Fermentation seems to have stopped

Brewing Edme Wheat with a wheat extract supplement. Recipe consisted of 4lbs plus 1lb Muntons Wheat DME. Pitched the yeast Friday and that night it bubbled over. Saturday there was nothing and we had a cold snap in Dallas. I’d kept the bucket in the closet with the crawl space access and I think it dipped pretty low temp wise so I (carefully) moved it into a cabinet. Sunday there was minor action from the airlock, but nothing on the order of what people have told me to expect. Today it doesn’t seem like much of anything is going on, though there was some positive pressure in the bucket earlier.

So I guess my newbie question is whether I am fretting over this thing for nothing, did I screw up, or is it time to put in the secondary?


EDIT: the FAQ on the site seems to have answered my question. Great site!

do you have a hydrometer??

that would be the real way to tell if you are ready but i am new to this as well so its the blind leading the blind

happy brewing fleas

hahah didnt see that you had it ansered good times

If you have a Hydrometer, take a reading for 3-4 days straight. (Sanitize all equipt. and do not return sample to fermenter.) If the reading stays the same, rack to secondary. If you don't have a Hydrometer then I'd give it till this Saturday at least.

Whelp, I grabbed a hydrometer and it said about 1030. Re-picting the yeast.

Tastes and looks pretty good, though.

Before you re-pitch you might want to:
1 get the temp where it is suppose to be.
2 shake the living day lights out of the fermenter

this will help get any yeast that settled out during the cold back into the wort
this may be all you need,
then watch it for 48 hours, if you get no action re-pitch

Hopefully you didn't lose all your yeast during the blow off and it will restart but you might not have much yeast left so it could take a day or 2 to get any real action.

I agree with the temperature comment, but I think I would recommend gentle swirling rather than shaking at this point. Just me, though

I twisted the bucket early Monday morning once I'd gotten it warmed up and nothing came of it as of today. The man at the brewery store said it sounded like my yeast may have had a rough shipment and that combined with the cold shock stunted it. I went ahead and pitched more during my lunch break.

let us know how it turns out

fleas

How long after this second pitch should I wait before I consider it DOA? Temp is at 72; maybe I didn't aerate it enough...

Here's the thing, I took a reading by getting beer out of the bottom spigot. and it initially reads 1016 and then raises up to 1020. I don't have a turkey baster (on the list for when I head to the store).

It tastes like beer. Slightly sweeter than what I am used to. My guess at this point is everything finished in the first two days, but who knows? Absent any major cautions from you all, I'm going to leave it until Friday and then go ahead and bottle.