Unexciting fermentation on english barleywine...

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forstmeister

forstmeister

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I brewed an English BW last weekend with Maris otter and wyeast 1024. I made 2.5 gallons and put it in a 5 gallon carboy expecting explosive fermentation. It only developed about 6 inches of krausen and didn't even reach the blow off tube.

Has anyone else seen this? Should I be concerned or is this about right?
 
I should also note that the OG was 1.088 after boil, mash was right around 152-154... And I threw a pound of brown sugar in at the end of the boil.
 
forstmeister said:
I brewed an English BW last weekend with Maris otter and wyeast 1024. I made 2.5 gallons and put it in a 5 gallon carboy expecting explosive fermentation. It only developed about 6 inches of krausen and didn't even reach the blow off tube.

Has anyone else seen this? Should I be concerned or is this about right?
Click to expand...

I would say that's about right. You had more than enough headspace.
 
"Only" 6 inches of krausen?? That sounds like a lot of krausen to me!
 
sounds like you should be fine. i like my barleywine mash a litle lower, about 148*, helps to ferment out.
 
coosabrew said:
sounds like you should be fine. i like my barleywine mash a litle lower, about 148*, helps to ferment out.
Click to expand...

Thanks all for the input. I wanted a bit of body in this one so I mashed high and added the sugar to bump the fermentables up higher.

I usually seem to get very active fermentation on my brews so this one was a surprise. Could be the yeast variety, I have not used this one before. Could just be a slow worker.
 
The ONLY thing that matters is a drop in gravity, just like airlock bubbling, krausen size isn't a judgement of anything. I've had low grav beer put up and out a ton of yeast and big beers with tiny krausens...it's really not a gauge of anything.
 
Revvy said:
The ONLY thing that matters is a drop in gravity, just like airlock bubbling, krausen size isn't a judgement of anything. I've had low grav beer put up and out a ton of yeast and big beers with tiny krausens...it's really not a gauge of anything.
Click to expand...

There is a ton of activity in the carboy. I shined a flashlight on the side and things were churning quite rapidly. I took off the blow off tube and replaced it with an airlock last night. It's only been 4 days so I don't want to take a reading yet.
 
I agree with Revvy that it's irrelevant, but FWIW I'd consider a 6" krausen pretty explosive.
 
forstmeister said:
There is a ton of activity in the carboy. I shined a flashlight on the side and things were churning quite rapidly. I took off the blow off tube and replaced it with an airlock last night. It's only been 4 days so I don't want to take a reading yet.
Click to expand...

Then why are you worrying? You have fermentation, that's ALL that matters. There is no such thing as a good or bad fermentation, there just IS.

I just never get why folks need to hover over their fermenters like helicopter parents, micro managing and stressing out over every little detail. The yeast KNOW what they're doing, they've been doing this whether we wanted it or not for MILLIONS of years, they're the experts, they're in charge of this, NOT US.....You all would be much happier in life if you just RDWHAHB, like the man said, pitch your yeast and WALK AWAY!!!! :D
 
Revvy said:
Then why are you worrying? You have fermentation, that's ALL that matters. There is no such thing as a good or bad fermentation, there just IS.

I just never get why folks need to hover over their fermenters like helicopter parents, micro managing and stressing out over every little detail. The yeast KNOW what they're doing, they've been doing this whether we wanted it or not for MILLIONS of years, they're the experts, they're in charge of this, NOT US.....You all would be much happier in life if you just RDWHAHB, like the man said, pitch your yeast and WALK AWAY!!!! :D
Click to expand...

Point taken. The only reason I was concerned was I have read about huge explosive fermentation with big beers, and this is my first big beer (2 years of brewing with app. 25 batches). I will calm the f$&@ down now and wait patiently for this thing to work. Thanks all.
 
Update: three weeks later it finished at 1.020

That makes it a 9.7% killer. I transferred it to a 3 gallon better bottle the other day, and I plan on getting some oak cubes this weekend and putting them in to age for at least a couple months.

Question: Do I have to sanitize the oak? I probably won't soak them in booze since its pretty "hot" already.
 

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