Another repitch question

I decided to get back into brewing after almost 5 years away from it. I bought a decent kit to include an aerator. I didn't spring for a chiller though. I brewed three batches last weekend. A crystal honey ale and two batches of a hallertau hopped pale ale. I got a little sloppy (well a lot sloppy with the honey ale) in regards to tempature at time of pitching. The honey took off real slow and stopped bubbling yesterday,it was pitched around 2 am Saturday. The first pale ale batch was pitched pretty close to temp and too off big time less than 8 hours later. By Sundaymorning it was bubbling steady and fast.by yesterday,it too has stopped bubbling. I made another pale ale Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning it was bubbling pretty good,but slowed down remarkably a couple hours later. Today it has stopped and the gravity says it has a ways to go. Both pale ales were areated for 30 minutes before pitching with an air pump/filter/aerating stone system. I have to go up to my girlfriends house today to check the other two batches gravity this afternoon. Does it sound like I need to repitch all three due to the original pitching temp being too high? The yeast I used was dry SAL.

What temperature was it pitched at, what temperature is it fermenting at, what is the gravity now and how old was the yeast?

I still have to check the first two batches.the temp on the first was probably really high since it was my first one in 5 years and forgot to at least bath the pot in cold water before adding it to the car boy. By that time it was almost two am and I just pitched the yeast. The second batch was at temp,so I am not so worried at all with that one. The third,was around 90 since I almost forgot again to chill the pot and accidentally dumped half the sort in the bucket before remembering. I actually have hope for that batch because the OG was around 1.05 when i pitched and now it is around 1.012. A very hazy yellow color with lots of stuff floating in it. When i get a chance today to check the gravity on the other two I will be reposting the results. The first batch is my main concern,I think the other two just went super fast because I aerated both for at least 30 minutes. The yeast was brand new packets of dry SAFbrew purchased the day of brewing. My understanding was that this yeast needed no starter. I had always used liquid wyeast years ago and was used to longer fermentation with more blow off.

There is rarely a reason to repitch yeast, in fact I've never done it ever. Most of the time a person thinks something is wrong is when they are equating a bubbling or non bubbling airlock with fermentation, then when they take a they see that fermentation is indeed happening.

Yeast doesn't just decide to die. Most of the time bubbling slows down, or ends, NOT because fermentation has stuck or the yeast has died, but because it is simple not generating any EXCESS co2 to cause the airlock to blip. It is not a fermentation gauge, it's a vent, a valve to keep excess gas from blowing the lid off the fermenter. Just because it's not blipping doesn't mean anything is wrong, just that it doesn't need to blip.

Most of the time if fermentation has stalled, it's because the temp has gone down to the dormancy temp and the yeast has gone to sleep, if that's the case you don't need to add more yeast, you just need to move the fermenter to someplace warmer so the yeast can wake up again and get back to work.

Your yeast wants to work, it wants to eat sugar, and pee alcohol and fart co2, it's its sole reason for living, that and ****ing of course. But despite what many new brewers might think, or have read in books from 30 years ago, yeast really doesn't just not work for us anymore, except under the rarest of circumstances, like it getting cooked in a hot car, or if it was drpopped into boiling wort.

More than likely everything is fine, just that you're reading more into what an airlock is than anything else. THat's why it's good to take a gravity reading.

I think I'm just going to leave well enough alone and check it Sunday like I planned. I think you are right,I know I made a couple mistakes or sort of rushed pitching and now I am overly concerned.

I think one thing that sort of got me concerned is that back in 2006,when I first brewed beer,myself and my two friends all had kits and every batch we brewed needed a blow off hose first. Then we switched to airlocks after the inevitable blow over occurred. None of these batches blew over or even came close so that got me concerned,as well as the fact that back then,the airlocks on every batch I ever did and every batch I ever saw them do bubbled for days. Those batches were all done with liquid wyeast and flower hops,versus the dry safbrew I used this time and pellet hops. Maybe advancement in yeast quality explains it. All I know is that buying blow off hose seems to have been a cheap but useless investment!

Revvy said:

Your yeast wants to work, it wants to eat sugar, and pee alcohol and fart co2, it's its sole reason for living, that and ****ing of course. But .

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I don't care how many times I see that posted it makes me laugh

+1

MRAPgunner said:

I think one thing that sort of got me concerned is that back in 2006,when I first brewed beer,myself and my two friends all had kits and every batch we brewed needed a blow off hose first. Then we switched to airlocks after the inevitable blow over occurred. None of these batches blew over or even came close so that got me concerned,as well as the fact that back then,the airlocks on every batch I ever did and every batch I ever saw them do bubbled for days. Those batches were all done with liquid wyeast and flower hops,versus the dry safbrew I used this time and pellet hops. Maybe advancement in yeast quality explains it. All I know is that buying blow off hose seems to have been a cheap but useless investment!

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Blowoffs or not blowoffs are just like airlocks in that they really mean nothing. If you don't have a blowoff it doesn't mean anything's wrong, if you do have one it doesn't mean anything wrongs. You could split a 10 gallon batch of beer into two carboys, pitch the same yeast and one blows off and one doesn't. It's not a sign of anything.

A beer that has a vigorous fermentation is really no different from one that has a slow and steady quiet fermentation.

I've only had 3 blowoffs in hundreds of batches of beer. One was a barleywine, and one was a session beer, so even gravity isn't an indicator if if something is going to blow.

It's yeast you're never going to know if it's done unless you take some gravity readings.

There are countless threads through here about cold crashing and people thinking the yeast is alive again as cold fluids hold CO2 better. There are a lot of people wondering if they should repitch because they had a blow off and think the yeast are gone. The list can go on.

Bottom line is and what Revvy has explained, the yeast eat the sugar, pee alcohol, and fart CO2.

You can read the Apocalypso Opinions it's an AHS (Austin Homebrew Supply) recipe. THere's a guy that's done 7 batches and had 2 or 3 blow offs. The one batch I did was a very vigorous fermentation. However the beer still comes out great regardless and after all that's what really matters

Thanks everyone,I was just basically nervous that I did something wrong,but I am positive that all is well. By the way,this site is outstanding.