Brewed my first partial mash this weekend. Here is the recipe for a NEIPA I used:
Partial Mash
Flaked oats 1 lb
Flaked wheat 1 lb
Carapils malt 8 oz
Wheat malt 8 oz
Honey malt 8 oz
This seemed to go pretty well.
Extract
Ultra lite DME 6 pounds
Pilsen LME 3 pounds
Yeast
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III 100 billion cell smack pack.
Fermentation was quick and pretty aggressive. Fermented 5 gallons in a 6.5 carboy. Had star San bubbles from the airlock within 24 hours. There appears to be some krausen in the airlock as well. Temperature strip on side of fermenter read 75.
It’s about 32 hours later and the bubbling from the airlock has decreased significantly but it’s still bubbling. Temperature reads 68. Room temp hasn’t changed throughout fermentation.
Depending on which thread on which forum I read, I’ve under-pitched the yeast. Smack pack worked well. Was inflated after 3 hours at room temp.
OG was dead on 1.8.
Did I use enough yeast? If not, could a vigorous fermentation make up for it?
Did you use a starter? If not, you underpitched but it’s not the end of the world. Be patient. You can give the fermenter a gentle swirl to rouse the yeast, if you need to, or raise the temp a bit to help it finish.
The advertised 100 Billion cells doesn’t take into account the age of the yeast and how it was handled during shipping and storage. It’s a number that tells you what was packaged at the origin. There are lots of pitching rate calculators out there that will give you an idea of the degradation rate of liquid yeasts. Most of them predicate their estimates on reasonable handling and storage.
This sounds like a perfectly healthy fermentation… what makes you think you underpitched? You probably did with only one smack pack, but what were the “warning” signs that got you concerned? Still bubbling after three days is great. Seems fine.
Nothing at all. I’m just naturally pessimistic and this is my 2nd brew ever! Still had signs of fermentation when I checked it before I left for work this morning.
I actually feel pretty good about it. But you know, the black hole that is the Internet…I’ve probably read too many forum posts!
I plan to leave it in the primary for seven days and then transfer it over to secondary for seven days for dry hopping and to brighten it up a bit.
Thanks for the input. I’ll update this thread when I take my hydrometer reading. Plan to do this when I transfer to secondary.
Don’t base your fermentation schedule on an arbitrary number of days.
It is finished when the gravity is stable, not at day 7 or day 10. An underpitch, if you have one, may result in a slower fermentation. Bigger beers (1.08 og is bigger) take a bit longer as well, IME.
You can dry hop in the primary fermenter. No real need for transferring to a secondary. I haven’t used a secondary in over 10 years. Most people on here do not use them any longer for a variety of reasons.
Just a quick update (because I know you guys were on pins and needles to find out).
Things still seem to be progressing well. I did clean the airlock, sanitize and fill it with fresh sanitizer last night. Sprayed the lid and opening with Star San and placed a piece of sterilized aluminum foil over opening while cleaning with oxi clean, rinsing and sanitizing.
Bubbles appeared in the airlock within a minute or two. There was still activity in the airlock this morning.
Temperature reading in adhesive strip thermometer was right in between 68 and 65 last night. This is about a 10 degree drop from the peak of fermentation. I wrapped a towel around the fermenter and the temp was a solid 68 this morning.
Took my first hydrometer reading today (Day 6). 1.028 - there is still a thick krausen on top. I calculate that at about 63% attenuation. My yeast strain is 71 - 75 so I think I’ve got a little more time to go.
According to Beersmith, my OG should have been 1.076. I’m thinking the partial mash I did may have upped the OG up to 1.08.
Since my estimated FG with an original OG of 1.076 was 1.021, I am assuming my target OG is somewhere around 1.025.
Going to leave it in the primary for a couple of more days and then take another reading and possibly transfer to secondary. I know all about the debate about secondaries but I going to use one, mainly because I bought a Big Mouth Bubbler and I can watch the beer as it conditions. Plan is to dry hop for seven days in secondary and then bottle.
