Quick reply needed, first brew!!

Hello.

My airlock doesnt bubble, although the water in it had shifted to the outer bulb, so its building up pressure but it wont bubble!! help!!!!

I added two yeast sachets since i have reason to believe that the first was out of date since i got it from a micro-brew kit. thanks!

How long since you pitched the yeast?

TimmD said:

How long since you pitched the yeast?

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The first, 6 hours ago, the 2nd 3 hours ago.

Relax! Fermentation can take up to 72 hours to begin. You have nothing to worry about for a couple of days. Not that you have anything to worry about then either.

It's way too soon to worry - lots of times it takes 24-36 hours to really start fermenting, and can take up to 72 hours. The yeast have to finish their reproductive cycle before they start the fermentation cycle.

Nurmey said:

Relax! Fermentation can take up to 72 hours to begin. You have nothing to worry about for a couple of days. Not that you have anything to worry about then either.

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RDWHAHB agreed, You might want to watch out that you dont blow out your airlock. Some of those dry yeasts can be pretty vigorous.

OMG IT BUBBLED!!!

It was a big one too, far out im so relieved. I just hope now i stirred it enough and that adding the extra yeast wont ruin it. Also, my initial gravity was 1050, is this ok?

its a lager

This is the first yeast sachet that i used.



Is that code the expiry date?

Hey, that went out on my birthday! 88/119/00007!

Weird.

chefchris said:

Yes, that yeast went out in 00007. Man, that was quite a year.

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Are you serious? And is my OG ok, it was 1050.

Ah, you caught me editing. I thought of something funnier once I pushed submit. And of course now I see the code that you're referring too.

Well, what was your OG suppose to be? Is this a kit?

I believe the date on that yeast is Aug 19, 2008. It's a little out of date but dry yeast is pretty much good for a year after the exp. date.

With any microorganism there is going to be some sort of lag phase, plus that open headspace has to be filled with carbon dioxide. I know I've had some batches take upwards of 60 hours before I saw noticeable signs of fermenation. If I had to venture a guess, I would think the number on the satchet is the package date...maybe packaged 08/19/2008

The only time I get a fermentation taking off in under six hours if I airate very well, and start off on a yeast cake from a previous batch. So don't worry about the slow start.
As for the OG, it depends on the recipe, but that will make a very good beer and the alcohol content will depend on your final gravity.
Now relax, stop worrying about it. Wait three weeks and take a hydrometer reading to see if its done. If it is, then bottle/keg, wait another three weeks and enjoy.

To really get fermentation going you could try using a yeast starter. I know your just getting started yourself but this is touted by most of the brewers to be a big jump forward in the brewing craft. It may be a bit intimidating at first, like most things in brewing, but it's not that hard to do. Just look at some of the forums. I thinks theres a sticky at the top of one of these on how to do it or look in the wiki.

Ok a progress report. For the last 24hrs the airlock has been bubbling non-stop. It bubbles every 2 seconds, and at like every 4th bubble it goes twice, like blup-blup real quick.

It has foamed a lot and where the yeast was pitched it made like a brown 'goo'.

What do you guys think? Is it bubbling too much because i pitched 2 yeast sachets?

Nah, it's doing what it's suppose to.

Relax and bookmark this thread. In 5 more batches come back to this thread and you'll laugh at yourself.

You're doing fine.

Ok now another progress report, it has been 4 days of fermentation. Here are my final gravity reports, i have yet to check it again tomorrow.




The hydrometer reads 1.004

Now, is the wort too cloudy? (The fermenter has a tap at the bottom) It has completely stopped bubbling now, and the two water levels in the airlock are almost even.

Now let me tell you what happened last night. I woke up a 2:30am, my bladder was a bit full, and as i was lying awake i heard bubbling. It was fairly frequent bubbling, i was sure that the bubbling would slow during the night since it would be a bit colder.
Well what i did earlier yesterday was set up a hotbox underneath the fermenter, it had a thermostat to control the wattage of the bulbs. But this failed... it was on full for the whole night. And when i got up to see the temperature on the fermenter, it was 32-34C!!! OMG i says and quickly took the fermenter off the hotplate and turned it off.

Well after that i couldn't sleep, the fermenter was vocalizing its torment by sad bubbling...

I hope i didn't ruin anything. But i guess these photos of the wort might help you guys determine if its ok!

thanks

bump, cmon gang.

I cannot see the photos at work. But at 4 days it should still be fermenting away. I personally would not do much more than watch the temperature and let the yeast do its thing.

I managed to pass the time by drinking store bought beer for the bottles. The LHBS wants $22 for 24 bottles. Which is about the cost of 24 bottles of decent store bought beer. Thats how I am justifying the increase of beer intake to my wife.

Ya, 4 days is not enough time. Let it do it's thing. On my first batch I waited 3 weeks to transfer it from the primary. To this day it's one of my best batches.

Patience.

Idyllic said:

Ok now another progress report, it has been 4 days of fermentation. Here are my final gravity reports, i have yet to check it again tomorrow.

The hydrometer reads 1.004

Now, is the wort too cloudy? (The fermenter has a tap at the bottom) It has completely stopped bubbling now, and the two water levels in the airlock are almost even.

