Reboil, cool and pitch yeast for a 2nd time

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rgarcia128

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So I brewed an American IPA. It went smoothly until the point the wort was cooled and I was transferring to primary fermenting bucket. See, I didn't use a grain bag, (i will never do that again) so the grains broke down to tiny particles.

I used a colander and a strainer but they kept getting clogged up and I had to keep rinsing them out in order to strain properly (took forever). The point is, I don't think I aerated the wort well enough because after second day the fermentation, the foaming seemed to stop and all the top foam subsided the third day instead of increasing.

My question is, can I start again, per se? Is it possible to strain the wort into a pot, reboil it to kill any bacteria and existing yeast, cool it down and aerate wort well this time by vigorously pouring into primary fermenter, and finally re-pitch new yeast into it?

:mug: Cheers!
 
Actually more than likely fermentation is slowing down, NOT that you did something wrong. If you had "foam" you had fermentation. There's no such thing as week fermentation or strong fermentation, fermentation is fermentation.

Don't mess with it, just leave it alone, for at least a total of 14 days, and then take a gravity reading.

You want to ruin your beer? Do what you planned.

You want to make good beer? Then trust that nothing is wrong, that you have typical new brewer anxiety, and don't know enough about making beer yet to know if what you are seeing is normal or abnormal. (It's normal.)

Stepaway_copy.jpg


The fact that you refer to the stuff on top of your fermenter as "foam" instead of Krausen, means you just have enough knowledge to be dangerous to your beer. :D

A year from now, you will look back at this first worry wort thread and laugh at how you were.

:mug:
 
hahahaha, yeah, I am a total newbie at this and very inexperienced. I am glad you talked me out of doing my plan, I really don't want to be dangerous (lol) to my precious beer. That's the last thing i want :ban:

I will relax. I must say I did move it around 1 time today. Sloshing it around for 30-40 seconds, I hope that doesn't effect anything if it does I will be terribly sad.
 
I will relax. I must say I did move it around 1 time today. Sloshing it around for 30-40 seconds, I hope that doesn't effect anything if it does I will be terribly sad.

You beer is fine....

Go read this, and the links I posted in there...It will help you put this all in perspective.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/infection-after-during-fermentation-160022/#post1846905

Just replace the word infection, with "anything I could possibly be worried about where my beer is concerned. ":D

:mug:
 
hahahaha, yeah, I am a total newbie at this and very inexperienced. I am glad you talked me out of doing my plan, I really don't want to be dangerous (lol) to my precious beer. That's the last thing i want :ban:

I will relax. I must say I did move it around 1 time today. Sloshing it around for 30-40 seconds, I hope that doesn't effect anything if it does I will be terribly sad.

It's fine- moving it won't hurt it. I have to move mine to rack it to the bottling bucket, and I move it carefully (mostly because it's heavy!) but you don't have to worry about aerating it just by moving it. That said, leave it alone now!

About a week or 10 days after brewing, you can check the SG with your hydrometer if you really want to. It's not necessary, unless you're hoping to bottle it soon, but it can let you know if fermentation is finished. Plus, you can take a sample out with a sanitized turkey baster or a wine thief, check the SG, and then drink the sample so you can see how it's coming along. I did that today with an IPA I made about a week ago. I checked the SG and then drank the sample. It was good, too! Warm, flat, a bit cloudy- just like it should be at this point. I dryhopped it, and will check on it next week.

Patience is definitely the hardest part of this hobby.
 
@ Revvy: Thanks again for the info. I will read it!

@ YopperBrew: I don't have a hydrometer, nor do I know how to use one. I didn't check specific gravity (SG) of the cool wort, which I think is a requirement, am I right. I plan to bottle in 10-17 days, will it be a problem it I don't know the SG?
 
@ Revvy: Thanks again for the info. I will read it!

@ YopperBrew: I don't have a hydrometer, nor do I know how to use one. I didn't check specific gravity (SG) of the cool wort, which I think is a requirement, am I right. I plan to bottle in 10-17 days, will it be a problem it I don't know the SG?

The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It;'s the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty. So is looking at the amount of foam you have or whether it is still there or not ;)

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on?

A hydromter is easy as pie to use...

