I've been homebrewing for 17 years & I can't remember this ever happening. & it's with a yeast I'm using for the first time so I'm not sure if it could be a characteristic of the yeast. Wyeast 1332, Northwest. When I did a started I noticed it didn't kraeusen much even though obviously active. This seemed to be the case after pitching too.Fermentation started up right on schedule & continued at at staedy pace for a few days. Started to drop off after 5 or so, was quite slow at a week. Then at day eight I noticed the airlock filled with sludge. It had subsided but obviously some sort of vigorous fermentation had kicked in at about a week. Very odd. I had moved the bucket but I've done this many times before without having this happen. Actually, I do think I remember something like this happening the one time I tried my one & only little batch of apple cider. Anyone else ever have this happen?
Unusual fermentation (no I'm not worried)
- Thread starter THart
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Never used it. Just going on my general observations with fermentations in general. I'm wondering if at the time you are noticing this it is corresponding with the krausen dropping at the same time. This process can push CO2 up and out when all things otherwise were normal, just a thought as I've observed this on occasion.
Like I said before, take a gravity reading and see where the beer is at, i'm sure it's fine
Like I said before, take a gravity reading and see where the beer is at, i'm sure it's fine
duboman said:Like I said before, take a gravity reading and see where the beer is at, i'm sure it's fine
Being a 17 veteran brewer I'm sure he knows about gravity readings.
Only thing I can think of given that you didn't move,raise temp,etc is that there had been some kind of secondary cell growth spike. Either that or the initial cell multiplying phase took that long to build up cell counts big enough to attack. Maybe higher gravity and low yeast viability. What was the OG and were the second and third times repitch or new sample/starter?
I'm sure he does but not once has a gravity reading been mentioned
Cell growth only occurs during the initial lag/growth phase when O2 is present, once the O2 is depleted active fermentation begins and there is no further replication of cells.
As I mentioned, the possibility remains that there may have been a change in pressure due to the weather perhaps or the krausen dropping that forced the CO2 out of suspension. I'm assuming that this issue was pretty quick and not long lasting and since we don't know if the gravity stabilized or where it was before this happened it's a stab at best.
