If I can just bring us back to the OP for a second, the beer is now 60 hours old and still no activity in the fermentation lock. I opened the pail last night and there was a layer of foam on top with a very dark scum on top but that is probably hops residue since my hops screening isn’t perfect.
This morning, some of the foam has subsided and there are still bubbles on the top but it’s not very thick.
I guess something is happening in there so I’ll leave it alone but I have yet to see any activity in the airlock which would make me think that this is an incredibly slow fermentation. Even my lager is bubbling about twice an hour at 40 degrees.
The OG was 1.044, the fermentation temp is roughly 62 degrees.
Is this slow fermentation normal when underpitching? Like I said, I thought visually I had lots of yeast sediment in the starter but maybe it wasn’t viable.
The foaming you describe sounds like fermentation. Some plastic buckets have lids that do not seal completely. Perhaps yours does not seal tight enough to allow pressure to build up and force CO2 out through the airlock.
Actually, it does sort of sound like a lame seal on your bucket because it sounds like you have visual confirmation of fermentation. What you described is what it looks like. Stretch some saran wrap across the top and see if it starts bulging upward after a little bit. Or just take a gravity reading and see if it’s changed. But part of this is troubleshooting your seals, I think.
I’m thinking maybe you are right on the seal. There isn’t even a rubber ring or anything on these lids. They just snap on. I wasn’t thrilled when I bought them but they were all I could find without an investment in glass. I know that the gas will take the path of least resistance.
I’ll try the saran wrap thing and see what happens. Or, maybe I’ll run a wrap of duct tape around the lid, see if that pushed gas out the airlock.
Mine sat in the garage at ~55oF overnight, then (after ~17 hours) I moved it to an area that is ~60-62oF. I got visual confirmation of fermentation ~3 hours after that. So, ~20 hours for me.
How did this thread go off the rails so quickly? Oh well, I work in the US so I learned a long time ago how to deal with Americans…
As for the yeast, it still seems very slow and sluggish. Yesterday the krausen was gone and there were just a few bubbles on top, I’ll probably take a gravity later today to see how much it has changed.
So I took a bunch of gravities this afternoon. This all seems so weird.
ESB - brewed March 30, OG 1.054 - Today 1.022 - fermenting at cellar temp - 65 degrees
Cali Common - Brewed April 7 OG 1.060 - Today 1.026 - in water bath in cellar - 60 degree water bath
Cali Common - Brewed April 14 OG 1.044 - Today 1.014 - fermenting at cellar temp - 65 degrees
So, this one that I’m not seeing any activity on has dropped by 40 points in 4 days while the one that is 2 weeks old (and admittedly a bit colder) hasn’t dropped 40 points in 2 weeks. And the ESB that I’d really like to be drinking right now is going even slower.
I tasted them all and they all taste fantastic so someday I hope to be enjoying them but right now I’m growing impatient. I can’t even brew again because I was planning on harvesting the ESB yeast for the next batch.
I am going to have to break down and buy beer…
Checked my other brew, a maibock done on March 22. OG 1.062, Today 1.022 but this spent a lot of time at about 34 degrees in the cold room so I expect it to be going slow.
I like beer better, so that’s how I name mine (though their names are secretly variants of %&#&*%^$# ). I was on a low budget project and needed to steal servers (I didn’t have my own hardware money) and I found a full but disused half-rack in the server room. They had names like Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, etc. I stole them and renamed them with a nod to the real MJ. They became Left Hand, Wynkoop, Avery, Odell, and … Coors. That last one was our old slow beast that everyone hated but was cheap and had huge storage capacity built in.
Back to the topic, the exact same thing happened to me a little over a year ago. Turned out there was a small crack on the edge of the lid that had gone unnoticed. That’s when I fully switched from buckets to carboys for primary.
Some people find they need to rouse the yeast every day with this strain and some of the other highly floculant english strains. You might give that a shot.
For the batches ranging in the 1.020’s try warming them up a bit to around 70 degrees and then gently rouse the yeast. Check the gravity after a couple days and let us know the results. Sometimes yeast will flocculate too soon if the temps get too low for them depending on yeast stain and other variables.
I use to play in a RUSH tribute band many moons ago and my favorite song to play was YYZ. Although we never performed it live because it was too difficult for the drummer to lay down all the timing and groove changes as Neal is “the man”. 8)
I gave the carboy a good swirling, hopefully that will wake the yeast up a bit. I’ll try to raise the temp a bit too. I’ll maybe give them a swirl again tomorrow and see what’s going on.
Rush is one of my bucket list bands. Never seen them but probably should before they kick the bucket. Personally La Villa Strangiato (spelling?) is higher on my list than YYZ. If anyone is ever flying to Canada, it’s easy to remember because YYZ is the airport code for Toronto.