Watch this video by our own Bobby M-

 
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One thing about the original post was that there was grain in the wort when cooling. I am guessing the grain was boiled? for 30, 60 mins? Ouch. If you like to read, and you are serious about brewing great beer, PM me your address. I have a book to send ya!
 
One thing about the original post was that there was grain in the wort when cooling. I am guessing the grain was boiled? for 30, 60 mins? Ouch. If you like to read, and you are serious about brewing great beer, PM me your address. I have a book to send ya!

But honestly I don't think he really has tons of tiny broken down grains in there, and even if they were there, I don't think it's a big enough problem for him to worry about with this batch. He can rack off it when he goes to bottle.
 
@ Reevy: I liked the video. My question is, since I didn't take original gravity can i still take specific gravity?
 
@ Reevy: I liked the video. My question is, since I didn't take original gravity can i still take specific gravity?

you can still take readings for your final gravity. in fact, you should. it is the only way to know when your beer is done. but since you don't have a starting gravity you'll have no way of knowing how much alcohol is in the beer. and really, so long as it tastes good, that doesn't matter.
 
@ Reevy: I liked the video. My question is, since I didn't take original gravity can i still take specific gravity?

Yes! You can check the SG about 3 days before you want to bottle. Check it again, three days later. If it's the same (and at a reasonable gravity), you can bottle it.

That's pretty much how you know when to bottle- when the SG hasn't changed for three days or more and it's in line with what you expect. We can help you with deciding a reasonable gravity, so don't sweat that. Once the beer is done fermenting, and the hydrometer confims that is is, then it's safe to bottle the beer.

Quite a few of us wait a couple of weeks or more after the beer is done fermenting before bottling. That means a clearer beer to bottle, with less "gunk" in the bottle in the end. I have very little sediment in my bottles, since I wait for about 3-4 weeks or so before bottling.
 
They already answered the bigger part of your guestion. I'll just elaborate on one part of it. Figuring out what your OG was.

If you are doing Extract brewing, and to a lesser extent even all grain, you can get a rough guestimate of the original gravity, You can use brewing software and imput your recipe and it will give you an idea of what the og should be, and it will be close enough for goverment work. Extract brewing is almost foolproff, since you are not converting starch to sugar, it is already converted for you, and if you followed your recipe, and topped off to the correct volume, then what the software or what the recipe tells you the og should be, it will be pretty close to it if not dead on.

It's a little harder with all grain and partial mashes, because we the brewer are doing the work of converting the grain. And there are many variables that can come into play, so we can ball park it, and if we have our process dialed in really well, then we can also easily figure out what the OG was. It just take an understanding of the process, and some experience...which you are already starting to gain from this thread.

Like I said, you'll laugh at this thread in a year. :D
 
You've got two of the sharper tools in the HBT woodshed advising you here, so listen to what they say and you'll be fine.

I'll just add that with my system, I get lots of little grain particles in the wort when it goes into the fermenter. An extra week or two in the primary after fermentation stops and they all settle right out with everything else. No sweat necessary.

And go get that hydrometer! :mug:
 
Thank you all!!! I am so glad I signed up and asked. I have already read a few blogs from Reevy; they are great! You should probably write a book or become a beer historian!:D

I will get a hydrometer ChshreCat hopefully later today if not tomorrow. No matter how great talking beer and reading beer articles I must continue with my school studies. I two finals on Tuesday: Accounting and Business Law, not going to be to fun. But I will be glad when its over and earn my A's I worked my buttoff for this semester.

Thanks again. I will be back and post some more and hope to here from you guys again!

:mug:
 
Thank you all!!! I am so glad I signed up and asked. I have already read a few blogs from Reevy; they are great! You should probably write a book or become a beer historian!:D

I will get a hydrometer ChshreCat hopefully later today if not tomorrow. No matter how great talking beer and reading beer articles I must continue with my school studies. I two finals on Tuesday: Accounting and Business Law, not going to be to fun. But I will be glad when its over and earn my A's I worked my buttoff for this semester.

Thanks again. I will be back and post some more and hope to here from you guys again!

:mug:

Actually I AM writing a book, and it's a beer history book. I'm researching the breweries of Michigan's Thumb. There were a ton of them in the 1800's.
 
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