Sooo... I have put my first ever batch in the fermenter. I made a few mistakes along the way. The primary one being that I did not let the wort cool enough before adding yeast (guessing 85-90 degrees). Total brain fart at the time and immediately realized my folly, but what can ya do. Anyway, it did begin fermenting strongly by the next morning, but by that night it had fallen to maybe a bubble every 45sec to a minute, if that. I noticed even with AC blasting and frozen water bottles in with it, the temp may have still gotten as high as 76 degrees (LA south in summer and not much you can do about it). Now that I had the temp down I thought hey I'll just re-pitch, but I didn't want take down my rig so sanitized a funnel and bowl and re-hydrated, then added little corn sugar and let sit for 30 min and just added to my fermenter as is. The next morning still no action and the temp was down to 72 so I figure maybe my yeast isn't distributed enough. With the airlock and stopper firmly in place I just raised the carboy and swirled it around. A few minutes later there seemed to be little more action. So I was wondering if I'm doing the right things and with these temps am I going to have much success? Is my primary problem the original pitching temp or temp since? Is shaking (well swirling) a good thing? I know this is a lot to digest, but I'm trying to wrap my head around what I'm doing right/wrong and what I should try next.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. If you are interested in my process checkout my diary: My First Brew (aka Coopers Bl...
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. If you are interested in my process checkout my diary: My First Brew (aka Coopers Bl...