Dry Yeast Question

I brewed an Irish Red on Sunday. I used dry yeast. It was doing its thing but now it looks like it has stopped...only four days. I do not have a hydrometer to get a reading. Any advice?

What temp?

I used Safale 05 and finished my 5 gallon ferm in ~4 days @ ~62F

Leave it in primary for a while and get a hydro before bottling. Take
2 readings a couple days apart to make sure you've hit a good FG.

IMO dry yeast finishes faster than liquid,unless theyre selling me old liquid yeast

It's really hard to tell without gravity readings. Four days isn't extremely short for the violent part of the ferment, but you really need to take the SG to know where it is and take it several times to know if it has stopped.

mr_clean said:

IMO dry yeast finishes faster than liquid,unless theyre selling me old liquid yeast

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It depends on the yeast strain. Some liquid yeast strains will give you 80% or attenuation, some 67% attenuation, the same as various dry strains. Some will go to town in 48 hours, some in 14 days. It isn't whether it's from a dry package or a liquid package- it's the yeast health, temperature, correct pitching rates, etc.

To say that one finished faster or further isn't entirely accurate. If you're using liquid yeast without a starter, though, you're more than likely way underpitching, so it'll definitely take alot longer. That can be corrected (and make better beer) with the correct amount of yeast. Liquid or dry, the correct amount of yeast should be pitched.

To the OP, without a hydrometer reading, we can all guess as to whether it's done or not. It probably is. It might not be. No way to tell.

Thanks for the help! I bought a hydrometer and got a reading. It was ready to tranfer...I put it in the secondary and doing fine! Thanks, again!:rockin: