Is our batch ruined?

We brewed a chocolate stout on 10/12, and prepared a wyeast london ale III 1L starter. We used cocoa powder 1min left in boil, if this makes a difference when you read the following. Pitched yeast a couple days later on 10/16. Our carboy was sitting at 68° when the yeast was pitched. Here is a sweet time lapse I took of the primary after pitching and aerating (aerating done with opposite end of all grain plastic spatula stirrer).

http://youtu.be/khAt-1dIHuQ

As for the fermentation, I was getting up near 77° (27 hrs after pitching) and after ruining our pumpkin with banana/bubble gum flavor when it reached that high... I decided to cool down the carboy and put water in the cooler that the glass carboy was sitting in (pic attached of setup). This brought it down to about 68° or so within the day, and fermentation slowed immensely at that point. I took out most of the water a few days later hoping it would get active again, but it's been sitting at 67-68° and for about a week letting off a bubble every now and then or so it seemed, if I tap the blow off tube.

We're now at 17 days in the primary and I have considerably more trub at the bottom(pic attached) than other brews, including the pumpkin we did. Also have a subtle cakey layer on top. Still sitting around 67°.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

It probably is coincidental that the fermentation was winding down when you put it in the water bath. It was pretty warm so it blew through it in a couple days. Go search for Revvy's 'is my beer ruined' thread. It should put you at ease.

Take a gravity reading. It's probably done fermenting

EDIT:

Here's the thread I was thinking about when I read about your bubble gum flavor:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/never-dump-your-beer-patience-virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

Try it and see how it tastes. I would guess that you would have gotten some off flavors from fermenting that high but you mitigated the issue once you recognized it so it may not be that bad.

Oh and the vigorous fermentation was due to the higher temps. That's why it slowed down once you dropped the temp.

probably gonna have some esters from the high temps but im sure it will be alright.

Thanks everyone!

I've actually read Revvy's account of his bubblegum beer before, and it does indeed calm me down about the pumpkin. Although i didn't mention that the pumpkin actually never carbonated...so if the bubblegum/banana goes away eventually, it will still be flat...but drinkable i guess either way.

I'm going to take a gravity reading tonight and if its where it should be, i'll rack to secondary on Thursday (3 weeks). Even if there are some banana esters in there, it is a chocolate stout...a little banana wouldnt hurt.

Fingers crossed!

professorxxl said:

Thanks everyone!

I've actually read Revvy's account of his bubblegum beer before, and it does indeed calm me down about the pumpkin. Although i didn't mention that the pumpkin actually never carbonated...so if the bubblegum/banana goes away eventually, it will still be flat...but drinkable i guess either way.

I'm going to take a gravity reading tonight and if its where it should be, i'll rack to secondary on Thursday (3 weeks). Even if there are some banana esters in there, it is a chocolate stout...a little banana wouldnt hurt.

Fingers crossed!

Click to expand...

call me crazy..i love bubble gum esters in some brews

Here is an additional question, so we don't mess up the carbonation of this batch. Our IPA and pumpkin were both under carbonated, pumpkin is just flat.

The pumpkin was 1.095 og and 1.022 fg. We bottled 4.7 gallons and used 2cups of water with .53 cups of dark brown sugar for priming. Is the high abv the reason it's not carbonated after 3 weeks?

Our IPA was also under carbonated. So we want to hit the stout right.

Thanks!

Why would you wait 4 days to pitch yeast? That's asking for trouble.

If you have the means to cool fermentation, why wait until it is so hot to do so? That's asking for trouble.

Carbonation takes time - and a big thick high alcohol beer is going to take more time. Brown sugar may be slower than dextrose also.

Honestly, with a beer that went 1095 to 1022, I wouldn't plan on drinking it for probably 6 months anyway.

End of the day, you're making beer - I'd take a swing at a little lower gravity beer and focus on having a nice cool fermentation and see how that goes.

Yeah. I'm surprised it took eight posts to get to that question. Why on earth would you wait so long?

tagz said:

Yeah. I'm surprised it took eight posts to get to that question. Why on earth would you wait so long?

Click to expand...

Yeah, we definitely won't be the next time. The started was started too late and I did a full fermentation of the starter, then cooled it down to separate the yeast cake to pitch. Dont have a stir plate yet.

Depending on the size of the stater you have the option of pitching the whole volume with minimal impact. I tend to pitch the whole thing unless I'm going larger that 1L. A stir plate should definitely be your next purchase. You can make one yourself for minimal cost.

professorxxl said:

Here is an additional question, so we don't mess up the carbonation of this batch. Our IPA and pumpkin were both under carbonated, pumpkin is just flat.

The pumpkin was 1.095 og and 1.022 fg. We bottled 4.7 gallons and used 2cups of water with .53 cups of dark brown sugar for priming. Is the high abv the reason it's not carbonated after 3 weeks?

Our IPA was also under carbonated. So we want to hit the stout right.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'm not good with "cups" with brewing things, as it's far more accurate to go by weight for all priming sugars. However, that seems about right for your batch size. The issue is probably more that your beer was nearly 10% ABV, and most ale yeast strains will poop out about there. The yeast may be done, but given more time it may carb up eventually if the yeast can handle it.

Yeah, you definitely want to get a scale and go by weight. Especially if you're using brown sugar. Packed vs. unpacked brown sugar could probably be a 2 fold difference in the amount of actual sugar. Then you should use an online priming calculator or just go by a ratio of ounces of priming sugar per gallon of beer. I think it's something like 0.75-1 oz/gallon depending on the carbonation level you want. Yooper could tell you what works, she uses the ratio method (and despises the online calculators from what I've gathered ).

As others have said, I wouldn't wait that long to pitch yeast. And since it was just a 1L starter you could definitely just pitch the whole thing without decanting. That is probably a better route because you'll end up with more yeast and more active yeast.

Another thing that someone mentioned is that you shouldn't wait for it to get up to 77F before doing anything about temp control. If you have it in a cooler to begin with, you should just go ahead and fill the cooler with water and keep it full throughout the fermentation. No need to add water, then drain it. The water will add more thermal mass and will help keep the temps consistent and make it harder for the yeast to raise the temperature of the whole system. Plus you can add frozen water bottles to the water if the temp starts creeping up.

A quick update...

Checked gravity, 1.022, so it did something right! The taste was very good as well. So far, so good.

We will be racking the secondary tonight. I have prepared cocoa nibs in vodka to rack over. Would anyone like to share the best way to add them: All together or vodka only.

Thanks!