Now let me tell you what happened last night. I woke up a 2:30am, my bladder was a bit full, and as i was lying awake i heard bubbling. It was fairly frequent bubbling, i was sure that the bubbling would slow during the night since it would be a bit colder.
Well what i did earlier yesterday was set up a hotbox underneath the fermenter, it had a thermostat to control the wattage of the bulbs. But this failed... it was on full for the whole night. And when i got up to see the temperature on the fermenter, it was 32-34C!!! OMG i says and quickly took the fermenter off the hotplate and turned it off.

Well after that i couldn't sleep, the fermenter was vocalizing its torment by sad bubbling...

I hope i didn't ruin anything. But i guess these photos of the wort might help you guys determine if its ok!

thanks

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If you keep messing with it every five minutes you're sure to ruin the batch, if you haven't already. Exactly how much colder was it going to get at night that you thought you needed to put a hotplate under your fermenter? Now you've raised the temperature to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit for a prolonged period of time. You've pitched two packets of yeast because the first one didn't take off in only three hours. And now you've cracked the fermenter open and taken a gravity reading after four days. Quick question: did you sanitize whatever tool you used to draw the sample?

The best thing you could do for your beer right now is keep your hands off it. Seriously. Take a vacation if you must, but leave your beer alone for a few weeks. More gravity readings, more attempts to manipulate the temperature, more whatever is going to do nothing but increase the odds of screwing something up.

MikeB said:

If you keep messing with it every five minutes you're sure to ruin the batch, if you haven't already. Exactly how much colder was it going to get at night that you thought you needed to put a hotplate under your fermenter? Now you've raised the temperature to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit for a prolonged period of time. You've pitched two packets of yeast because the first one didn't take off in only three hours. And now you've cracked the fermenter open and taken a gravity reading after four days. Quick question: did you sanitize whatever tool you used to draw the sample?

The best thing you could do for your beer right now is keep your hands off it. Seriously. Take a vacation if you must, but leave your beer alone for a few weeks. More gravity readings, more attempts to manipulate the temperature, more whatever is going to do nothing but increase the odds of screwing something up.

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The fermenter has a tap at the bottom, so getting a gravity reading doesnt require sanitation. The instructions say that it should be done in 5-6 days, and since the temperature has been roughly around 24C, i took a reading at day 4 and i will again at day 5. And the instructions also say that the FG should be about 1008-1010, mine is 1002, which is a lot lower. The only thing causing me concern is the cloudiness of the beer, probably due to the 2 sachets of yeast making a thicker sludge at the bottom. Im thinking about getting a siphoning tube to rack it off from the middle.

Step away from the fermenter. This is what we say to impatient brewers. You do not have any reason to be concerned. It takes 2 weeks to ferment any beer and messing with it only increases a chance of infection. You want the beer on the yeast in the primary for 2 weeks because you want the yeast to clean up the byproducts of fermentation. It also clears the beer as the sediment sinks to the bottom. You can then take a FG reading if you want and keg or bottle from the sanitized bottling bucket.

What are you brewing?

A coopers lager. Its from a micro brew kit.

Homebrew, Coopers homebrew beers and ales. Mix, brew, bottle.

You can check out the instructions here, http://www.coopers.com.au/media/files/1451.pdf.

Reasons for me to be concerned:

It says on page 7 that the FG should be 1008-1010, mine is 1002.

On the DVD when the guy takes a gravity reading his beer is all clear, mines cloudy and smells bad.

On page 7 it says fermentation should be completed in 4-7 days, it has now been 5 days at a reasonably high temperature.

It only bubbles once every 30mins or so, hence why i think its almost complete.

The guy impressed the girl with the beer they brewed together, i did it myself and im not impressed yet

OK. First off, leave the house, go to your local liquor store, and buy a few sixpacks of good beer. You're going to have to wait a while to get good beer. Patience IS a virtue, and it is well rewarded in brewing.

Second, go find your fermenter. Put it in a cool dark place, and ignore it for the next week or so. Continued rooting around in the fermenter won't help, and can only hurt.

Third, there is no third.

Step away from the beer and ignore it for at least a week. If there's anything wrong (and if there is, it's due to impatience and over-tweaking), you won't be able to do much to fix it at this point. So just put it away and ignore it for a week.

While you're waiting, go read this useful and insightful blog post from Revvy. http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

Idyllic said:

Reasons for me to be concerned:

It says on page 7 that the FG should be 1008-1010, mine is 1002.

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Well, first off you pitched two packages of yeast and fermented at the uppermost temp echelon of viability. You should be concerned because you messed with it and tried to fix something that wasn't broken.

On the DVD when the guy takes a gravity reading his beer is all clear, mines cloudy and smells bad.

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You have kept messing with it and heated it and ingeneral done everything possible to ruin the batch. The fact that it smells bad is not surprising.

On page 7 it says fermentation should be completed in 4-7 days, it has now been 5 days at a reasonably high temperature.

