Midwest Irish Red fermintation?

Since I am new to brewing I have a quick question. I am brewing the Irish Red from Midwest and it only has shown signs of fermentation in airlock for 1.5 days. Is this common?

Welcome to the hobby! My first was their Autumn Amber, and it was delicious.

Airlock activity is an unreliable indication of the start and end of fermentation. Many people around here including me will tell you not to worry about it, and take a gravity reading after a couple weeks. If you have two identical readings within three days, fermentation is complete, and you can move on to the next step in your process.

I'll be brewing up the same Red Ale from Midwest very soon...I hope in the next week. I'll keep an eye on this post for sure, as well as maybe we can share our results. This will be my first batch ever as well.

Cheers!

Here some pics of the current brew. The FG ended up being 1.016. I was hoping for lower but I will take what I can get. My wort temp may have been a bit to high at pitching. Let me know what you think. Since I am new to this let me know if this looks normal : ) hopefully so.

Eamster said:

Here some pics of the current brew. The FG ended up being 1.016. I was hoping for lower but I will take what I can get. My wort temp may have been a bit to high at pitching. Let me know what you think. Since I am new to this let me know if this looks normal : ) hopefully so.

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I'm still relatively green, but that looks like a perfectly cromulent beer.

I'm sure your is fine... I too have Midwest's Irish Red in the fermentor right now! However, I created a starter using WYeast 1084 (Irish Ale yeast) and got bubbles within 3hrs and lasted a good 3 days.

PS what was you OG reading? Mine was 1.052 but I also crushed my grains (if that makes any difference) and did a full 5.5gal boil.

Let us know how it turns out!

Robert

Not sure what the OG was. The wort was very foamy at the top after I topped it off so I couldn't get a good reading. I need to get a thief so I can get more accurate readings.

Eamster said:

Since I am new to brewing I have a quick question. I am brewing the Irish Red from Midwest and it only has shown signs of fermentation in airlock for 1.5 days. Is this common?

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Very common! In fact, the Miller Lite "clone" I just brewed showed absolutely NO activity in the airlock. My OG was 1.040 and it finished at 1.000, giving me a 5.3% ABV. How did it finish out? Amalase Enzyme. I'm on a low-carb diet, and will only have 4.2 g in each bottle.

I've also had other batches do little to no activity and since I got out of the Mr. Beer kits some 5 years ago, I've never brewed a batch below 4.8%. So as you can see, airlocks are quite unreliable as indicators of the final product, and is especially dependent on what you use in your airlock. The thinner stuff like water & vodka will tend to show more activity than something like glycerin, which is what I use most of the time.

"Relax. Don't worry, have a homebrew!" -- Charlie Papazian

Glad to see some other beginners out here. Yesterday was my first ever Brew Day and I, too, was using the Midwest Irish Red. A full 5.5 gallon boil, using a turkey fryer. Man was it a nice day to start this amazing hobby/addiction. My OG reading was 1.042 and the only hiccup I found was the cooling process... I used an ice bath, but (obviously) the hot pot melted the ice in the water very quickly and I had only bought 20 lbs of ice to go into the bath, thinking this was enough. I was wrong. So total cool down time was bout 30 minutes.

I finished about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and this morning as I checked on my new baby, there was some substantial bubbling going on in the airlock. And I know that this is not the only way to see or know whats going on, but it makes me happy to see that I might have actually done it right

I gotta hand it to you guys on here, without reading the posts for the last 2 weeks, I would not have been so comfortable in my first Brew Day. Gotta say I will be back! Already planning #2.

Looks familiar..



My fermentation was very quick and non eventful as well.

Thanks for the comparison picture! Looks like mine is doing what it is supposed to be doing. I will be bottling thursday so I am quite excited. Did what everyone recommended and just left it in the primary for two weeks instead of putting it in the secondary. Can't wait to taste the results. Next I am thinking Porter then maybe a Bourbon Barrel Ale!

janson745 said:

Glad to see some other beginners out here. Yesterday was my first ever Brew Day and I, too, was using the Midwest Irish Red. A full 5.5 gallon boil, using a turkey fryer. Man was it a nice day to start this amazing hobby/addiction. My OG reading was 1.042 and the only hiccup I found was the cooling process... I used an ice bath, but (obviously) the hot pot melted the ice in the water very quickly and I had only bought 20 lbs of ice to go into the bath, thinking this was enough. I was wrong. So total cool down time was bout 30 minutes.

