Stuck fermentation?

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Hercules Rockefeller

Hercules Rockefeller

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Hi everybody,
I am currently in primary fermentation in my first ever batch of beer, and I am worried that my fermentation is stuck. I pitched my yeast on Tuesday morning, and tuesday night the airlock was bubbling pretty good, about once every few seconds. yesterday (wednesday morning) it had slowed down to 2-3 bubbles a minute. as of this morning I did not observe any activity in the airlock. So now since this is my first brew, I am paranoid that I have stuck fermentation. From reading the boards, I have some good ideas on how to prevent this in the future (I was in a hurry and may not have stirred the yeast into the wort thoroughly enough) but I was wondering if there is anything that I can do now to make sure my fermentation completes. Any advice it greatly appreciated!
 
Hercules Rockefeller said:
Hi everybody,
I am currently in primary fermentation in my first ever batch of beer, and I am worried that my fermentation is stuck. I pitched my yeast on Tuesday morning, and tuesday night the airlock was bubbling pretty good, about once every few seconds. yesterday (wednesday morning) it had slowed down to 2-3 bubbles a minute. as of this morning I did not observe any activity in the airlock. So now since this is my first brew, I am paranoid that I have stuck fermentation. From reading the boards, I have some good ideas on how to prevent this in the future (I was in a hurry and may not have stirred the yeast into the wort thoroughly enough) but I was wondering if there is anything that I can do now to make sure my fermentation completes. Any advice it greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Now im just taking a guess at it, but did you aerate your wort pretty good? I brew sometimes with a yeast called safbrew s-33 and after 3 days no activity, but is still fermenting. Flick your airlock and see if bubbles come out or if the airlock moves up. If it does move up, it means its still fermenting. take a hydrometer reading and get back with me.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did not get a hydrometer reading, due to the time constraint I was in. That was definitely the first lesson I learned, that setting aside a good block of time is going to be essential to doing the job right. I'll get the hydro reading tonight and post back. As far as aerating the wort, that is something I was wondering about also, to see if I did it right. I did a partial boil, and put the fermenting bucket on the floor and added cool water from my brita filter pitcher that was on the counter top above. So that was churning up the wort pretty good. and when I put the lid on the bucket, I gave it a couple of good shakes to make sure it was aerated a bit more. any thoughts or comments?
 
I got a hydrometer reading today and it was 1.020. I noticed that there is still some bubbling, but not much, maybe once every couple of minutes. The temp in the room had gone down from 70 the other day to $160 today, could that be part of the problem?
 
I have brewed 3 batches of beer so far, and have got a stuck fermentation every single time for two reasons: 1) lack of use of a yeast starter, and 2) temperature fluctuations. My apartment drops to the low 60s at night, shutting the yeast down. I bought a brew belt to warm up the beer and start the fermentation again, which caused it to bubble again but ultimately did not drop the SG by any significant amount.

My plan to avoid this the next time around is to use a yeast starter, and also to keep my fermenter in a water bath to help regulate the temperature, and will keep an aquarium heater in the water bath to keep the water at a constant temperature.

In terms of your current batch, as long as it’s bubbling, it’s fermenting, even if bubbles only come once every minute or two. 1.020 could be a little high depending on the type of beer you are brewing, but not so high that your batch won’t turn out. Let it continue fermenting until it doesn’t bubble at all, then bottle it. It should be fine, it will just have a lower alcohol level, but it should taste good.
 
Stuck ferments and winter seem to go together, maybe that's why homebrew's thoughts turn to lagers. Try warming it up a bit, I use a small electric space heater and just let it blow on the bucket.
 

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