slowed/stopped fermentation

Seems like there are a lot of these threads out there, for that I apologize, but this is my first beer brewing experience and I've noticed some variables that aren't consistent with other's posts.

First off I mistakenly took my beginning gravity ready right after I pitched (forgot it had to be before, but im hoping it didnt through my reading off too)much). And I didnt use the little vial i just threw the hydrometer (sterile) into the beer and read it that way...
Also I've kept my AC at about 74 degrees in an attempt to keep my kit below 80, much to my chagrin it was at about 80 for the first 2 days of fermentation. Which I tried to correct with a fan blowing on my bucket which lowered it to about 76-78...
When fermentation began it started overwhelming my airlock, so i decided to put a blow-off tube on it so I could sleep peacefully without worrying about it blowing up. Everything was fine untill i noticed it slow down some last night and now its stopped.

sg: 1.07
West coast IPA includes- pale and wheat malt extract, cara-pils and crystal malts, with Chinook, cascade, and centennial hops. Utilizing nottingham yeast (not from the bad batch).
T.g. should be 1.013

at this point im not sure of the best method of how to get the beer out of the bucket to get an accurate reading, if I should put my airlock back on for simplicity's sake, and not sure what to do about my fermentation.

Sorry for all the questions, but it's my first time and I have a lot of them, without a lot of help...

The fact that bubbling has slowed down doesn't mean your fermentation has stalled, it just means that there isn't enough excess co2 for the airlock or the blowoff to need to vent. All either of those are are vents, valves to release excess co2, but it is not a direct gauge of what's happening in your fermenter. Sometimes airlocks never bubble, but they ferment just fine.

It's perfectly normal for fermentation to slow down as the most sugar is consumed initially, but that doesn't mean fermentation is done nor that fermentation is stalled.

There is still more than likely a ton of work that the yeast are still doing behind the scenes, it's just not dynamic.

In fact, all you really know is that your airlock isn't bubbling right now, not anything else. 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" like repitching, or bottling, or racking, without first 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?

Fermentation is thought to have finished when the gravity has not changed for 2 readings over three consequitive days. Not whether or not the airlock is blipping.

Now you really don't need to do anything right now, just leave it alone and give it at least another 1-2 weeks to finish up and let it clean up after itself.

But if you are really paranoid about it you can take a gravity reading.

This is what I use, and it works with both buckets and carboys. I replaced the plastic one a year ago with an extra long stainless baster from a kitchen ware store and it is awesome. But the plastic one from any grocery store works fine.



And



Here's what I do....

1) With a spray bottle filled with starsan I spray the lid of my bucket, or the mouth of the carboy, including the bung. Then I spray my turkey baster inside and out with sanitize (or dunking it in a container of sanitizer).

2) Open fermenter.

3) Draw Sample

4) fill sample jar (usualy 2-3 turky baster draws

5)Spray bung or lid with sanitizer again

6) Close lid or bung

6) take reading

It is less than 30 seconds from the time the lid is removed until it is closed again.

Probably less if you have help. And unless a bird flies in your place and lets go with some poop, you should be okay.

But don't assume something is wrong just based on a silly airlock or blowoff. The yeast rarely lets us down.

We need a poll on who here tastes their hydro samples vs dumping them back in!

iijakii said:

We need a poll on who here tastes their hydro samples vs dumping them back in!

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Hopefully noone dumps them back in...that is really risky.

Thanks for the quick and informative response. I agree watching the airlock for bubbles is just one way of telling whats going on in there, I was looking more at the bigger picture and adding it all up... Slowed fermentation and high fermentation temp could equate to the yeast not doin so hot.

I'm not too sure how the dr. - patient analogy applies (though I understand it), I'm not looking to hastily jump to the next step. Just lookin for some advice...

Well you said you though your fermentation has stalled....the only way to know is to take another reading....You can't judge by the bubbling what is happening at all....you can just assume...a hydrometer is like an x-ray..it tells you what is going on.


But the best advice we can give you beside taking a reading, and RELAXING.



