Fermenting Done Too Soon?

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

TommyBaseball

New Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2006
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
I am in the process of brewing my first batch. It is the all-extract American Pale Ale recipe from John Palmer's website. The only change is I scaled it to 2 gallons.

I boiled the wort on Sunday (3 days ago). It had a temperature corrected OG of 1.034. I pitched the rehydrated and proofed yeast after cooling the wort to 74 degrees.

Before I went to bed that night there was some bubbling. When I woke up, the bubbling was pretty regular and remained so through the 1st day, but going into the 2nd day in the fermenter, the bubling slowed down and by the end of the second day, seemed to have stopped all together.

I took a gravity reading yesterday (after 2 days) and got 1.016. I took another today (after 3 days) and got 1.014. For both readings, the wort temperature was 68 degrees, and I am pretty confident that the wort has had a pretty constant temperature around this the whole time in the fermentor. The taste is fine, if not a little sweet, which based on these readings, I guess would be expected.

My question is, did the beer ferment to quickly? Has it ended prematurely? Was this a situation where there was not enough aeration or not enough yeast or too high a temperature? If there is a problem, is there anything I can do? Should I add some more yeast?

Thanks for your advice,

Tom
 
Sometimes things happen quickly. Your SG is still dropping, so it's still fermenting. Relax, have a brew, and give it a few more days (if you're going to secondary) or another week if you're going straight to bottles.
 
I would not add anymore yeast, its ok if it ferments quick as long as the temp was not too hot giving your off flavors. No it did not end premature, but it has just slowed a bit. I agree relax let it go for a while longer. If using a secondary go on to it, if not give it another week:D good luck
 
I had just read the fermenting would go on for a couple of days, and I haven't seen the airlock bubble in quite some time, so I thought something might be wrong. The gravity measurment I took today made me feel better, but I still thought I would get a few opinions.

Thanks again.
 
I've also just gotten into this hobby and I'm lovin' it!!!!

I've also noticed that I'll get extensive carbon dioxide activity at the airlock in the first 24 hours then settles to nothing. Worried with the first batch, only a little concerned with the second batch and have since let it worry me at all <G>

With my current batch, I dropped it into primary bucket last night at 10 pm. Lots of action this morning and now I'm getting about one bubble per 5 seconds.

I'm assuming all is well. I'll be taking daily sg readings after the bubbles stop all together.
 
Some ferments start fast and then get slower and slower (ciders and meads can drive you nuts doing three bpm for months). Give it a week total, the SG should get down around 1.010.
 
TommyBaseball said:
I am in the process of brewing my first batch. It is the all-extract American Pale Ale recipe from John Palmer's website. The only change is I scaled it to 2 gallons.

I boiled the wort on Sunday (3 days ago). It had a temperature corrected OG of 1.034. I pitched the rehydrated and proofed yeast after cooling the wort to 74 degrees.

Before I went to bed that night there was some bubbling. When I woke up, the bubbling was pretty regular and remained so through the 1st day, but going into the 2nd day in the fermenter, the bubling slowed down and by the end of the second day, seemed to have stopped all together.

I took a gravity reading yesterday (after 2 days) and got 1.016. I took another today (after 3 days) and got 1.014. For both readings, the wort temperature was 68 degrees, and I am pretty confident that the wort has had a pretty constant temperature around this the whole time in the fermentor. The taste is fine, if not a little sweet, which based on these readings, I guess would be expected.

My question is, did the beer ferment to quickly? Has it ended prematurely? Was this a situation where there was not enough aeration or not enough yeast or too high a temperature? If there is a problem, is there anything I can do? Should I add some more yeast?

Thanks for your advice,

Tom
Click to expand...
In my opinion I think your done. You started with a relatively low OG to begin with. I don't know the specifics of your yeast type but once you carbonate , the bitters will start to shine through and will balance that sweetness your experiencing.
 
I had the exact same first question when I did my first batch. Since then every time I used a dry yeast my ferment was done sooner than expected. My liquid yeast always lasted a bit longer. I followed the advice of the forum that my ferment was probably done but let it sit for a few days then rack to the secondary. The beer turned out great.
 
Hey Tom:
I did the same about 3 week ago!
my first batch was the cincinnaty pale ale from JP book, scaled down to 2.5 gals!

what happend to me was this:
first nigth no bubbling at all, second day: bubbling like crazy. Third day: done! I even asked here the same question you did.

I kept the worth in the primary and took gravity readings on 3rd, 6th and 8th day. bottled 8th day nigth.

7 days after bottling I open one and it was good, now I am waiting a little more for the rest.


good luck!
 
TommyBaseball said:
I boiled the wort on Sunday (3 days ago). It had a temperature corrected OG of 1.034. I pitched the rehydrated and proofed yeast after cooling the wort to 74 degrees.
...

I took a gravity reading yesterday (after 2 days) and got 1.016. I took another today (after 3 days) and got 1.014. For both readings, the wort temperature was 68 degrees, and I am pretty confident that the wort has had a pretty constant temperature around this the whole time in the fermentor. The taste is fine, if not a little sweet, which based on these readings, I guess would be expected.
Click to expand...

With that OG (assuming you took it correctly and didn't forget to mix in the top-off water) and being an APA I would expect it to go as low as 1.007...1.009. When I do an APA I usually have an OG of 1.045. When done in the primary it is usually between 1.010 and 1.012. After the secondary they drop to 1.008...1.010

Give it some more time.

Kai
 

Similar threads

_Keven
No activity after 12 hours using a yeast starter
Replies
15
Views
1K
_Keven
_Keven
beervoid
Refractometer reading very different from Hydrometer, fermenting wort
Replies
20
Views
2K
jschein
jschein
nyoksol
Stuck fermentation-- how can I rescue it?
Replies
11
Views
955
dmtaylor
dmtaylor
B
Ethyl acetate from WYeast 1214
Replies
5
Views
407
hottpeper13
H
Z
Another taking FG question
Replies
15
Views
811
Ramjet
R
Yakima 300

Latest posts

Back
Top