I finished about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and this morning as I checked on my new baby, there was some substantial bubbling going on in the airlock. And I know that this is not the only way to see or know whats going on, but it makes me happy to see that I might have actually done it right

I gotta hand it to you guys on here, without reading the posts for the last 2 weeks, I would not have been so comfortable in my first Brew Day. Gotta say I will be back! Already planning #2.

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Start your ice bath with cold tap water only, gently stir the wort. Once the water heats up, drain and repeat until the temp drops to under 120 degrees, then add your ice. I used to fill the sink about 3 times before adding the ice. Hope that helps.

This was my first brew. Just kegged it three days ago and it turned out fantastic!

This was my first brew as well. I had decent airlock activity, but very small krausen layer and I didn't even get the explosive hot break during boil. If you are bottling though, and you may have a different experience, but mine needed 3 weeks to the day to carb up and I recommend leaving them in the fridge for 3 days before trying. The first one I had at 3 weeks and 2 days in the fridge had a bit of the carbonic bite from the carbonation, but 3 weeks and 3 days was heaven.

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering how long the carbonation process would be. I might try one each week after bottling just to see how it evolves.

Bottles cleaned for bottling day!

This was my first brew too. Four brews ago. Your fg is fine trust me. It will result in over 5 apv. Og should have been between 4 and 5. I moved mine to the secondary after a week. In retro may should have left in primary and extra week. Bottled and left for two weeks and i am on my last 4 bottles. Lol! Good hoppy beer. Not bad.

janson745 said:

Glad to see some other beginners out here. Yesterday was my first ever Brew Day and I, too, was using the Midwest Irish Red. A full 5.5 gallon boil, using a turkey fryer. Man was it a nice day to start this amazing hobby/addiction. My OG reading was 1.042 and the only hiccup I found was the cooling process... I used an ice bath, but (obviously) the hot pot melted the ice in the water very quickly and I had only bought 20 lbs of ice to go into the bath, thinking this was enough. I was wrong. So total cool down time was bout 30 minutes.

I finished about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and this morning as I checked on my new baby, there was some substantial bubbling going on in the airlock. And I know that this is not the only way to see or know whats going on, but it makes me happy to see that I might have actually done it right

I gotta hand it to you guys on here, without reading the posts for the last 2 weeks, I would not have been so comfortable in my first Brew Day. Gotta say I will be back! Already planning #2.

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Here is what I do. I got a plasic tub from crate and barrel for like 4 bucks. Big. Fill it hapf with chilled water from freezer during my boil. I keep empty water bottles refill them and freeze them. Set the pot in the chilled water and put frozen bottles around it. Chill break will usually plato about 80. Keep the bottles switched out even during fermentation. Ales work best between 68 and 73. Good luck.

Here are a couple pictures of the beer at bottling.

I am very excited to see mine. Today is day 5 in Primary... Airlock has stopped bubbling, but I will leave it be for a while longer. I am surprised at the brightness of the red. I was expecting a more dark, deep red color.

Wow am I ready to get it in some bottles. Thank you for keeping my excitement level at an 11. :rockin:

Amen! Lookin great!
Mine is at day 12 in the fermentor. Thinking of kegging it in the next week or so !?

Brew On!
Robert

Great post! I too just bought Midwest's Irish Red Ale but haven't yet begun. Timely info, Cheers!

Just brewed a batch of this Wednesday night. OG 1.056 and fermented like crazy yesterday, today has slowed to a crawl. Will take readings next Wed. and advise.
If done will throw fermenter in kegerator for a week then rack into keg. Have to have it ready for son's graduation from USMC boot camp.

Today I popped the top on the fermenter for the first time (2wks old). Gravity was 1.015 but will see if it changes over the next couple days before kegging it. Tasted pretty good but of course no carbonation. Was a little cloudy looking, had a bit of a sweet smell but had actually a fairly dry finish. My first homebrew so didn't know what to expect

Sounds about the same as mine. I am looking forward to the final product.

This is my final product all carbed up. Compared it to a Killian's and there is really no comparison. Mine is better a hundred fold, so much more flavor. Delicious!

After one week of carbing. Tastes really good!! I can tell it is still a little young but it is already better than any beer in my fridge!

Props, mine didn't have any resemblance of carbonation until week three. How warm are you conditioning? Was your priming solution mixed in well?

Temperature is around 70 in my basement. I mixed the priming solution as I was siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket so it got mixed in pretty good. I didn't expect it to have the much carbonation either but was glad it did!

Great looking brews! Can't wait to see & taste mine but has only 5 days in the keg. Didn't force carbonate so planned to wait at least a week, if I can make it that long. Your pics doesn't help, LOL!

Anything you would have changed so far?

Robert
Building our RV Beer 'Keezer'