Just leave you beer alone....

I'm gonna get a handy-dandy turkey tool, and post a reading, would that be advisable or should I just let it be? And trust me I'm alllllllllll for relaxing and letting it do its own thing, it's just easier to relax when I can rest assure that IT IS doing it's thing.

Revvy said:

Hopefully noone dumps them back in...that is really risky.

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I usually just swish it around in my mouth and spit it back in, is that bad?

took a gravity reading of 1.024 at 76* which calculates to 1.026... still looking to hit around 1.013. I plugged in my airlock while i had the lid off, and i noticed some bubbles every now and again (1 per 20 seconds)

according to brewcalcs.com im at 4.7%abw and 6.1 abv?

obuhmyuh said:

... this is my first beer brewing experience ...

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Welcome to the hobby. Please pick up your copy of "RDWHAHB ... Homebrewing & OCD; Are They Really Mutually Exclusive?" and join the rest of us compulsive worriers near the keezer at the back of the room.

obuhmyuh said:

First off I mistakenly took my beginning gravity ready right after I pitched ...

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Relax. Your gravity reading will be fine. Taking a hydrometer reading right after pitching should not alter your gravity reading unless you use a massive liquid starter. If you pitched a non-rehydrated dry yeast, the only thing you risked was removing a large number of yeast 'grains' that stuck to the hydrometer when you removed it. Otherwise, whatever hydrometer reading you got is good to go.

obuhmyuh said:

And I didnt use the little vial i just threw the hydrometer (sterile) into the beer and read it that way...

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Again, if it was sanitized, you're likely OK

obuhmyuh said:

Also I've kept my AC at about 74 degrees in an attempt to keep my kit below 80, much to my chagrin it was at about 80 for the first 2 days of fermentation. Which I tried to correct with a fan blowing on my bucket which lowered it to about 76-78...

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A little warm, but if everything was sanitized, the only thing you're really risking is some "off" flavors and aromas. Not exactly what you're shooting for but I've had warm ferments before. Unconventional, sure, but usually not undrinkable.

obuhmyuh said:

Everything was fine untill i noticed it slow down some last night and now its stopped.

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Not unexpected, considering you were fermenting on the warm end. As Revvy points out, the only way to know where you are for sure is to take another hydrometer reading.

obuhmyuh said:

... at this point im not sure of the best method of how to get the beer out of the bucket to get an accurate reading, if I should put my airlock back on for simplicity's sake, and not sure what to do about my fermentation.

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Revvy's method will work. You can also get a device called a "wine thief" (that's what I use). You sanitize it and dip it into your beer. It pulls enough liquid to fill a hydrometer jar. It's also big enough to drop a hydrometer into (one less thing to clean up).

If the bulk of your active fermentation has stopped, you're OK to put a sanitized airlock back onto your bucket. Simpler is always better as you point out.

Do nothing about your fermentation. Your beer is fine for you to leave on the yeast another week or 2 to let them clean up any fermentation byproducts. If your kitchen is still too warm, you might want to add a simple swamp bath (since you're using a fan anyway) to help you get the temperature down.

Before I got an extra fridge to use for fermentation, I used a large trash can filled with water in my spare bedroom. Fermenter goes into the can. Fill with water to cover about half of the fermenter's height. Wrap a wet towel around the fermenter and point the fan at it. Should get you a 5-7 degree temperature drop.

Oh, and on the poll for what we do with the hydrometer samples ... mine go into a juice glass and into the fridge for about 15 min to cold crash any sediment I might have gotten. Then "down the hatch"

winvarin said:

Oh, and on the poll for what we do with the hydrometer samples ... mine go into a juice glass and into the fridge for about 15 min to cold crash any sediment I might have gotten. Then "down the hatch"

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I was dumping all my samples in a 1 gallon fermentor and letting it go until it got full, including the wild stuff, it's still fermenting and is quite funky. I guess I need another one to start dumping in again or just step up to 3gallon.:rockin:

COLObrewer said:

I was dumping all my samples in a 1 gallon fermentor and letting it go until it got full, including the wild stuff, it's still fermenting and is quite funky. I guess I need another one to start dumping in again or just step up to 3gallon.:rockin:

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Wow, how many samples do you take? I'd be pissed off if I was losing that much beer. SWMBO would catch me up late at night crying and holding some empty bottles in my lap!

iijakii said:

Wow, how many samples do you take? I'd be pissed off if I was losing that much beer. SWMBO would catch me up late at night crying and holding some empty bottles in my lap!

