The Long, Slow Ferment Home...

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Evan!

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2006
Messages
11,835
Reaction score
115
Location
Charlottesville, VA
In 35 batches, I do believe this is the first time I've seen this. A month ago I brewed a smoked porter with an OG of 1.067. I pitched some harvested scottish ale yeast into it that had a nice 2L starter. Fermentation was weird, very tiny krausen, but vigorous nonetheless. After 2 weeks, all activity had stopped, and the FG was a lousy 1.032 (not that lousy, I suppose, considering the pound of flaked barley and the 4 oz of maltodextrin). So when I racked to secondary, I threw some US-56 in there just to see if they'd be able to convert any of the sugar that that weak-ass scottish strain was too wimpy to eat.

So, for the last two weeks, there's been a constant stream of tiny bubbles rising to the surface, and airlock burps about every 15-20 seconds. At first I thought that it was just leftover activity and it'd slow down, but it's remained constant for 2 weeks now.

I'm not concerned...in fact, I'm glad that the US-56 is taking care of all that unfermented sugar...but I'm curious how long this might take. Anyone have a similar experience?
 
I had a barley wine (1.083 w 1728 Scottish) that took almost 5 months to finish and that had 8 oz. of peat-smoked in it. had about 60% attenuation after two weeks & about 65% at a month. I kegged it with some champaign yeast & it just kept sliding down to 1.012.
 
Hey, I don't have champagne yeast, but I do have montrachet. Do you think that it'll ferment out as dry as champagne will? Just in case the US-56 decides to stop short of a good FG.

I got all the time in the world. Plenty of stouts, etc., hanging around in bottle ready to drink, and plenty of empty carboys.

Oh, and by the way, David, how did that B-wine turn out? Like licking the floor of a wood stove? You've gotta have massive cojones to use any more than 4 oz of peated on a 5 gallon batch...
 
Evan! said:
You've gotta have massive cojones to use any more than 4 oz of peated on a 5 gallon batch...


Lol, I just shudder thinking of peat-anything...last time I had something with peat it was Laphroaig. Not my cup of tea...er peat...er well you know...

Speaking of long slow ferments, I finally had one pretty much finish out that took 3 months. I had added some sour cherry syrup in the secondary (I normally stay away from adjuncts such as that, but the ingredients list was: Sour Cherries, Sugar). The brew started in mid Feb, and it fermented down right quick, but then I secondaried and added the syrup. It was pretty vigorous at first but then just plunked along....kind of rolling with the slight fluctuations in temp in my one section of basement that has a bit less outer wall exposure.

I wasn't in a rush or concerned though. It tastes fantastic, but every aspect of that recipe has been a challenge. It even had troubles last night at bottle time! :D
 
Back
Top