"High" gravity fermentation steps, fast then slow?

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elwray

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Feb 11, 2009
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Location
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Hey everyone,

About a month ago, I successfully brewed my first beer with the info I found here, a very nice IPA. It was a recipe from the LHBS, and I followed it to the T.
It was a fairly low OG, at 1.045. I fermented in an opaque bucket with an airlock, so I couldn't see what was happening. Bubbling in the airlock started slowly about 24 hrs after, then slowly sped up before tapering off about 10 days in.

For my second beer, I picked an apricot ale recipe from the LHBS. The recipe was:

1lb Wheat
.33lb 40*L
(30 mins at 160)

2qt pale
.33qt adjunct
.66Fuggles
.5HBallertau

.25Cascade
1scoop Irish Moss

I then added a 49oz can of Apricot puree at 180*F to "pasteurize" the fruit, even though it should already be pasteurized the recipe said do it just in case. Fair enough.

Cooled to 75*F with an IC, then went into a better bottle (so I can see what's happening now! :D ) well aerated and pitched the White Labs East Coast yeast. OG was 1.060. I don't have a target gravity; they don't have them in their recipes for whatever reason..

about 8 hours later, I came to check on the beer and it was starting to foam and the airlock was going nuts! About 2 bubbles a second. Much faster than the airlock ever bubbled on the IPA in the entire two weeks it was in primary!
Now, about 36 hours into fermentation, the foam has died back a bit, but is still there. And the airlock is going much, much slower (about 1 bubble ever 30 seconds? but still going).

Now, I guess it's to early to be having stuck-fermentation nightmares, but I just wanted to check with you experts here if you think this is normal for this type of beer? My thought was that the yeast first went the easy route and starting eating up the fructoses from the apricot, and now they are going to have to work to break down the maltoses from the LME.

Does this make sense?? Thanks for any input! :)
 
Sounds like your second beer had a much healthier fermentation than the first beer. I usually get bubbling so rapid you can't count the number, and it's usually done in 3-4 days for most ales. Keep the temps stable and you will be just fine.
 
Oh good, thanks for the reassurance! I'm still new to this, but going to be sticking with it. Hopefully this batch is going to get kegged.
 
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