Mose

Recipes 

So my RIS started at 1.093ish and 8 days later it is at 1.031. Ambient air temp is running in the low 60's. (I don't have a ferm chamber but the controller is on the way.)

I was planning on tossing it into secondary with some oak chips and bourbon or scotch, I can't decide, and leave it for a few months and bottle sometime over middle to late summer.

I haven't seen activity and my readings say it should go a little further. I'm concerned I have a bit of a stuck fermentation, but haven't brewed this big of a beer before and understand it could take a while. I'm not really worried except that the temp is a little low and I was excited to wash some yeast.

Any Advice? Yes I already had a brew. And the sample tasted awesome. I can already tell it's going to be hard to let this age.

mightynintendo

Recipes 

You have about 65% apparent attenuation. As long as you didn't under-pitch your yeast, your yeast is relatively healthy, you didn't mash too high, and your fermentation didn't get too hot, I can say with confidence that it is not done fermenting yet. Check it again in a week. If nothing has changed then you may have a stuck fermentation. Big beers like this will slow down but continue to ferment for weeks. If you really must get your hands dirty you may consider swirling your carboy to re-suspend some of the yeast but then you will be mixing the bitter crap on the sides of the fermenter into your beer. I wouldn't recommend it. I think your slightly low temp will cause your fermentation to take a little longer but it will probably be beneficial in the end.

I advise that you don't rack until the fermentation is done (probably about 3 weeks).

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'Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.'

—Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Mose

Recipes 

I pitched 2 packs of S-04. It was an extract brew so no mash problems. I have a fermwrap and attempted to control temp the first night but the fermtemp was at nuclear level and reached 80* before I pulled the plug on the fermwrap.

After pulling the plug it kept kicking pretty well.

Thanks for the advice, it's the answer I thought I would get.

permo

Recipes 

I have found S-04 to very susseptable to droppin out of suspension early if it gets below about 62 degrees. Personally, i think you may have to wake the yeast up by rousing them and warming up the fermenter. You should take a peak, if they are still in suspension you are good to go. If the yeast have flocced already, they may have gotten too cold.

Mose

Recipes 

Just as an update,

I started to gently re-apply heat with the ferm wrap at night when the temps drop a bit. I remove the heat mid morning when the temps start to rise. I'm seeing some minor activity in the airlock, not bubbling but it's raising the internal piece. I'll check the gravity after the weekend and again a week later. I don't plan on popping the first bottle until November at the earliest so we have time to let her sit.

Thanks for the advice.

humann_brewing

Recipes 

don't rush this beer, 8 days is nothing for a RIS, just warm it back up to close to 70 and give it another month. Then give it another month and then bottle it or whatever your going to do. My RIS was in the primary for 2 months and then bottled. It is about 14 months old now and fantastic!

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On tap: Batch 1 Flanders Red, experimental sour 1.072 > 1.000, #70 Simple, gone complex pale 1.063 4/5/13, #71 French IPA, American IPA with spanish cedar and fermented with 3711 1.059>1.008
Fermenting: #72 Flower power saison 1.053>1.004 with lavender and jasmine
Aging: #67 Bareleywine 1.116 11/07/2012, Flanders 2 batches 1.056 and 1.060 12/12/11 and 3/26/12, Smoked Porter 1.063 10/11, pepper RIS 1.088 7/11, Kriek, 1.052 12/11, RYE IPA sour experiment 8/12, Berliner Weisse 1.030 9/20/12

TipsyDragon

Recipes 

ferm wraps need a temp controller to turn them on and off.

an airlock is not a fermentation indicator its a pressure release valve. wait the week like your thinking and take a hydrometer reading. the movement your seeing is probably just the gasses expanding due to the heat.