I'm brewing an imperial amber ale, i know there aren't many out there but i had to have one for my own. basically i ripped off all the ingredients from troeg's nugget nectar. that said i got a O.G. of 1.065 and almost exactly two days later there was no activity in my airlock and the hydrometer read 1.012. i feel this may have been too quick for a beer of this size. does this seem normal? should i rack to secondary sooner? (yes i am a firm believer in secondary). it was fermented around 66 deg. thanks so much for all responses.
fast fermentation question here...
- Thread starter basilchef
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Fermentation can happen quite quickly.... was the 66 degrees ambient temp, or the actual temp of the fermenting wort? Either way, I've had cool fermentations finish quite quickly, I'd still leave the beer in primary for some time until it begins to fall clear. And I would definitely not sweat it, 48 hours is fast for sure, but not uncommon.
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basilchef
Well-Known Member
thank you nordeast, the temp was ambient. ill give it more time. what about autolysis? old brewers followed a strict one week fermentation, while on the other hand newer award winning beers have been allowed to sit for a months. what has changed to allow this to be ok? and what time frame would you follow for this beer? my expected finishing gravity should be close to +/- 1.005
basilchef said:
You cannot compare old brewers to today because what we have today is far great than what they had. As far as auto lysis, that does not play in on the scale of a home brewer. It has to do with the weight of the beer compressing the yeast and is really only an issue in very large commercial conicals and even today with modern equipment the yeast can be safely removed before it causes issues in a commercial setting. I know brewers that have been using the same yeast from the same beers for over a year
Don't worry about autolysis.... For the home brewer using basic homebrew equipment (buckets, carboys, etc.), autolysis is a myth of sorts. It just doesn't happen in the short times and at the pressures we tend to ferment at. Many home brewers, myself included, have left beers in primary for quite some time w/ only better beer to show for it.
I think the main change that caused the shift in thinking about autolysis is the availability of quality yeast, and the current knowledge of yeast health and proper pitch rates, etc.
With a beer like that, I would primary for ~2 weeks, and then only secondary if I was planning on dry hopping (which can also be done in primary after FG is stable). Then I'd bottle and leave it at room temp for 4+ weeks (3 weeks doesn't cut it for my beers over ~1.06), or keg and force carb over a week or so.
