BrewerJeff
Member
I'm having a (perceived) little issue with an extract kit I brewed Monday night. It's a clone kit from NB and they were out of the normal Wyeast 1335 that the kit usually comes with. They decided a good substitution would be their NB Neo Brittania strain which has an optimal fermenting temp of 66-74 degrees.
This is my fifth batch.
Some background:
I cold pitched my starter into 66-68 degree wort. After I pitch I usually move my fermenter to the basement which is 64 degrees, but it was getting late and I just left it on my kitchen counter. I think the room was about 72 degrees. I decided to use my 6 gallon better bottle with blowoff tube as a fermenter for the first time, and by the next morning I had foam coming through the tube and lots of CO2. These bottles have very little head space.
24 hours after pitching - Moved the fermenter to the 64 degree basement. It was still going very well at that point.
48 hours after pitching - Slowed down substantially. Headspace and neck of bottle was full of dried crusty krausen. At this point I noticed that the basement was cooler than the target yeast temp. I started to worry if I was cold crashing the yeast and causing them to flocculate prematurely.
72 hours after pitching - No bubbles coming from blowoff tube. Being the tinkerer/worrier that I am, I decided to swirl the carboy. This caused some of the dried krausen on the side to get washed into beer. A couple hours later foam started to redevelope on top of the beer and I again had bubbles coming through the blowoff tube. This was about 10PM last night.
This morning the entire headspace was filled with new foam and some was coming through the blowoff tube again.
Phew - So now a few questions.
1) Should I have swirled or should I have let it be?
2) Should I move the fermenter into a warmer area (74 ish which is in the upper range of temp for the yeast) or should I leave it at 64 degrees?
3) Should I continue to swirl to keep the yeast in suspension? Or should I leave it alone at this point.
Any suggestions would be great.
This is my fifth batch.
Some background:
I cold pitched my starter into 66-68 degree wort. After I pitch I usually move my fermenter to the basement which is 64 degrees, but it was getting late and I just left it on my kitchen counter. I think the room was about 72 degrees. I decided to use my 6 gallon better bottle with blowoff tube as a fermenter for the first time, and by the next morning I had foam coming through the tube and lots of CO2. These bottles have very little head space.
24 hours after pitching - Moved the fermenter to the 64 degree basement. It was still going very well at that point.
48 hours after pitching - Slowed down substantially. Headspace and neck of bottle was full of dried crusty krausen. At this point I noticed that the basement was cooler than the target yeast temp. I started to worry if I was cold crashing the yeast and causing them to flocculate prematurely.
72 hours after pitching - No bubbles coming from blowoff tube. Being the tinkerer/worrier that I am, I decided to swirl the carboy. This caused some of the dried krausen on the side to get washed into beer. A couple hours later foam started to redevelope on top of the beer and I again had bubbles coming through the blowoff tube. This was about 10PM last night.
This morning the entire headspace was filled with new foam and some was coming through the blowoff tube again.
Phew - So now a few questions.
1) Should I have swirled or should I have let it be?
2) Should I move the fermenter into a warmer area (74 ish which is in the upper range of temp for the yeast) or should I leave it at 64 degrees?
3) Should I continue to swirl to keep the yeast in suspension? Or should I leave it alone at this point.
Any suggestions would be great.
