Refermentation in carboy after 6 weeks (video)

Brewed a 3 gallon batch of imperial IPA on May 31. Racked it onto gelatin in secondary 3 weeks later (1.085 --> 1.018), let it sit for a week, dry hopped it (3 oz), let it sit for a week. During its 2 weeks in secondary it did nothing, was completely still. I would jostle the carboy just a bit every few days to get the dry hopped pellets to sink down.

So Monday night I put the carboy up on a table to rack it to a keg. A ton of CO2 bubbles formed at the bottom and rushed up to the top; figured they were trapped beneath the pellet hop sediment, since there is about an inch of it. I planned to let it sit overnight to settle. 3 days later, it is still bubbling like crazy, see video, esp. @ 20 sec mark:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es1eW2GVzIQ]YouTube - MOV01764[/ame]

At first I thought it must be infected, but it sat in the secondary for 2 weeks with no action. And this bubbling coincided with my moving the carboy to the table and disturbing the trub layer.

Anyone ever seen something like this?

I've seen stuff like this with fermenting various juices (I like to experiment, most juices make NASTY wine). The CO2 gets supersaturated, when you jostle it a bit, bubbles start to for on the trub, the trub gets lifted up providing a stirring action that produces more bubbles, so on and so forth. If in doubt, grab a wine theif and give it a taste, but you are probably fine.

Well, I would say that it was probably racked and gelatin was added a bit early. Remember, bigger beers need more time to ferment out completely. The FG that you gave us, 1.018, is still in the higher range for this style of beer. I would imagine that it should now be down to 1.012-1.014 like it should be. If it goes a lot lower than that, I'd be worried about an infection, but no concerns right now.

Were temps. different? If it got warmer, it could have put those yeast back into action. Definately an active fermentation going on from that video though. Just keep an eye on the hydro reading and don't bottle or anything until you know FOR SURE that it has stopped.

rsmith179 said:

Well, I would say that it was probably racked and gelatin was added a bit early. Remember, bigger beers need more time to ferment out completely. The FG that you gave us, 1.018, is still in the higher range for this style of beer. I would imagine that it should now be down to 1.012-1.014 like it should be. If it goes a lot lower than that, I'd be worried about an infection, but no concerns right now.

Were temps. different? If it got warmer, it could have put those yeast back into action. Definately an active fermentation going on from that video though. Just keep an eye on the hydro reading and don't bottle or anything until you know FOR SURE that it has stopped.

Click to expand...

+1 - Excellent advice, RS

Thanks for the advice. I too thought 1.018 was a bit high, but it had been there for 5 days, so I figured it was done.

I was going to take a gravity reading before posting, but even if it had dropped a little bit I'm still intrigued enough to seek out some opinions. Figure I will wait until it stops again to take a reading.

It did get warmer (65 F to roomp temp at the 12 day mark), but that was weeks before this began.

bubbles, airlock activity...neither mean anything without a hydrometer reading (that's dropped a few points) to back it up.

Thought I would update on this on the 1-month anniversary of this brew's 2nd ferm. This is Biermuncher's Tits-Up IIPA recipe by the way.

It's STILL going.

Been at ~ 79 F the whole time. Gravity is now at 1.009 and crawling ever so slowly. I tasted the hydro sample warm and flat... Wow! The hop flavor has just exploded since it dried out. Where the residual sweetness before muted the bitterness and flavor (still a good beer, but I was disappointed given my 1/2 lb sacrifice to the hop gods), it is now nothing short of awesome.

So, to recap, 1.085 --> 1.009 (and dropping) = 89% attenuation, 10.0% ABV. I suppose it is possible I have some wild yeast, but I know what Bret tastes like, and I don't get any funk. I just wish it would finish up so I could get it in bottles, let it carb, and refrigerate to preserve the ridiculous hoppiness before it fades.