Hi Brew Gurus, I need your help!
Heres my situation, I started my first batch of home brew, a Midwest kit for Irish Red Ale, on Saturday. I got everything in the fermentation bucket and pitched the yeast at about 5:30 that afternoon. The kit came with dry yeast, so I re-hydrated it before I added it to the wort. Heres whats happened since:
Sunday morning I checked on it. The thermometer on the bucket read 81 degrees and bubbles were coming out of the airlock like crazy. I put the fermentation bucket in a cooler with some ice water, wrapped a wet towel around it and put a fan on it. As the temperature dropped, the airlock activity slowed down. By Sunday night, the bucket thermometer read 68 degrees and the airlock activity had stopped.
Monday the bucket read a consistent 68 degrees and there was no activity on the airlock.
Tuesday the bucket read a consistent 68 degrees and there was no activity on the airlock.
Wednesday morning it was the same thing, so I removed the wet towel. 12 hours later, the bucket thermometer reads 74 degrees, which is the ambient room temperature. There is still no activity on the airlock.
Its been four complete days now, with visible fermentation on day one and nothing on days two, three and four. So, what is your advice? Give it some more time? Open the bucket and take a look (and a hydrometer reading)? Should I get the wet towel back on and take the temperature back down? I was planning to transfer it to a 5-gallon carboy in a couple of days should I proceed with that or wait? Thanks for your help!
Heres my situation, I started my first batch of home brew, a Midwest kit for Irish Red Ale, on Saturday. I got everything in the fermentation bucket and pitched the yeast at about 5:30 that afternoon. The kit came with dry yeast, so I re-hydrated it before I added it to the wort. Heres whats happened since:
Sunday morning I checked on it. The thermometer on the bucket read 81 degrees and bubbles were coming out of the airlock like crazy. I put the fermentation bucket in a cooler with some ice water, wrapped a wet towel around it and put a fan on it. As the temperature dropped, the airlock activity slowed down. By Sunday night, the bucket thermometer read 68 degrees and the airlock activity had stopped.
Monday the bucket read a consistent 68 degrees and there was no activity on the airlock.
Tuesday the bucket read a consistent 68 degrees and there was no activity on the airlock.
Wednesday morning it was the same thing, so I removed the wet towel. 12 hours later, the bucket thermometer reads 74 degrees, which is the ambient room temperature. There is still no activity on the airlock.
Its been four complete days now, with visible fermentation on day one and nothing on days two, three and four. So, what is your advice? Give it some more time? Open the bucket and take a look (and a hydrometer reading)? Should I get the wet towel back on and take the temperature back down? I was planning to transfer it to a 5-gallon carboy in a couple of days should I proceed with that or wait? Thanks for your help!