Fermentor: Does this look normal or bad????

I was brewing a double hop IPA. It was my first full boil (5gal), first time using my wort chiller, and first time making a yeast starter. (midwest kit)

The recipe said the OG should be 1.074 mine was 1.080. (weird) For my yeast starter I used 200 grams of DME, with 2 liter of water and let it ferment for two days using at 100 billion cell smack pack.

Once my boil was over and got the temps slightly below 80 then pitched my yeast. Within the first 24 hours it started to bubble (very slowly) but then stopped on day 2. So I took a Hydrometer 1.043. On day 3 I took anther, which read 1.043.
I decided to add more oxygen by whisking it. On day 4 it dropped to 1.030. which I thought was a good start. But I day 5 i took anther reading and it was still stuck on 1.030.

Im wondering whats going on with my yeast! the pitching rate called for 200 billion cells. I yeast a 100 billion cell smack pack. I never had such a slow/stalled fermentation before. Is it too late to add more yeast? does it need more oxygen? The recipe says the the FG should be 1.018/ 1.012 so I know Im way off.

But I have notice that in my bucket there is this creamy, thick foam still floating on the surface. I know you get that in the early stages of fermentation but should it still be there on day 5??? thought it should have settled out at this point.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whats going on here?

Thanks


Doug

What yeast and what temp are you fermenting at? Beer does what beer does so day five means nothing.

um crap... I dont remember what kind but it was Wyeast for Ales and the fermenter has been sitting at 68.

Just leave it alone for another week and see where it is at.

It looks perfectly normal for day five. The fermenting temp stated is a bit on the high side for most ale yeast.

Were you very sanitary with everything that touched the cooled wort? If you were 99.9% chance your fermenting brew is not infected. Beerman is spot on in his advice Five days is way to early to get overly concerned.

Check the gravity in a week and another a week later. Some brews ferment quickly others don't. Yeast don't seem to know how to tell time so let them do their thing according to their schedule.

Next to sanitation patience is key to making great homebrew.

that looks like a healthy krausen to me

hmm well for now Im at the mercy of my basement temps. But I like to think my sanitary practice is good. I spray Starsan on everything after the boil!!! I just thought with making a yeast starter that it would ferment a lot faster then what it is. I did take a taste and seemed to be coming along fine. Either way, I love this forum for quick info!

Sounds like you under pitched your yeast. For a really high gravity, you should be at around 400 billion cells. I have learned my lesson the hard way on this point.

Also, try a two stage starter to get more cells.

The starting gravity was said to be around 74 points and when I put that in a pitch calculator it said I needed around 250 Billion. So if I did under pitch it, is it to late to add more yeast?

Also, is a two stage starter just making two mini beers and adding the yeast from the first starter into the second?

Looks ok to me just a gooey krausen from the yeast strain. If it really bothers you rack the beer from underneath into a new carboy. If you want to make sure it fully ferments out, after racking add a pack of wyeast 3711. that should dry it up nice, might want to keep the temps closer to 74 after that, and it may take 6-8 weeks too. also no need to worry about it producing too many not to style flavors as most of the fermentation is already complete.