Did my fermentaion quit on me?

So I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of an English Mild Brown Ale. Got the recipe from my local brew shop, the last one they gave me came out great.

So anyway. Started out fine. 24 hours after I pitched the yeast I had bubbles like crazy coming out of the airlock. A nice thick layer of foam on the top. Looked normal. But after about 4 days, there was almost no activity at all. I thought maybe this yeast I was using had a different personality than what I'm used to (this is only the 5th or 6th brew I've done).

So I let it sit for 2 weeks total and I bottled it yesterday. I been in the habit of sampling my brews at various stages after bottling. So I just tried this last one, and it tastes very watery. Of course it isn't carbonated yet, but I'm wondering if there's any alcohol in it. (I didn't do any OG or FG readings)

And I'm thinking back to the formation starting off strong, and then seeming to stop altogether. Did my fermentation quit?

Also, the temp in my closet where I stored the fermented ran a little hot, but not much. The recipe said to ferment at 70, and I caught it climbing to 80, but I would t think that would be enough to kill it altogether.

Any thoughts?

Edit: recipe said ferment at 75 and it sometimes climbed to 80.

Sometimes they need a little encouragement. I've had several batches stick on me...either slow to start or ferment a little bit and drop off. A good swirl of the fermenter bucket or carboy got it going again. Bottling an ESB tonight that I had to encourage once a day for a few days, until it simply stopped producing gas.

As for the readings, I highly recommend taking them so you have a good idea of where your brew is at. Hope that helps.

After 4 days of fermentation it was probably done. It can taste watery without carbonation. The extra two weeks are for the yeast to clean up after themselves.

your yeast is most vigorous for the first 4-5 days. After that it slows down drastically. So i don't think you had bad yeast, but what i've run into (concerning the watery taste) is that i didn't get enough starch conversion from my grain soak. Thats where taking gravity readings can come in handy. it can tell you if you have enough sugars in your beer for the yeast to eat and turn to alcohol. if you have lower OG then you will have less alcohol, which in my case can lead to a bit of a watery taste to the beer (atleast very unbalance). But let the beer sit for a few weeks in the bottles and it will have a different taste from the first one you try!

let it sit for two weeks and take a gravity reading..then you will know for sure what happened

SteveDay said:

So anyway. Started out fine. 24 hours after I pitched the yeast I had bubbles like crazy coming out of the airlock. A nice thick layer of foam on the top. Looked normal. But after about 4 days, there was almost no activity at all. I thought maybe this yeast I was using had a different personality than what I'm used to (this is only the 5th or 6th brew I've done).

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That's pretty normal behavior. Depending on the yeast and conditions it could have easily fermented in a couple days. Most the beers I make will bubble a bunch for 3 days then almost nothing after that. That said, you shouldn't rely on airlock activity as indications of fermentation. You should be using a hydrometer for that.

So I let it sit for 2 weeks total and I bottled it yesterday. I been in the habit of sampling my brews at various stages after bottling. So I just tried this last one, and it tastes very watery. Of course it isn't carbonated yet, but I'm wondering if there's any alcohol in it. (I didn't do any OG or FG readings)

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"Watery" would imply that you've got a low gravity, which implies that fermentation happened just fine. It won't taste so "watery" after carbing. Now, if "watery" is what you should expect for your recipe is a different issue altogether. We'd need the recipe as well as your OG and FG.

And I'm thinking back to the formation starting off strong, and then seeming to stop altogether. Did my fermentation quit?

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No.

Also, the temp in my closet where I stored the fermented ran a little hot, but not much. The recipe said to ferment at 70, and I caught it climbing to 80, but I would t think that would be enough to kill it altogether.

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That's not nearly hot enough to kill the yeast, at worst you produced some additional esters which may cause some off flavors.

Nice. Thanks for the help all. I guess what threw me was the sudden stop. On my previous brews, after a few days it slowed down, but it still kept going for a while. Like 1 bubble every 45-60 seconds, or even every 2 minutes after 10 days or so. But on this one, there was nothing by day 5 or 6. Like I had a 5 minute staring contest with my airlock and didn't see a single bubble.

That just made me a little nervous. But all of your responses so far have reassured me that things are probably fine. I guess at this point I don't really have anything to lose, so I'll just wait a few weeks and see what happens!