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stephelton · 03-24-2009, 05:00 AM

I made a heavy starter around Friday in the 1.07 range. I've always seen starters ferment in an hour or less, and was surprised when this one went on for a day plus. In retrospect, it was more wort than usual, and heavier wort, so I should have known better.

So I went on to brew my wheat beer and hit around 1.071 OG (finally getting my efficiency up there

) When I pitched the yeast, the starter was still quite active. This was around 6:00 PM Sunday. After returning from dinner not 2 hours later, the bubbling from the carboy was already substantial. By now, almost 30 hours after pitching, the krausen is falling and the bubbling is slowing significantly.

This seems awfully suspect to me, as the gravity is fairly high. Have you seen fermentations occur this quickly ever before? Should I be worried?

Vic_Sinclair · 03-24-2009, 07:43 AM

You don't sound relaxed, you seem to be worrying, and you do not seem to be enjoying a homebrew. That's your first problem. Your second is using bubbles and krausen as a measure of what the yeast are doing. I would wait two weeks and then take a hydrometer reading. I would forget I even HAD this fermenter until then.

stephelton · 03-24-2009, 03:27 PM

I'm not so much worried as I am trying to understand what's happening. If there's no CO2 produced, there's no alcohol being produced, which either means fermentation happened very quickly or it has stopped prematurely.

Am I missing something?

I'm convinced at this point that I'd have to *really* screw something up to not end up with beer. But that doesn't prevent me from trying to be objective about things.

That phrase that Papazian coined drives me nuts...!

McKBrew · 03-24-2009, 03:33 PM

Nothing wrong with fermentation subsiding/slowing after almost three days. Not sure why it is bothering you. I won't use the Charlie P quote on you.

Sigafoos · 03-24-2009, 03:37 PM

Many of my beers only bubble for a day or two, and they come out fine. I actually never saw my red bubble at all, but then there it was at the end, nice and tasty.

bdnoona · 03-24-2009, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vic_Sinclair

You don't sound relaxed, you seem to be worrying, and you do not seem to be enjoying a homebrew. That's your first problem. Your second is using bubbles and krausen as a measure of what the yeast are doing. I would wait two weeks and then take a hydrometer reading. I would forget I even HAD this fermenter until then.

Very funny. And I agree. Wait a little while (probably a week) and take a hydrometer reading.

stephelton · 03-24-2009, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McKBrew

Nothing wrong with fermentation subsiding/slowing after almost three days. Not sure why it is bothering you. I won't use the Charlie P quote on you.

This was 30 hours -- barely more than a day.

Thanks for the input. I suppose I'll take a refractometer reading and see where it's at.

bdnoona · 03-24-2009, 03:44 PM

It could've just fermented out really fast since you made a big starter. I recently made a stout that finished bubbling in a day or so because of the big starter.

stephelton · 03-24-2009, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdnoona

It could've just fermented out really fast since you made a big starter.

Hopefully so. I also didn't see much krauesen though.

sahuaro · 03-24-2009, 04:24 PM

Off subject, but curious. What type of wheat was this? OG of 1.07 seems really high for a wheat.