1 gallon Brooklyn brew shop question

I recently started brewing my first batch of beer with the all grain kit from Brooklyn brew shop (grapefruit honey ale) and all went perfect, until fermentation. It produced a Krausen but then it seemed that fermentation stopped... the weather here in KC is ridiculously hot right now and it's hard keeping our house under 80 degrees.
I have since moved the carboy to the basement where it holds a pretty solid 75 degrees. But there is no bubbling or airlock activity. I have read that air lock activity is not a good way to judge fermentation, but should I pitch some more yeast, or should I just let it go and trust the beer gods that every thing will come out ok.
I'm just worried that the temps spiked to high at the beginning of the fermentation process.

Hello,

I'm relatively new here but I've found the most common advice is to wait. Patience is the key to brewing. Also it might help if we had a little more info such as how long after brewing did the airlock activity start and stop, what yeast did you use, and if you have any gravity readings.

All the batches I've done so far using dry yeast have stopped bubbling vigorously after the first few days. I wouldn't worry about it.

Being my first brew, I was an idiot and did not buy any thing to measure gravity with... the yeast in their kit I believe is s-04. It spent about the first 72 hours at about 80 degrees, and then has spent the past week at about 75. Since the initial krausen, it has shown no activity.

I would wait. During that time, get a hydrometer and a cylinder so you can see what your FG is and make sure it's done fermenting prior to bottling. I'm sure the recipe will tell you an estimated FG.

BlakeL said:

All the batches I've done so far using dry yeast have stopped bubbling vigorously after the first few days. I wouldn't worry about it.

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Sweet! This is what I was hoping, and since it is only a gallon batch I figured any activity would be more minimal due to the volume.
Thanks to every one for the extremely quick responses.

moscoeb said:

get a hydrometer and a cylinder so you can see what your FG is

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I wouldn't worry about it, just give it another week or two and then bottle. Taking a hydrometer reading will use several ounces of beer, and that's a significant hit from a one gallon batch. Next time, though, I'd recommend a swamp cooler or similar set-up.

True, I forgot it was a 1gal batch! Don't waste the precious beer!!

As others have stated, don't worry. You didn't say how many days, but I'm assuming it was a few (3-5) and then no more bubbles. That's pretty normal, especially if you fermented at warm temps which tends to speed things up. Giving it some more time won't hurt, especially since you don't have a hydrometer to know for sure, but at 3 weeks you should be good to bottle. Might taste a bit off due to the high temps, next time keep it in the basement and/or use a swamp cooler.

I have 15-20 brews under my belt. My current brew is a Wildflower Wheat made with honey and chamomile. I pitched at around 85-90*. Brew is sitting on my stairwell landing at around 78*. Vigorous fermentation lasted about a day and since then I haven't seen any airlock activity at all. However, the top of the beer is still foamy and the gravity continues to drop everyday. As others have stated I would wait it out. You aren't going to hurt anything if you leave it there while you order a hydrometer or refractometer. By the time you get something to check the gravity it will likely be complete. As long as you follow the directions and keep things clean, I have found that it's fairly hard to stop nature and screw up making beer.

It may be really good at those temps but pretty estery.So if you dont like em some aging on them may work.But really it could be quite some aging,if you dont really like them as is. Im thinking with honey and depending on how much those esters may compliment the ale and simulate a fruity/floral effect, but it could bee(ha ha) a little fruity and not so beerish like especially at first,let us know how it goes. Cheers!
Oh and yeah your f ermenttion went super fast, which may not be so good because of those temps, you may have some hot fusels going on upon drinking. I would suggest just trying one after carbonation and decideing from there on to age them more.
Temps are very important for the outcome of the beer,its something you need to control in the future. You may want to at least be below 70 with 04 or 05 and nottingham and proablaly liquid ale yeast also.

Again, thank you to every one that has responded. I figured that if I messed up my first brew, a gallon isn't too heart breaking to dump. I am going to try to pick up a mini fridge to use as a fermentation chamber in the future, as I plan on keeping batches small (1-3 gallons) until I fully wrap my brain around how to make the beer I want to make. And if I grow I can always disconnect the pid controls, use it as an office beer fridge, and get a chest freezer to use...
That being said, a refractometer would probably be best to test gravity in small batches as it would have less beer to sacrifice for the test, right?

With the high temperature your fermentation was at I would say your beer has completed fermentation. With the S-04 yeast you may notice some considerable fruity ester aromas with that fermentation range. I would let the beer rest until you hit the overall 14 day mark and then bottle as usual. I hope it comes out great!

Youre good, it was a little hot for the yeast but thats really not a problem. If anything they may produce some off flavors but with the grapefruit honey ale I have a feeling the flavors will mesh so tight you wont be able to tell. That beer probably has a low starting gravity to begin with and the bulk of the fermentation (even on many of my five gallon batches) stop after a couple of days to where I see minimal to no airlock activity. Just leave it be for a couple of weeks and go from there, chances are that its going to be fine.

raining_turtles said:

Again, thank you to every one that has responded. I figured that if I messed up my first brew, a gallon isn't too heart breaking to dump. I am going to try to pick up a mini fridge to use as a fermentation chamber in the future, as I plan on keeping batches small (1-3 gallons) until I fully wrap my brain around how to make the beer I want to make. And if I grow I can always disconnect the pid controls, use it as an office beer fridge, and get a chest freezer to use...
That being said, a refractometer would probably be best to test gravity in small batches as it would have less beer to sacrifice for the test, right?

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If you do small batches like this then you can keep going all grain untill you choose to move up in the world. All around it is cheaper, plus you should learn some yeast washing techniques if you brew similar beers. For one gallon batches yeast packs can get somewhat expensive if you venture into the liquid yeasts. However you can just wash and re-use the yeast.

Also yes, a brix refractometer is the way to go. Expensive up front but it will pay for itself (effort wise) after your first one gallon batch of using a couple drops instead of half a beer .

Stretch1991 said:

Also yes, a brix refractometer is the way to go. Expensive up front but it will pay for itself (effort wise) after your first one gallon batch of using a couple drops instead of half a beer .

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I've heard these don't work very well for FG measurements (the alcohol throws them off). How true is that? Is it one of those cases where it's technically true but the difference is negligible, or it's easy to compensate for it (like compensating for temperature with a hydrometer)?

DoctorMemory said:

I've heard these don't work very well for FG measurements (the alcohol throws them off). How true is that? Is it one of those cases where it's technically true but the difference is negligible, or it's easy to compensate for it (like compensating for temperature with a hydrometer)?

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Sean Terrill has written about this pretty extensively:

http://seanterrill.com/2010/07/20/toward-a-better-refractometer-correlation/

On the navigation bar on the left of that page, you'll see that he's also included a link to his FG calculator for refractometer readings. I use a refractometer to take all my readings when I brew one gallon batches, and it works just fine thanks to his calculator!

I use ProMash for my Refractometer calculations and it is always the same when I compare it to a hydrometer reading.