Request for advice from the experts

I brewed an IPA just over 3 weeks ago. I took a gravity reading at week one and week two and those readings were the same (1.024). I decided to stir up the trub to see if I can kick start the yeast and when I took a reading this past Sunday (week 3) it was just barely at 1.023.

Everything went well on brew day except the OG which I had at 1.060 when it should have been 1.050-1.052 but I assumed because this was an extract recipe with a small amount of steeping grains that I probably didn't mix well enough. Pitched yeast at around 68 degrees F and since this is my second brew I still didn't know much about a swamp cooler until I realized that our house temp of 75f was not helping my fermentation. Beer fermented like crazy for 24 hours then slowed. About day three I added a swamp cooler and maintained temps at about 66-68f from then one. Right now I am letting it warm up a bit but don't know if this will work.

So what should I do now? I am not planning on bottling it until this weekend but I don't think it is going to move much. Should I continue to bottle or can I get this yeast to wake up?

dkeller12 said:

I brewed an IPA just over 3 weeks ago. I took a gravity reading at week one and week two and those readings were the same (1.024). I decided to stir up the trub to see if I can kick start the yeast and when I took a reading this past Sunday (week 3) it was just barely at 1.023.

Everything went well on brew day except the OG which I had at 1.060 when it should have been 1.050-1.052 but I assumed because this was an extract recipe with a small amount of steeping grains that I probably didn't mix well enough. Pitched yeast at around 68 degrees F and since this is my second brew I still didn't know much about a swamp cooler until I realized that our house temp of 75f was not helping my fermentation. Beer fermented like crazy for 24 hours then slowed. About day three I added a swamp cooler and maintained temps at about 66-68f from then one. Right now I am letting it warm up a bit but don't know if this will work.

So what should I do now? I am not planning on bottling it until this weekend but I don't think it is going to move much. Should I continue to bottle or can I get this yeast to wake up?

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Title was supposed to be "Request for advice from the experts". Darn auto correct

The swamp cooler is a good idea, but after 3 days of strong fermentation the "damage" is already done and you might have some off-flavors from the warm fermentation.

I'd pull it back out of the swamp cooler and let it warm back up a bit to your house temp to see if it will kick off again at all, swirl it a little ( but don't splash!) to get yeast back into suspension, and forget about it for another week.

Pitching some more yeast couldn't hurt either, you could try to make a starter now to make sure you have a lot of health yeast cells, and pitch it in a couple days if fermentation is still stuck.

Ugh... I am all out of yeast until I can get to the HBS so I will attempt removing it from the swamp cooler and hope that works.

It's too bad because when it took my gravity readings I was surprised to find that it didn't have too many off flavors and was actually quite good. It is a very hoppy IPA so they could also be masked in the hops.

Thanks for the advice.

Was this a kit? What were the ingredients/quantities?

Recipe was from my LHBS, here it is

8 lbs pale malt extract
16 oz Vienna
8 oz Carapils
4 oz Biscuit
8 oz Munich
2 oz Northern brewer (bitter)
2 oz Columbus (flavor)
2 oz cascade (finish)
Windsor yeast

It is probably just done. Extract brews often finish at higher FG because the extract is frequently made to retain body.

A warmer fermentation might produce off flavors but will also produce a more vigorous fermentation.

dkeller12 said:

Recipe was from my LHBS, here it is

8 lbs pale malt extract
16 oz Vienna
8 oz Carapils
4 oz Biscuit
8 oz Munich
2 oz Northern brewer (bitter)
2 oz Columbus (flavor)
2 oz cascade (finish)
Windsor yeast

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Did you do a partial mash or were all of these steeping only? A lot of this grain bill isn't ideal for steeping (munich and vienna), you can get some flavor/color from them, but probably not much sugar.

The good news is, from my understanding, starches can increase your gravity, but they don't contribute to sweetness, but I don't know how much it can increase the gravity in these quantities.

1.023 is definitly high for an IPA, but from the looks of your hops there you've got quite a bit of bitterness to balance that out, so if you've tasted it and it doesn't taste overly sweet, you dont have much to worry about. It can't hurt to pitch more yeast, warm it up a little bit, and give it a little time though!

Windsor yeast is a pretty poor attenuating yeast. I am not surprised it finished that high, especially considering you were using extract.

bduane said:

Did you do a partial mash or were all of these steeping only? A lot of this grain bill isn't ideal for steeping (munich and vienna), you can get some flavor/color from them, but probably not much sugar.

The good news is, from my understanding, starches can increase your gravity, but they don't contribute to sweetness, but I don't know how much it can increase the gravity in these quantities.

1.023 is definitly high for an IPA, but from the looks of your hops there you've got quite a bit of bitterness to balance that out, so if you've tasted it and it doesn't taste overly sweet, you dont have much to worry about. It can't hurt to pitch more yeast, warm it up a little bit, and give it a little time though!

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They were steeping only. It definitely was not at all sweet. I have pulled it out of the swamp cooler gave it a swirl and the fermometer read 73f when I left it this morning. I will see if that gets the yeast going by taking another reading in a day or so and if not, pitch more yeast.

did someone ask for an expert? Never mind this thread is about brewing, not skiing.

