Brewed a DFH India Brown Ale Clone…ish yesterday. First time using the Wyeast Ringwood Ale Yeast strain. Briefly perusing the boards and noticed this yeast may be a bit finicky. It’s been in the fermentor 24 hrs now and there’s NO action. Not what I’m used to obviously as most of my beers I’ve been using US-05 (or Wyeast equivalent). Temp in the fermenting chamber was about 66F last night (it got down to about 46F outside). I figured it would be a few degrees warmer in the carboy, so that should be fine, right? Do I have a stalled ferment, should I warm it up, rouse the yeast, or just be patient? BTW,this is about my 7th batch of homebrew, so I’m not a master, nor have I experienced very many issues yet ;D
It’ll never hurts to rouse it (I give my fermentor carboys a good swirling ‘zetz’ daily, no matter what strain I’m using).
But in any case my guess is that if the yeast was healthy and fresh you’ll probably start to see some activity tomorrow even if you didn’t make starter.
Well I suppose I was just paranoid. Nice kraeusen this morning. Didn’t make a starter, maybe next time. Thanks.
I find Ringwood needs almost a lager sized pitch w/lots of aeration (I use O2) to finish properly. When the kraeusen starts to fall, rouse the yeast daily and let it warm up 4-5 degrees.
Dave
How do you rouse the yeast? Just shake up the fermenter?
Swirl it gently.
Last night it got cold out. Dropped to 35F and the fermenting chamber dropped to 62. This beer has been fermenting for about 6 days at about 66-68F. The kaeusen has started to drop and I was considering following some of your advise. I was going to move it inside where it’s about 70F and rouse the yeast for the next 3 or 4 days. Would this be wise at this point, and would this reduce the diacetyl? I haven’t checked the gravity because it appears to still be fermenting and I usual don’t until I rack to keg.
Yes, it is time. Just check the gravity in another week.