Runaway fermentation?

I brewed up a fairly big beer on 7/29. I used Pacman, which is my normal yeast of choice.. Fermented at 62F. The first 3 days were very active. I had a blowoff and had to replace the airlock.

The beer is still fermenting in primary after 10 days. Its not vigorous, but it is pretty steady. Last time this happened in secondary I had to pitch an infected batch. I'm hoping that is not what I'm seeing.

I'm going to open up the carboy on Friday, so I'll get a taste and a gravity reading then.

Has anyone else seen an active fermentation go this long and still ended up with good beer? Mine usually stop by the 4th day so this is new to me. I'm getting a little concerned since I've got about $30 worth of Citra hops in there with the beer. If it was my blonde ale I'd be less frantic.

Weird. The only time I've used pacman there was 0 krausen and 0 churning. After 5 days I decided to check the gravity and prepare to dump, and it was at my anticipated FG.

Was an imperial stout to boot!

b-boy said:

I brewed up a fairly big beer on 7/29. I used Pacman, which is my normal yeast of choice.. Fermented at 62F. The first 3 days were very active. I had a blowoff and had to replace the airlock.

The beer is still fermenting in primary after 10 days. Its not vigorous, but it is pretty steady. Last time this happened in secondary I had to pitch an infected batch. I'm hoping that is not what I'm seeing.

I'm going to open up the carboy on Friday, so I'll get a taste and a gravity reading then.

Has anyone else seen an active fermentation go this long and still ended up with good beer? Mine usually stop by the 4th day so this is new to me. I'm getting a little concerned since I've got about $30 worth of Citra hops in there with the beer. If it was my blonde ale I'd be less frantic.

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Did you verify FG before adding the hops for dry hopping? If not that may have slowed things and you may also just be getting a it of off gassing due to all the hops in there now.

IMO you need a gravity reading to verify its progresses, I'm going to assume its either done or really close and it's just gassing off

Actually I'm waiting to dry hop. My plan is Friday. I'll take readings then. The current fermentation is still going on in primary.

My personal opinion is to let it sit, keep a constant temp and wait for it to clear. every gravity check is a potential infection, so why? when it clears it's done and checking the gravity will not make it happen sooner.

I have had several that were still off gassing around ten days. I don't know if there was still fermentation, an air pressure change or temperature change. The temperature was a little variable because I am still using a swamp cooler.

I don't get too worried because I ferment for about 3 weeks and by then all activity has finished.

I did have a couple that were burping the caps on the bottles already filled but not crimped. That is really strange.

The beers did turn out fine.

Good to hear. Thanks. I'm crossing my fingers.

Yea, those suckers take over FAST. I had a bit of a mild infection in a tasty pale ale once, and hesitated to keg it in my brand new keg. It tasted fine the first time I saw it, but by the next day it was sour and undrinkable. Such a bummer.

well it seems to be slowing, but its still plugging away. I'll find out tomorrow when I take a reading.

Had a quick taste of the future beer. I didn't get a distinct infection flavor, but I thought there was a slight trace of band-aid. Not enough to convince me that I wasn't just getting a green beer flavor. I dry hopped it anyway with ~$12 worth of Citra (ouch). I'm going to keg it in 2 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.