My stout fermentation

I laid down my stout less than 24 hours ago and it's been bubbling away ever since at a rapid pace! I had a very quick start to my fermentation but I'm not sure what factors I can attribute to this quick start as I made a few adjustments since my last brew... I didn't do a starter for this one like I said I would, but I did switch from White Labs to Wyeast for this one, I also added about 3.5 tsp. of yeast nutrient towards the end of the boil and another .5 tsp at flameout and I pitched yeast maybe a little warmer than I should have, about 80 degress or so... This is a far cry from my IPA which had a lag time of about 36 hours, but turned out OK...

While observing the fermentation, I haven't seen much of a krausen on this one and there isn't a lot of trub yet, but like I said, it's bubbling steadily. I'm not worried, but rather just curous because even my slow IPA developed about a 1/2 inch, thick layer of krausen while this quick starter just has some tan foam. And while I don't really have a question, I'm kinda wondering why my fermentations aren't as vigorous as others on the board

I ferment 3 gallons in a 6.5 carboy to avoid any potential blow off and my typical basement temp is 66-68 degress year round... I guess no blow off isn't a bad thing as it makes cleaning the carboy alot easier, but a vigourous fermentation does look pretty cool!



Sorry for the poor quality... That was taken about 20 hours after pitching the yeast, or 5 minutes ago. :cross:Bubbles starting coming out of the airlock about 2 hours after pitching

I just wanted to follow up on this and maybe get a thought or two.

The layer of krausen has all but dropped and the airlock activity has slowed down significantly, this all happened just about 24 hours after yeast was pitched. I haven't taken a gravity reading yet, I'll probably wait until 5 days or so has passed, but what is the chance that this thing is done?

I aerated the you know what out of it, incubated my Wyeast Activator pack at 75 degress for about 4 hours before pitching and of course used about 4 tsp of yeast nutrient (not sure what kind, the LHBS had their label and instructions in a small zip lock style bag) for 3 gallons of wort, OG was 1.052.

I've never experienced a fermentation like this... Thoughts, anyone?

what was your starting gravity? what were your mash temps? at what temp was the wort when you pitched? 24 hours for a start-up is not unusual... cheers,-p

perry said:

what was your starting gravity? what were your mash temps? at what temp was the wort when you pitched? 24 hours for a start-up is not unusual... cheers,-p

Click to expand...

OG was 1.052, mashed @ 154 degrees and I pitched at 80 degrees, which I guess isn't too unusual for me to do.

My concern isnt that it started so quickly, but rather it seems to have ended very fast. I know some fermentations can go quickly, but 24 hours seems to be too quick.

I think Palmer said something about Homebrewing fermentations taking about a day to complete sometimes...anyone got the exact quote?

Things sound right... I know right now I'm having a weird thing happen with an oatmeal stout... Ferm went big for a couple of days, then subsided, now it's going big again... yeasts are fickle little buggers. I'd just keep the temps right and wait awhile, not that that is tremendously helpful.

-p

Little wierd you never got much of a krausen, won't really know anything until you take another gravity reading, though.

I just got in from work and pulled a small sample to take a gravity reading and it's down to 1.021 from 1.052, which gives me 59% attenuation and Wyeast says apparent attenuation is 71%-75%, so I'll just let 'er sit and allow the little yeasty devils to continue working.

The only krausen I saw wasn't really a krausen, it was the oxygen coming out of solution when I was aerating the wort, I thought that was a bit strange too... I guess I'll credit the yeast nutrient for such a quick start and finish of atleast the attenuative phase of fermentation. I'm sure it'll drop a but more as it conditions and I'm not sure if I'll do a secondary on it or not, I'm tempted to experiment and just let it sit in primary for 2 weeks and bottle it.

It tastes great though and I hope it drops down to about 1.014 to give it a dryer character.

Once again, thanks for all the input!