Fermentation Stuck??

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Kbone054

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Hey everybody,

I know there are a bunch of posts on stuck fermentation but I thought I would post my problem anyways to see what you guys think.

This is my first brew and the Kit I bought is a clone kit. The kit and ingredients can be found here: http://www.brew-winemaking.com/ProductPDF/3602.pdf.

It is a 5 gallon batch and I followed the instructions exactly. I made 3 gallons and added 2.5 gallons of bottled water. I made sure to sterilize everything. After my boil I cooled the wort down in about 30 mins and poured the 3 gallons aggressively into the primary. ( I made sure to aerate very well) I added the 2.5 gallons of bottled water to the wort and made sure to mix everything up and aerate well. This boil took place on 11-11-06 (morning)

I then put my dry yeast packet into warm water for 15 mins and then mixed up and threw into the wort.

I put the lid and airlock on and put it into a dark spot that stays at 70 Deg F constant. After 12 hours, fermentation started and was very aggressive. The airlock was bubbling at about 3bps. It did this for at least 24 hours. I then checked it this morning before I went to work (11-13-06) and the activity all but stopped. I had about 1 bubble every 30seconds. I didn't worry about it and went to work.

Tonight I got home and it was down to about 1 bubble per minute. I decided to open the lid. There was a ring of foam on the sides and the krausen was gone. I took a sample and my hydrometer reading was 1.017. It smelled actually like beer and it tasted somewhat like beer (just flat). I did not take an OG reading because I broke my original hydrometer the day of brewing. My recipe didn't have a target OG but according to similar recipes I think the OG should be around 1.045 to 1.050. My boil was flawless and everything went great.

If my math is right, my brew is only at about 60% attenuation and far too little ABV. ( Maybe my OG is off too???) Do you think the fermentation actually went that quick??

Any suggestions? Should I just wait a few more days and keep taking readings or should I try to reaggetate the yeast or repitch?

Maybe I am just too concerned and should wait it out but any comments or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Kbone054 said:
Hey everybody,

I know there are a bunch of posts on stuck fermentation but I thought I would post my problem anyways to see what you guys think.

This is my first brew and the Kit I bought is a clone kit. The kit and ingredients can be found here: http://www.brew-winemaking.com/ProductPDF/3602.pdf.

It is a 5 gallon batch and I followed the instructions exactly. I made 3 gallons and added 2.5 gallons of bottled water. I made sure to sterilize everything. After my boil I cooled the wort down in about 30 mins and poured the 3 gallons aggressively into the primary. ( I made sure to aerate very well) I added the 2.5 gallons of bottled water to the wort and made sure to mix everything up and aerate well. This boil took place on 11-11-06 (morning)

I then put my dry yeast packet into warm water for 15 mins and then mixed up and threw into the wort.

I put the lid and airlock on and put it into a dark spot that stays at 70 Deg F constant. After 12 hours, fermentation started and was very aggressive. The airlock was bubbling at about 3bps. It did this for at least 24 hours. I then checked it this morning before I went to work (11-13-06) and the activity all but stopped. I had about 1 bubble every 30seconds. I didn't worry about it and went to work.

Tonight I got home and it was down to about 1 bubble per minute. I decided to open the lid. There was a ring of foam on the sides and the krausen was gone. I took a sample and my hydrometer reading was 1.017. It smelled actually like beer and it tasted somewhat like beer (just flat). I did not take an OG reading because I broke my original hydrometer the day of brewing. My recipe didn't have a target OG but according to similar recipes I think the OG should be around 1.045 to 1.050. My boil was flawless and everything went great.

If my math is right, my brew is only at about 60% attenuation and far too little ABV. ( Maybe my OG is off too???) Do you think the fermentation actually went that quick??

Any suggestions? Should I just wait a few more days and keep taking readings or should I try to reaggetate the yeast or repitch?

Maybe I am just too concerned and should wait it out but any comments or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This is very common. Ales will sometimes fully ferment out in 24 hours. It sounds like your beer is good to go. 1.017 is a good FG. I'd leave it the full 7 days in primary and then go ahead and rack it to secondary.