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We brew alot, I have three sons in the 20s so beer doesn't age very long around here, we have actually been burying beer annualy at a campsite in the hills every spring so that we can save it at least a year. dig it up, drink last years, bury this years etc. etc.

Wow, thank you for answering some of my other questions, I was still wondering about them. As far as I can tell my fermenter is in the best spot as of right now... It's in the coat closet with a tile floor (better than carpet), I'm keeping the door cracked open (4-5") to let fresh air in and trying to keep as much daylight out... However its sharing a wall with a water heater in a closet outside. I suppose I could use the swamp cooler idea... Just wondering, you wrap the towel around the fermenter and put that in the water-filled trash can with a fan pointed at it? It's just weird I've kept my thermostat at a consistent 74-75 and I can't get it below 78...

Thanks again

The temp issue is your biggest issue now. It is hard to make good beer fermenting at those temps. You want to get it below 70, closer to 60 if you can. The swamp cooler idea works. A related alternative is to freeze some big soda or juice bottles. Then, when your fermenter is in the container of water, put the frozen bottles in, swapping them out twice a day, morning and night. You can keep the temperature right around 60-65 that way.

Swamp coolers are cheap and easy cooling, that's for sure. And the temperature of a large volume of water will change more slowly than ambient air. So your temperatures will stay more consistent.

You can always build one of these

This was going to be my plan B if my wife had nixed the idea of a fermentation fridge. I may still build one. I am about to delve into the world of lagers and was wondering how I was going to make my ales during the long lager period. I've never used one but they are supposed to be good for 10-20F cooling below ambient temp.

Yeah I like that fridge; however, I don't think it'll be a practical application for this batch, perhaps for a future... I like the frozen water bottles in the swamp cooler, but what were you saying about wrapping a towel around the fermenter before putting it in the cooler. And when we're talking large trash can are we talking about the big gray "brute" ones?

That can will certainly work. The idea behind wrapping a wet towel around the fermenter and then leaving it in water is heat transfer. Fermentation produces heat. That heat is readily transferred to the water in the wet towel. Evaporation is a cooling process. The fan evaporates the water (and the heat contained in it) away. Water from the trash can "wicks" up into the towel, keeping it wet. Then the additional heat from the fermenter is drawn into the new water on the towel and the whole process repeats itself.

It's the same basic principle our bodies use when we sweat. You trap the heat in moisture and draw it to the surface then evaporate it.

Thank you, I understand that process and it makes perfect sense, I was wondering if a wet towel around the trash can is what you meant.... I figured the surface area of water touch the plastic would be greater opposed to having the room temp water soak into the towel and then the water around that would be cooling the towel opposed to the fermenter... But it makes sense now, having the wet towel around the whole fermenter and that being half submerged in the water...
I'm lookin at pictures of cooler/t-shirt combos, and I think I get the principle. Kinda worried its too little too late though, never thought keeping it around the right temp would be a problem... Live and learn

my swamp cooler is in full effect. Got an 18 gal blue plastic tub with rope handles, wrapped in the towel half full with water with the fan pointed at it...

When I picked up my fermenter (trying not to squeeze it i just lifted from the sides), it bubbled rapidly and my airlock fluid went down... I'm just thinking it could have only gone one place... Down into my beer? And I haven't seen it bubble all day...

Doesn't look like anyone's lookin at this anymore, but just in case I took another gravity reading today and it's at 1.022 converting to 1.023 a .03 drop from oct. 1. Dry hopped today and gave it a gentle swirl, airlock bubblin now (hasn't been previously).