Did I destroy my first brew?

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.
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Greetings. I brewed my first batch this past weekend (extract pale ale) and things went very well. There were visible signs of fermentation for the first 72 hours and then airlock activity dropped to almost nothing. Well, not using this forum prior, I thought to myself, "Why not shake to fermenter to get the yeast active again?". I proceeded to shake the fermenter for 10-15 seconds and then went about my business.

I later did a search about stuck fermentation on this board and read multiple posts about oxidation of the beer that can come from disturbing the wort.

Have I certainly oxidized the wort and destroyed my beer or am I worrying about a potential problem I might not have?

If it is oxidized how bad could it taste?

FWIW, I planned on leaving it in the primary for 10-14 days before bottling. Should I change that plan now?

I will not make this same mistake again now that this board and the search function are my friends. Thanks for any and all help.
 
It'll probably be just fine. The good news is that fermentation produces carbon dioxide. That's what's offgassing through your airlock during fermentation. So once fermentation is finished, you're left with almost all CO2 in your headspace above the beer. The airlock prevents oxygen from getting back into the carboy/bucket. So when you shook it up, you were mostly introducing CO2...which means you really don't have to worry too much about oxidation. Unless, of course, you did this shaking with the stopper removed. Then it might be a concern. But 15 seconds isn't too long.

In the future, yes, refrain from shaking the beer around once fermentation has started.

Did you check your gravity before assuming that your fermentation was "stuck" rather than just finished?

richenrygarcia said:
Greetings. I brewed my first batch this past weekend (extract pale ale) and things went very well. There were visible signs of fermentation for the first 72 hours and then airlock activity dropped to almost nothing. Well, not using this forum prior, I thought to myself, "Why not shake to fermenter to get the yeast active again?". I proceeded to shake the fermenter for 10-15 seconds and then went about my business.

I later did a search about stuck fermentation on this board and read multiple posts about oxidation of the beer that can come from disturbing the wort.

Have I certainly oxidized the wort and destroyed my beer or am I worrying about a potential problem I might not have?

If it is oxidized how bad could it taste?

FWIW, I planned on leaving it in the primary for 10-14 days before bottling. Should I change that plan now?

I will not make this same mistake again now that this board and the search function are my friends. Thanks for any and all help.
 
If you kept it covered when you shook it, no worries at all. The absolute worst that will happen is that it might have oxidized a bit which might give you a little bit of a wet cardboard flavor in the finished beer. I doubt that you harmed it, since it was still probably producing some co2, though.
 
I did not take a hydrometer reading. I was going to wait until bottling day to do that. Should I do that now or wait until bottling day?

The airlock was securely attached to the lid when I did the shaking.

Thanks for the reassurance here.
 
Instead of shaking in the future, try swirling the fermenter instead. This rouses yeast off the cake at the bottom back into the beer. Lack of airlock activity isn't a great measure of fermentation status. The best thing to do as has been mentioned is to take a hydrometer reading.

You should take a reading 3 days before your anticipated bottling day and then take another reading 2 days later. If the reading is the same (and in the range provided by the recipe as a 'finished' SG) then you know fermentation is done and it is ready to bottle.
 
Back
Top