Is this change in SG fast, slow or normal for Nottingham dry yeast?

Brewed a porter on saturday and pitched rehydrated Nottingham yeast that evening with an OG of 1.062. Decided to check it today and the gravity is now at 1.022. Is this change in gravity fast, slow or normal for Nottingham yeast? I don't have much experience with this yeast and this is the first time I ever checked the gravity of an ale after 48 hours. The fermentor is at 66-67 F.

Thanks for any input.

Nottingham is a beast at that temp, so it's not too surprising. It works just fine as low as 58-59.

You said the fermenter is at 66-67. Do you mean ambient temp, the temp on the outside of the fermenter, or the temp inside? Nottingham pitched in the mid-60s will raise the temp in the fermenter like crazy.

Perfectly normal.

Thanks for the heads up on notty's temp impact. The room temp has been 66-67 but I just checked the adhesive strip on the fermenting bucket and it read 70 F so I took the fermentor downstairs to our basement where it is 2-3 degrees cooler. The other time I used notty I had all sorts of activity in the air-lock and this time there is no visible activity (which I know does not imply that nothing is going on).

So for future use is it better to have notty ferment on the higher or lower side of 65 F?

thanks

msa8967 said:

So for future use is it better to have notty ferment on the higher or lower side of 65 F?

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I would just make sure to keep the temp inside the fermenter under 70 for sure, and 65 to be safe. Nottingham starts to seriously misbehave in the low 70s.

At this point, moving the fermenter to a cooler area won't do much because the bulk of fermentation is finished. In the future though, I bet with the temps you have in your home you could just put the fermenter in another container filled with water, which would take care of the heat of the fermentation itself. A very simple swamp cooler.

I will try this method of a swamp coooler next time I use notty. Now I wish I had paid closer attention to the temp strip outside the fermentor. We have our first child that is starting to get around pretty fast now at 10 months and I lost track of details with this batch of beer as I have been much more focussed on him.

Thanks for the advice.

Right on. I suppose the little guy is just a tiny bit more important than the beer.


IMHO, properly controlling fermentation temp is the low hanging fruit in homebrewing. You can achieve a big improvement in quality with little effort.

Normal

My last batch using Nottingham got high krausen in 7-8 hours.

How long did the high krausen remain in its position? When I opened the lid today after 44 hours from pitching I notice a very distinct trub ring about 1/2-1 inch above the wort level. Would the krausen leave this after falling?