64 degrees

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hoss450

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I am making my first home brew, so bear with me. I am making a American Nut Brown Ale. I followed all directions, except I did not stir my yeast in good. After 30 hours and no bubbles I read more and decided 64 degrees and not stirring may be my problem. So I opened my bucket, and stirred the batch good and heated my basement room until the batch got up to 68 degrees. I had steady bubbles for 2 days. Now I have nothing, not even raising the cone in the air lock. I noticed my temp is back down to 64 degrees. Is this low enough to stop fermentation? Should I move the batch upstairs? I really dont want to open the lid again and take a gravity reading, but I can if that is the best thing to do. I plan to move to a second fermentor after 1 week. Mainly because I dumped the trub from the wart in with the batch, another probable mistake. Thanks for the help.
 
No need to move it- 64 degrees is fine for most ale yeasts. You don't need to stir the yeast in- it knows where the sugars are! It is probably just about done, so no reason to disturb it right now.

Even after fermentation is over, the yeast are still busy. They clean up after themselves, eating up their own waste products. That's why it's always good to leave it at least a week before transferring.

What I would do is take an sg on the day you plan to transfer the beer to a carboy. If it's where you expect it to be (at the fg the recipe indicates), then go ahead and transfer it. If it's not, then don't transfer it until it is! But really, no reason to take an sg right now anyway.
 
64F is actually a really good temperature for the room, the beer will always be warmer because fermentation generates more heat than you think. Not stirring after adding the yeast isn't a big deal (I never do personally).

Airlock movement really isn't a good way to gauge fermentation so I would not use that as your only indicator. If you don't already have one, get yourself a hydrometer. It's the only way to know for sure.

For this immediate batch, sounds like it had a quick active fermentation phase and probably has just slowed down, nothing to worry about. Best thing is to leave it in primary for 10 days or so and then take a hydrometer reading to see where it's at before you rack to secondary.

Oh and welcome to HBT! :mug:
 
Thanks guys. One more question. I have heard not to move it before it is done. What is so bad about moving it before it is done. The second fermentor is a 5 gallon glass carboy with the same air lock. It seems to me transfering would be no big deal because it would ferment the same in the second container, and it would certainly release enough co2 to have less worries about oxidation. I plan to use the 1-2-3 method on my first brew.
 
Because even after fermentation is done, the yeast clean up after themselves. They remove waste products and other things that can cause off flavors. If you remove the beer from the yeast cake too soon, you stall (or even halt) this process. Oxidation is not the issue at all.
 
You want to keep the beer on the trub (the sediment at the bottom) for a little while after primary fermentation has completed because the yeast will do a lot of cleaning up after themselves (removing some things that cause some off-flavours). If you rack off the trub too early this doesn't happen and you won't have as great a beer.

One thing to keep in mind is that the 1-2-3 method is a guideline, not a rule. Fermentation is a natural process that cannot be rushed. Primary fermentation will complete when it completetes (usually 4-10 days) and you should give it all the time it needs.
 
Should I have syphoned the wort off the trub when I put it in the primary or should I have dumped the wort, trub and all in? I dumped and got some, maybe 1/3 of the trub in.

I am a little concerned about this transfer from the primary to the secondary. All I have have read is keep it very clean, and no splashing. Anything else I need to know?

I was hoping to have this beer by x-mas, now everything I am reading says take things even slower. I am already thinking about starting my second brew because I know this first brew is not going to last as long as it will take to make a second batch.

Since you guy have been so helpful, any recomendations on good homebrewing books?
 
hoss450 said:
Thanks guys. One more question. I have heard not to move it before it is done. What is so bad about moving it before it is done. The second fermentor is a 5 gallon glass carboy with the same air lock. It seems to me transfering would be no big deal because it would ferment the same in the second container, and it would certainly release enough co2 to have less worries about oxidation. I plan to use the 1-2-3 method on my first brew.

By default, I leave all of my brews in primary for 7 days. I generally use the same 4 or 5 yeasts all the time and they typically ferment out within 4-5 days. As the 2 previous posts stated, I leave the beer in primary for a couple more days so that the yeast has some time to clean up after itself a bit.

Also, the process of racking will get some of the yeast back in suspension and you will usually drop a couple more points in secondary.
 
hoss450 said:
Should I have syphoned the wort off the trub when I put it in the primary or should I have dumped the wort, trub and all in? I dumped and got some, maybe 1/3 of the trub in.

I am a little concerned about this transfer from the primary to the secondary. All I have have read is keep it very clean, and no splashing. Anything else I need to know?

I was hoping to have this beer by x-mas, now everything I am reading says take things even slower. I am already thinking about starting my second brew because I know this first brew is not going to last as long as it will take to make a second batch.

Since you guy have been so helpful, any recomendations on good homebrewing books?

I use a funnel with a strainer screen in it when transferring from brew pot to primary. That way you get as much liquid as possible without the trub.

From primary to secondary I siphon and put the hose on the bottom of the secondary that way there is no splashing.

www.howtobrew.com
 
If the idea of siphoning sounds tricky, do yourself a favor and get an auto-siphon. Best $10 you'll spend for transferring beer.
 

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