No need to worry, your yeasties were a bit more efficient than usual!:mug:
 
Orpheus said:
This is very common. Ales will sometimes fully ferment out in 24 hours. It sounds like your beer is good to go. 1.017 is a good FG. I'd leave it the full 7 days in primary and then go ahead and rack it to secondary.

No need to worry, your yeasties were a bit more efficient than usual!:mug:

Yeah, I would say to leave it a couple of more days to see if you can squeeze out a little more from the yeast, and after about a week, continue from there .

Good luck! :mug:
 
I'd leave it, it sounds like most of the fermentation is done, but there are still live yeast in there and they may have a bit more work to do.

Personally, I never even check my SG until it's been sitting in the primary for a week regardless of airlock activity.
 
Hey guys. Thanks for the quick responses. I checked it this morning and there was no activity at all. I watched it for about 10 minutes and nothing. I think I will leave it a few more days, then transfer to secondary.

Do you think it is actually done fermenting and if so, do you think my ABV content will be very low?

I will take another couple readings too over the next couple days to see if anything is going on that I visibly cannot see.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
If this is in a bucket, you can rouse the yeast by swirling it. Since the bucket head space is full of CO2, you don't have to worry about getting oxygen in the beer.

What yeast was it? Some of the dry yeasts don't attenuate all that well. Looking at the kit numbers, you're around 65%, but you should hit 1.012. I'd rouse it and give it a few more days.
 
The exact same thing happened to me, brewing the Brewer's Best Red Ale kit. My roommate repitched yeast, and I only dropped 1 (from 1.019 to 1.018) after sitting a week with repitched yeast.

It's probably just done, and that's about it. It may be sweet and low alcohol, but then again, most of the Brown ales I've had are pretty sweet and in the 4-5% ABV range.

Don't sweat it. Have a homebrew and continue on as if it was any other beer. Worry about it after 3 weeks in the bottle. A lot of these things start out pretty bad, but end up pretty good.

We'll see in a week or two to see how mine turns out.
 
Orpheus said:
This is very common. Ales will sometimes fully ferment out in 24 hours. It sounds like your beer is good to go. 1.017 is a good FG. I'd leave it the full 7 days in primary and then go ahead and rack it to secondary.

No need to worry, your yeasties were a bit more efficient than usual!:mug:

Would you even bother with a secondary for an ale like this? I'm a little confused on the whole secondary thing.
 
Secondary is primarily for clearing only.

You may drop a few gravity points based on the slight reactivation of yeast after swirling as it goes into secondary, but the secondary is mainly there for more yeasties and suspended particles to settle out of the brew.

You could bottle after a primary and the beer would be drinkable after carbed, however it will more than likely be cloudier than you (and your friends especially) want to drink. Also, too much suspended particulate may cause some off-flavor although many would argue not.

I think most go with a secondary for good reason. Rack it and be patient.
 
SilkkyBrew said:
Secondary is primarily for clearing only.

You may drop a few gravity points based on the slight reactivation of yeast after swirling as it goes into secondary, but the secondary is mainly there for more yeasties and suspended particles to settle out of the brew.

You could bottle after a primary and the beer would be drinkable after carbed, however it will more than likely be cloudier than you (and your friends especially) want to drink. Also, too much suspended particulate may cause some off-flavor although many would argue not.

I think most go with a secondary for good reason. Rack it and be patient.

Yeah, that makes sense. I was told it should be done for higher gravity beers as well.
 
Yeah, it should definitely be done for higher gravity beers to ensure fermentation is totally complete prior to bottling, let a lot of suspended particles settle out, and let the (usually) more complex flavors mature, etc.

However, I think most people here rack to secondary whether its a high-gravity ale or something lighter... The one exception I've seen is Wit's since they are served cloudy anyway, but even then most here rack those to secondary (including myself).
 
ah, i feel so lazy. i haven't encountered off flavors, or too much cloudiness, but if i can improve on my beer then i'm going to go for it. next batch i'm definitely trying the secondary method.
 
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