Very long fermentation.

So its day 11 since yeast was pitched and my air lock is still happily bubbling away every couple of seconds. I took a gravity reading yesterday it was 1.022 down from 1.038 from a few days earlier, starting gravity was 1.048. I did a morgans ipa kit, 1kg of dextrose and 1/2lb of light dme. Fermentation temp is between 68 & 70 with the yeast being us-05. The only thing different that happened in my process was after adding hydrated yeast, I was closing the lid with the air lock already installed. Air went rushing through air lock bubbling like crazy, than created a vacuum and sucked all the star san (diluted to proper mix of course) right on to the freshly added yeast. So to finally get to my question will star san injure yeast this early in the game, or are there a million other variables when dealing with a living organism that could result in such a slow fermentation. Thanks

This is an easy one - RDWHAHB

Seriously what you just described has happened to almost everyone.

I bet your beer will turn out great, hopefully so!

A 26 point drop in 11 days isn't that slow

Let it go. Time is on your side.

Your temps are good, your yeast is good, your times are good....no problems. Fast fermentations are not necessarily good.

Good to know, wasn't necessarily concerned beer wouldn't turn out if anything I've learned the longer the wait the better the beer. I've just never had a beer ferment longer than 5 days.

So I took a gravity reading again today its down to 1.014 now, I'm happy with that number. The airlock is still bubbling away and I could taste a slight bit of carbonation in the sample. I'm just wondering if that's normal or should a fermented beer be completely flat.

Canrinus said:

So I took a gravity reading again today its down to 1.014 now, I'm happy with that number. The airlock is still bubbling away and I could taste a slight bit of carbonation in the sample. I'm just wondering if that's normal or should a fermented beer be completely flat.

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Fermented beer should taste flat, the fact that the airlock is bubbling could be anything like a change in pressure, temperature or you bumped the vessel. Wait a day or two and take another reading. If it drops any more it's still not done. If its the same, wait a week and let the beer clear and then package.