzer. Through my research, I came across a thread on here about someone having a hard time with keeping yeast active long enough to get a decent result. Through all of the "typical" advice (yeast nutrient, water profile, mineral additions, etc.) someone posted that adding Chia Seeds... yes Chia Seeds. The post went like this..

Chia seeds are a natural nutrient. They speed up fermentation and reduce volatiles way down. I used .75 oz per gallon plus realemon.

It struck me as such and odd suggestion and I had ZERO knowledge of how it would affect ANY part of the process. So, I went down a google-hole of research and came back with very little information on how Chia Seeds would assist or accomplish the claim.

So I decided to give the experiment a shot. I tried the above method of adding Black Chia Seeds into the fermenter of a hard seltzer (4lbs dextrose, EC118, tap water - slightly above 7ph that had zero airlock activity for 5 days and had dropped very slightly from the original 1.035 to 1.032). Man what a strange experience it has been. I added .75oz per gallon as Krasdale stated.

The chia seeds swelled up so much. There seemed to be this "gelatinous" layer of chia seeds on top. CO2 does get through the layer, but I'm not sure how well. There had been airlock activity, though not much, for over a week before I took any reading or action on the fermenter. One odd thing that I have discovered is when I "agitated" the fermenter, MASSIVE amount of activity came through the blow off. The next day, I agitated the fermenter again (purely out of curiosity and experiment) and, again, massive blow off activity. When I took a gravity reading, it had dropped from 1.035 to 1.025 and was only slightly cloudy. I did notice that the sample almost seemed slightly carbonated, and it tasted as I expect it should (sugar water with a hint of alcohol).

About 3 days later, the "Chia seed cap" seemed to be holding co2 in I took another gravity reading and it read 1.020. I completely understand that these "hard seltzers" can take a while to drop to desired fg, but what I found interesting is that the sample I took from the fermenter seemed to almost be a bit carbonated and pretty clear, surprisingly. The batch was still thumping away(large bubble through the blow off at about once per minute or so). The sample definitely tasted of sugar and alcohol haha. I've just never had a fermentation behave like this and I have been unable to get any information on what part the Chia seed addition is responsible for(other than keeping co2 in suspension) and what else the Chia seeds may be helping with or causing.

3 days later.. the solution was reading at 1.000. Again, every time the fermenter was "agitated" massive blow off would happen (as expected). There is no visible color and very slightly cloudy. Taste is close to champagne (go figure with EC118) but very clean. Transfer from fermenter was a bit of a pain, because of the Chia Seeds wanting be kegged as well, but with a basic filter there was no issue.

@cmac62 gave some great input on the original posting of this and because of how curious this experience was, I wanted to share with everyone and welcome any big brain input and insight into what the Chia Seeds are actually helping with.

Take care everyone!

 

[VikeMan]

Well, I don't know anything about chia seeds, but I don't see where you took a gravity reading before adding them. Did you? Point being... the seeds might not have done anything, except trap CO2.

Lack of airlock activity doesn't necessarily mean fermentation isn't happening. And if the "seed cap" was indeed holding CO2 back, then that sudden burst of CO2 released could well have got the airlock moving in spite of a possible leak that allowed (pre-seed) slowly evolving CO2 to escape without pinging the airlock.

Just a theory, in the absence of a pre-seed gravity reading.

 

[Misterobots]

Well, I don't know anything about chia seeds, but I don't see where you took a gravity reading before adding them. Did you? Point being... the seeds might not have done anything, except trap CO2.

Lack of airlock activity doesn't necessarily mean fermentation isn't happening. And if the "seed cap" was indeed holding CO2 back, then that sudden burst of CO2 released could well have got the airlock moving in spite of a possible leak that allowed (pre-seed) slowly evolving CO2 to escape without pinging the airlock.

Just a theory, in the absence of a pre-seed gravity reading.

Thank you for the feedback Vikeman! I have added the gravity info prior to adding the Chia seeds to the original post. I completely agree that lack of activity doesn't mean nothing was happening. More to the point of this post, I'm extremely curious if anyone else has experience with adding chia seeds, or any information on their overall impact in general.