Just wanted to follow up with the results of my IPA fermentation issue. So I pulled the fermenter out of the swamp cooler gave it a gentle swirl and let it sit at room temp for the last few days. Up until yesterday nothing was happening however I went in to look today and the airlock is bubbling away at the rate of one every 15 seconds...wow. Only issue now is the fermometer reads about 77f. Should I put it back into the cooler or let it go to get it to ferment the rest of the way? Thanks in advance for the help.

I would let it go for a day or two then check your gravity the activity may just be off gassing your hydrometer is going to be the true expert here

If you took 5gal of tap water from ~67 to ~77 degrees in a container with an airlock you'd get bubbles coming out of the airlock. FYI

I plugged this in quick and your OG should have been around 1.06 with those ingredients. I'm assuming you're using liquid malt extract. Your FG at 1.023 still seems a little high even with extract and even with really low conversion for your steeping grains. If it was my batch, I'd probably pitch some US-05 or Nottingham to try to drop the gravity a little more. After all it is an IPA, which usually benefits from being a little drier. Also, are you correcting for temp when you take you gravity readings?

JJL said:

I plugged this in quick and your OG should have been around 1.06 with those ingredients. I'm assuming you're using liquid malt extract. Your FG at 1.023 still seems a little high even with extract and even with really low conversion for your steeping grains. If it was my batch, I'd probably pitch some US-05 or Nottingham to try to drop the gravity a little more. After all it is an IPA, which usually benefits from being a little drier. Also, are you correcting for temp when you take you gravity readings?

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1.060 was my OG despite the recipe saying 1.050 - 1.052 so that is good news there. Yes this was all LME. I was going to pitch more yeast but once I saw the airlock bubbling away, I assumed it was from waking up the yeast and raising the temp by removing it from the cooler. I will take a gravity reading tonight to see if the bubbling is fermentation or just other gases due to temperature change. The gravity reading was adjusted for temp but that was a very small amount anyway as it was around 68f when I took it.

It's finished. You could pitch more yeast, but I don't see it changing much. If you're desperate to get a lower gravity, amylase is about the only thing left you can do. I'd add a teaspoon and wait a week if you go that route.

If it's bubbling I would NOT say it's finished! Yes, temperature increase can make it bubble, but if the temperature has stabilized (if the wort is 77F now), it should no longer be expanding and no longer making your airlock bubble.

I wouldn't put it back in the swamp cooler, i'd let it ferment the rest of the way at 77F, seeing that MOST of the fermentation is already done and was done at a cooler temperature, i don't think this little bit of fermentation to finish it will cause much off-flavors. Many people warm up their fermentation a little bit near the end to improve attenuation.

Check the gravity!

Well it certainly isn't finished based on the kraeusan I am seeing. I went to take a gravity reading and this is what I found. So it is not pressure from the temperature change and definitely not finished.

I am new to brewing but am I right when I assume that because it fermented at such a high temp in the beginning the the yeast fell out and after it rested it is trying to finish the job? Can that be the case? Also, it is still out of the cooler and I feel it should go back in, show I cool it down now?

dkeller12 said:

Well it certainly isn't finished based on the kraeusan I am seeing. I went to take a gravity reading and this is what I found. So it is not pressure from the temperature change and definitely not finished.

I am new to brewing but am I right when I assume that because it fermented at such a high temp in the beginning the the yeast fell out and after it rested it is trying to finish the job? Can that be the case? Also, it is still out of the cooler and I feel it should go back in, show I cool it down now?

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I would not put it back in the cooler, most of the fermentation is already done, meaning most of the yeast by-product flavors are already there, the little bit of fermentation you have left should not have a significant impact on flavor just for being on the warm side. Your initial warm fermentation might have created some off flavors, too late to worry about that though!

Yeah no sense in wildly fluctuating the temps at this point. That may have been what slowed the fermentation in the first place.

Ok. I will leave it out as you are probably right, the damage from the initial fermentation temps have already done the damage. I am glad that it has started again.

Wow, strange that it is going so slow but def. if you have krausen, it's still going. The airlock is inconsequential. Co2 comes out of solution slowly, so the airlock can bubble whether or not there's active fermentation.

Leave it where it is and then leave it a couple days after stable FG is reached to potentially clean up some of the off flavors you might have received during the warm fermentation.

From a few things I've read on this site when you cool yeast down they go dormant. That isn't to say that you have to cool them beyond their ideal temp range. Pretty much any drop in temp tells the yeast the jobs finished and they can go to sleep now. So when they were chugging along in the mid 70s, cooling the wort down to the mid 60s might have been enough to slow down their activity to a crawl. Now that they're warmed back up let them finish at the higher temp.

Hey everyone, just wanted to update all that helped me with my fermentation issue. I bottled the IPA about 10 days ago and decided to put one in the fridge Friday to sample it on Sunday. Let me tell you, it was excellent. I guess this is a perfect example of how patience really pays off. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice on what to do with this one. If I could send some to all of you I would, however it is all mine. 😜

Patience is important with this hobby. Just out of curiosity, what was your FG?

justhops said:

Patience is important with this hobby. Just out of curiosity, what was your FG?

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Got it down to 1.017.