Is my beer dead??

Hy all.

Sorry for the repeating subject, but I can use a little help.
Last sunday I made my first batch. A Pale Ale kit (all grain) that I bought from my supplier. My OG was 1.048 which seems good. On monday morning, about 12h after yeast pitching the airlock was bubbling very good. It stoped on monday night. On tuesday night I took a gravity reading, it was 1.023. So I left it there and the airlock showed some bubbling, but at a very slow rate. I know that airlock bubbling doesn´t correlate to fermenting.

Today, 1 week after pitching I was planning to transfer to secundary, so I took another gravity reading and it was 1.022, the same as Tuesday (5 days ago).
I was wondering if the yeasts are still working??

My main concern is temperature, since I live in Brazil and we had ambient temp readings this week of 95ºF. How bad is this for the yeast? Should I do something? Anyway, I didn´t transfer it to secundary, my plan now is to wait another 2 weeks and bottle. Any ideas???

Thanks very much for the help!!

P.S. - I will get a way to control the fermenting temperature for the next batches.
P.S.S - Sorry for the english mistakes.


Andre

Welcome to HBT! And don't worry about your english, it's fine - better than some of ours.

I seriously doubt that your yeast is dead, but the temperature control is a problem, as you identified. You could try wrapping the carboy in wet towels, and let the evaporation carry heat away from the beer.

You should also get a temperature strip, either from your homebrew supplier or an aquarium store - this will tell you what the beer is at.

Based on your timetable, even if the temperatures were ideal you would still want to leave the carboy sit for another week or so before doing anything. So - let me be the first to say - Relax! Don't Worry, have a beer!

I would say pretty much the same. The temp will be a problem. Although brewing an AG for your first batch is kind of brave. You should really have a better understanding of the process before you go AG. It's possible that the sugars you're measuring are not all fermentable and that your yeast is having trouble breaking the rest of them down. your current attenuation is at about 53% and your projected ABV is at about 3.4%.

Try to get the temp down and if that doesn't work, see if you can get some more yeast to pitch.

Seeing as you brewed an Ale, you really do not want th temp of your Wort to get over 70 degrees. I have ni idea how hot your yeast got, but yes, high temps will negatively affect your yeast. Soooo, here's what I do.


First of all, are you using glass carboys? If so, put them into milk crates. If you don't have any on hand, no biggee. Here's the important part. Place your carboys into a Water bath during fermentation. I live in the North East of the US, and all of my beers go into a Water bath for fermentation temp control reasons. I feel it's the easiest, simplest, and most cost efficient way to control your temps. Find yourself something that will hold enough water to cover at least 1/2 of the carboy with water(I use 150 quart coolers). Next, get yourself 2 empty 1 gallon water jugs. Fill the water jugs 3/4 full, and freeze them both. Now, get yourself a good BREWING Thermometer. Place the thermometer into your water bath. What ever the thermometer reads during your primary fermentation phase, your carboys will be at, temp wise. If you want to hold 68 degrees, and you are to hot, put one of those frozen 1 gallon jugs of water into the bath with the carboy. Watch your temp. Once you get where you want to be, minus a couple degrees, take the frozen jug out and put it back into the freezer. If your temps are to cold, simply get yourself something that can take out a gallon of water, and add some hot water to the Bath. You will need to be vigilant for the first 48-72 hours of Primary Fermentation as far as doing this. After this, your Yeast will slow down, and the Temp Sways will get a lot easier to deal with. Remember, that water bath is your best friend as the water that surrounds your carboy will keep your Temps stable in Hot weather, and in Cold weather.

Sorry about the long answer, but I have been using the Water bath method now for over 7 years. I brew every other weekend, and I am still using the water bath method. It's simple, cheap, and it works.