I started an Oktoberfest style ale, og 1.078, higher than I expected, and used an English ale yeast, which had higher temp tolerance. I brewed on Saturday night pitched yeast at 70°-75°. Sunday had an incredibly vigorous fermentation, and Monday morning has already slowed and the foam head was all but gone. there was more than enough sugars and proteins, there was 2 layers of floatys. Is something wrong? ( pout it in water and covered with a shirt Monday morning)
Never had anything subside that quickly. Of course I usually try to pitch at much lower temps. What was the age of the yeast and how many packets of what strain did you use? You may have under pitched. 1.078 is pretty high for one pack.
- It’s probably still fermenting. What’s the gravity?
- 70-75f is a little high, even for the more temperature tolerant English yeasts. A higher temperature would encourage a faster fermentation.
- Given the high o.g. you may have underpitched.
- It’s OK to dilute your wort if you overshoot your o.g.
- Chilling an active fermentation too fast can crash the yeast.
the strain was us-04 European ale 11.5 oz package, not sure on age and when I put the carboy in water the temp only want down a couple degrees. it is still bubbling though just astronomically slower,. can I still dilute and repitch when I rack to secondary?
a little under pitched but not much. DON’T MOVE IT TO SECONDARY. if you have under pitched and stressed out the yeast you don’t want to them remove most of them from the beer. Let them stay to clean up after themselves as much as possible.
Take a gravity reading. it’s the only way to know what is going on in there.
I would not try to dilute anything at this point. Let it work. you’ve just got a somewhat stronger beer than you intended. Blend at serving time with a smaller beer or sparkly water if you must.
I don’t know what you mean by two layers of floatys. but I don’t think anything is wrong.
+1 and diluting at this point would just oxidize the beer.
by floatys I mean a layer of cloudy material from the grains, clean then a layer in middle then clean and another at the bottom before I even pitched. my original plan was primary 1 wk, secondary 3 wk, bottle conditioning 2-3 wk. should I pitch more yeast, then after another week or two secondary?
hopdaddy
Congratulations on jumping into the game with all fours. I agree with pretty much what everyone has said. I think the most important things to do and consider now are 1) plan a new beer right away and get your mind of of this one. Let is sit in primary until it is done. Take gravity readings. 2) read everything you can about making beer. 3) Be prepared to control your fermentation temps. If you were at 75 degrees when you pitched, your fermentation temp would be in the 80’s. Way to hot. Lower temps, cleaner beer. 4) pitch proper amount of yeast. Let this one work out on its own. The next will be magnifico.
just don’t secondary. let this one ride until two gravity readings taken 3 or so days apart agree and then bottle. Might take two weeks, might take four. Might be done already.
If it has only been a week and it is really done wait another three - five days, then bottle condition for 2-3 weeks.
I can’t say if you should pitch more yeast because I don’t know what the gravity is right now. I would guess the answer is no but you will have to measure the beer and see.
While you are at it taste it.
Don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t taste amazing warm and flat.
ok I’ll check it when I get home just needed to be sure that it’d be ok sitting in primary for a month or so, I have heard that it’s not great to leave it in primary for more than a week or so. my next one is a pumpkin ale
Old wives tale. Leave it in primary. There is weight to the statement about leaving it with yeast if you’re dry hopping it. Vinnie with Russian River said he tries to remove it from as much yeast as possible before dry hopping IIRC. But at a homebrew scale YMMV.
[quote=“morticaixavier, post:9, topic:14374, username:morticaixavier”]
gravity right now from 1.078 on 8/3, is 1.020 today 8/5
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Should still be going.
Thanks all I’ll see how it turns out
Cheers
get in the habbit of not pitching your yeast until it is in the low 60’s and keep the fermenting beer temp, which will be 4-6+ degrees warmer than ambient, in the mid 60’s. You don’t really want the temp to go much higher than 70-72 during the first couple days save for a few strains.
I can get the wort cooler, but 75° is actually as low as I can get the ambient temp. With the water bucket and t- shirt, and no fan, the thermostat on the carboy gets to about 70-72°. Aside from rotating ice every hour or so, which I work from 8:30-5, is there anything else I can do?
- Evaporative cooling (wet t-shirt and fan)
- Ice bath
- Fridge with temperature control
- Glycol-jacketed fermenter
- Dig a cave
- Wait until cooler weather
- Brew saison
Did I miss anything?
I think you can rotate ice every 12 hours, but if you can keep it below 72 you are probably alright, especially if you pitch cooler. Just buy a couple bags of ice and cool down several hours/over night. As long as you are sanitary you can wait 12-14 hours to pitch no problem. Much better than jumping the gun and pitching warm.
next batch for sure I will give this all a try
Thanks
Move to Canada?