Incomplete Fermentation??

Brewed Sat. a.m. (3.75 lbs Coopers Mexican Cervesa/7.50 lbs LWME, OG .088)
cooled to 65 dg., pitched yeast (10g Safbrew T58, 14g Coopers Ale Yeast). Okay, airlock action in about 4 hr., super bubbly through monday, began slowing, now a bubble every 15 seconds. Gravity currently at .040. Maybe (definitely) I'm just impatient, but I'm also a little concerned that at the current snails pace, she won't actually get down to...whaddya think it should get down to?? Thoughts??

Thank you for the sound advice, i'm just gonna lose sleep worrying that I'll check in two weeks and still be on the high side. Should I aerate? Rouse yeast? Or would any of that be premature at this point? Also, if anybody wants to give me a ballpark figure on how low I should expect this one to go, feel free. Peace.

Teddi Brewski said:

Thank you for the sound advice, i'm just gonna lose sleep worrying that I'll check in two weeks and still be on the high side. Should I aerate? Rouse yeast? Or would any of that be premature at this point? Also, if anybody wants to give me a ballpark figure on how low I should expect this one to go, feel free. Peace.

Click to expand...

Don't rouse, don't stir, it's best to just leave it alone. All you'd do is oxygenate it at this point. It's fermenting. The yeast knows how to do this.

I've never used that yeast, but you could look up the expected attenuation and figure it from there. What I mean is, if it's average attenuation is, say 75%, then you can expect that it would bring down the SG 75%. That's how I guestimate my final gravity, but I also take ingredients into consideration.

I really wouldn't worry at this point if I were you; let the yeasties do their thing. However, the question of "rousing" the yeast came up in another thread awhile back. The consensus of that thread was that a gentle swirling of the fermentation vessel won't oxygenate the beer after fermentation has been going for awhile because the heavier CO2 from the yeast has purged the air from the fermenter.

I habitually swirl my primaries gently if they haven't reached their target after ~1 week (I err on the longer side, especially for heavier beers).

I realize that it's hard to manage when you are new to this, but you shouldn't even be looking at the gravity in 4 days.

For a beer this big, you should pitch it and come back for your very first investigatory look at anything other than (blowoff .vs. airlock - airlock/blowoff happy? - blowoff [if needed] done, switch to airlock) at two weeks. Leave it alone, leave it clean, and let yeast do what yeast do. If you have a secondary, you might transfer at two or three weeks and check the gravity then - and for this beer (1.088 SG), plan on leaving it parked in secondary for 3-8 weeks. Every time you open things up, you provide a small (if you are careful) but non-zero (no matter how careful) opportunity for other stuff to get in the fermenter. Minimize that opportunity by minimizing the amount you open the fermenter, and that means leaving it alone, as much as possible.

This pretty much sums up the majority of our opinions on this matter...



You're making a big beer...just step away from it...Heck, most of us on here step away from ALL our beers for a few weeks.....It's even more important with a high grave beer...Look forward from hearing from you in a few weeks telling us we were right.

I agree with the above posts. I had a big beer that took three solid weeks just for primary fermentation. So i say dont even check it for minimum two weeks.

Thanks. We'll see what she has to say in 2wks.

i figure i would bring up a fermentation/gravity question i have been trying to figure out. (thats how i came to read this thread).

i brewed two kits on sept6: true brew american wheat and brewers best american cream ale.
big blowoff for three or four days and then stopped (very slow bubbles), switched to airlock.
i have yet to see bubbles roll through the airlock on either brew.


GRAVITY
wheat: beginning 1.049-1.051 final 1.012-1.014
sept 6: 1.040
sept27: 1.020
cream ale: starting 1.040-1.055 final 1.008-1.012
sept 6: 1.052
sept27: 1.020

my carboys are stored in the dark at a fairly consistent 70degrees.
suggestions? im still trying to learn how to apply the gravity readings with the state of the beer. the airlocks make me think they are ready for bottling. but it seems like the brews blewoff and never moved on to the next step.


(appy polly loggies if bad form to post here like this)

My personal experience is that "stuck fermentations" are quite rare, and predicted final gravity numbers are often wrong. Certainly the apparent attenuation (AA) is rather low, unless you are using something that's known to have low AA.

Wheat: 50% AA

Cream Ale: 61.5% AA

You might give the fermenters a gentle swirl (search for rousing the yeast to see long discussions, ways of doing it wrong, etc...) You could also warm them a few degrees, but it sounds like they are fine, temperature-wise. On the third hand, make sure that you are clearing bubbles from your hygrometer - bubbles sticking to it can raise the reading. Twirling it can clear them. Finally, make sure that the hygrometer reads 1.000 on plain water at the calibration temperature (often but not always 60F).

See what they look like next weekend. If they haven't moved, they may just be done, and attenuating "poorly" for whatever reason. I'm less paranoid than most about this perhaps because I deliberately use a malt extract with low attenuation, since I like a beer with some body from unfermentables - I just racked a batch that started at 1.044 and is now at 1.024, and it's probably done - but I'll let it sit for another two weeks anyway.

However, with a different extract, I'd expect a different result. I made a batch with an OG of 1.058 last night, and I expect it will get down under 1.020 since it's using a more typical extract. But also might not, since I'm using some oat malt and honey malt in the recipe.

Yeast also plays a role - some attenuate more than others.

well i dont remember reading about attenuation in charlies book but i only read the beginning half (figured that applied to me most).

yesterday i shook up the cream ale and really got it swirling. alot of CO2 escaped while i was agitating. the bubbles continued for the 15 minutes or so i was still around. this afternoon it was stopped so i checked the gravity: 1.016
i also checked my hydrometer and it is not accurate in water. (but i just remembered i didnt do temperature conversion. never had before, didnt really know it was that important -i guess it is?)

anyway i drank my sample and it tasted rather good. so i think ill bottle it this weekend after it settles out a bit more. maybe ill even rack it (i typically dont do that either). ill also give the wheat beer a shake up and see how that reacts. by the time im done teddi should be ready to give us his update and hijack his thread back!

Teddi here,
just give me one more week...huge beer, gonna aim for patience on this one. Plan is to rack to secondary for a month(more patient than I have ever been) and bottle from there. Yeah, on a side note nihiles, my FG's almost always seem to be high. Don't think I've ever brewed a beer that got to .10... usually in the teens for me, but the point is moot as I have no complaints bout taste or drinkability. Cheers

UPDATE!!!!!!
Racked her off to secondary last night, and she's only down to the low 30's. Hmph. I don't know, I'm planning on just leaving it in the secondary fermenter for a month but something tells me that this isn't going to end up 1.010 cuz there is just no more activity in the airlock. WTF!!!!!!!! I have a fermometer on and it's showin 68 dgrs.