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Just because the primary part of fermentation is complete within a few days does not mean it is done!!! Especially now that you have heated your beer to over 90. Because of this you need to keep your beer on the yeast for at least another week or so to help clean up the aftereffects of this faux pas.

It only bubbles once every 30mins or so, hence why i think its almost complete.

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Meaningless. Utterly meaningless. I have two in primary that have not bubbled in over a week. They might be ready to transfer to secondary in another two weeks.

The guy impressed the girl with the beer they brewed together, i did it myself and im not impressed yet

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If you keep messing with it you will not have anything to be impressed about.

The funny thing is I think everyone here has been where you are. It is called noobitus. The difference is that most of us don't mess with the beer as much.

Ok just to make sure. You guys have realized that the instructions say 4-7, but insist on another week?

Just leave it be. Everyone worries a bit, but trust us...you run the risk of hosing the batch if you keep messing with it. Mine I just bottled sat for 2 solid weeks and no bubbles. It's beer, it does what it does, don't rush it.

Idyllic said:

Ok just to make sure. You guys have realized that the instructions say 4-7, but insist on another week?

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Nothing bad can happen by letting it sit longer. Many bad things can happen if you don't let it sit long enough. Those instructions are geared toward the person who just wants beer fast, not necessarily good beer. The instructions take a lot of short cuts and shave the process to the bare minimum in all areas. They don't even instruct you to take an initial gravity reading, so there is no way to calculate your alcohol content at the end. The whole purpose of that kit is to get beer down your throat in as short a time as possible.

Here is what will likely happen. You'll finish this beer and it will be serviceable. Your next one will be a little better and you'll make fewer mistakes. The one after that, a little better. But none will be as good as you want. So you'll start to read up on what you can do to make better beer. And six months from now you'll be asking questions about dry hopping your IPA or how big of a starter you need for your next imperial stout. And we'll all look back on this thread and laugh a little.

At least another week (and this is assuming the kit came with an ale yeast rather than an actual lager yeast.) First off, each beer has its own personality and will develop according to it's own schedule. The temps and fermentability of the wort are almost certainly not going to be exactly those of the test batches done by the kit developers. Also, allowing more time for primary fermentation will result in a cleaner, more palatable beer in the end. This is because, during primary fermentation and particularly during warm fermentation temps, yeast throw off compounds called diacetyl (they taste sort of like butter.) However, if given enough time in the primary the yeast will actually consume the diacetyl before going dormant resulting in, you guessed it, better beer.

Most kits, even those labeled as lagers, actually use an ale yeast rather than a lager yeast because ales are much more within the realm of the beginning brewer than a lager.

eddie said:

At least another week (and this is assuming the kit came with an ale yeast rather than an actual lager yeast.)

Most kits, even those labeled as lagers, actually use an ale yeast rather than a lager yeast because ales are much more within the realm of the beginning brewer than a lager.

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And perhaps this fact will also indicate just how much you can trust the makers of this product to give you accurate information on your beer - and the best methods to use in brewing.

Next brew do a partial mash kit. You'll be glad you did. But even then - you gotta mellow out a bit! :fro:

The 23208 Julian date code is the packing date for the yeast. If it was the expiration date it would have said best before 19 08 2008.

The yeast in the original series lager is in fact an ale yeast. It is similar to the ale yeast strain that is used in the bottle conditioned ales the Coopers Brewery produces. While the final product may produce some esthers, it does have a flavor similar to lagers. Coopers does use lager yeast strains in the Brewmaster Pilsener, the European Lager, and the Heritage Lager.

The fact that they use an ale yeast for the original series Lager is not dishonest. It's just the style of yeast that has always been provided for that beer kit. When they began making beer kits there wasn't a viable dry lager yeast. The Coopers original series Lager is still far and away their number one selling beer kit. People having making it for many years.

Holy Crap. OP, RELAX!!!!! Go through this forum and read all the beginner posts. That should take a few weeks. Once you're done, your beer will be done.

Alright guys a quick update.

Im just about to bottle, ive waited a week (it was easy since we were painting the room where the fermenter was) and ive cleaned the bottles and the caps.

Im going to use a siphoning tube instead of the tap so to minimize the cloudiness of the beer from the stuff at the bottom. Wish me luck guys!

Idyllic said:

Alright guys a quick update.

Im just about to bottle, ive waited a week (it was easy since we were painting the room where the fermenter was) and ive cleaned the bottles and the caps.

Im going to use a siphoning tube instead of the tap so to minimize the cloudiness of the beer from the stuff at the bottom. Wish me luck guys!

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How are stirring the priming sugar into the batch thoroughly without disturbing the sediment at the bottom?

How are you going to make sure the racking cane is not moving all around as you bottle which will stir up trub?

Let us know how it turns out. I've never bottled a batch in such a short period of time.

I used carbonation drops, so i didnt have to stir it.

I did move the racking can all the time when it was in the fermenter just to see where the end was by putting it up against the fermenter, i dont think thats a problem really.

I turned out just great, no problems at all. Im hoping that the cloudiness will disappear as the yeast in the bottles eat the sugar. But i guess we'll see in 11 days.

You should really leave it for AT LEAST 3 weeks in the bottles, especially since you bottled too soon.