First brew, quick ferment?

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.

hopjedi

Active Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Location
Livonia, MI
Well, finally brewed on Tuesday evening, the 18th.
Did a Fat Tire Clone recipe, which took 6lbs of LME, 2.5 Lbs of grain, and 2 oz of hops at various times.
Had a friend of mine whom has been homebrewing for three years come over to walk me through the process.
A tremendous advantage for me.
Anyway, boiled/brewed, and put in clean/sanitized 6.5 glass carboy, and pitched a package of dry yeast, Nottingham brewing yeast, on top.
Temp of wort at pitching was right at 71*F
Pitched yeast around 11:15pm
Put airlock on and set on bartop in basement which is around 65-66* F.
Wrapped blanket around carboy to keep it dark and perhaps keep it warm, and taped a lead from an interior/exterior thermometer on the side of the carboy, so I could track the carboy temp, and the basement temp seperately.
Checked it in the morning Wednesday, around 7:00am, and it was cooking away, carboy temp was at 74*F, layer of greenish/brownish crud on top of wort, roughly 1/4-3/8in. thick, that was moving about a bit from the yeast activity.
Took that as a good sign, plus the scent of the wort was quite evident in the basement, so I think it is doing what it should.
Airlock had bubbles escaping every 2-3 seconds, and blanket was moist at the top which i figured was from some fast and furious activity overnight.
Removed blanket from half of carboy so it would not overheat?
Checked it again at like 5:30pm, and it was still going strong, at around 76*F, with no blanket around it now, but an inverted paper bag with hole for bubbler to poke through.
Again around 11:00pm, going strong.
Now, this morning, checked it, and immediately noticed airlock activity was minimal, maybe one bubble a minute, and crud layer on top of wort was gone, leaving only random crud patches on top.
Temp is at 74*F, with a recorded peak temp of 78*F for the carboy.
I only see maybe 1/4 inch of sediment on bottom of carboy around the perimeter.
Is this normal?
Seems the activity died off too soon, and there is not enough sediment in the bottom of the carboy.
The wort is still very cloudy, so maybe the dead yeast is still suspended.
I was just expecting it to take much longer to eat all that sugar.
 
IMO, best way is to check the gravity. Three days at the same gravity and its done!
You may want to swirl the carboy and try to rouse the yeast.

Your beer probably fermented fast due to the hi temps in the fermentor,
and that may give you some different flavors than what you expect. The flavors won't ruin the the brew, just make it different than expected.
The yeast strain determines the desired frementation temps.
Next time try covering the carboy with a black T shirt, less insulation.

It will be beer!
It will be good beer!!



:mug:
 
unfortunately i do not have a hydrometer.
I will be getting one now though, as after reading this forum, i understand the importance of taking the gravity readings before adding the yeast, and after fermentation.
It will do me no good for this batch, but my next one will get all the proper attention.
When discussing brewing with my brewmaster, we basically agreed that as long as it tastes good, it doesn't matter what the alcohol content is.
But if you run into questions like i have right now, then it would be very beneficial to track those changes in gravity.
 
racked it to secondary last night, and had a taste.
not bad, but not easy to discern the finished flavor being the portion i sampled was leftover in the siphon, and was a good deal cloudy with worked up trub.
i think it is right on, and the reason for the quick ferment and short yeast cake, was the relatively low amount of sugars.
2.5 Lbs of grain steeped, and 6 Lbs of LME.
secondary was looking very tasty on top this morning, with a very deep, dark amber brown tone to it.
it is my first brew, so while this may be common for every batch, i am finding it quite rewarding.
 
hopjedi said:
unfortunately i do not have a hydrometer.
good for you!
hopjedi said:
I will be getting one now though, as after reading this forum, i understand the importance of taking the gravity readings before adding the yeast, and after fermentation.
Oh no!
hopjedi said:
It will do me no good for this batch, but my next one will get all the proper attention.
all the proper attention = stress
hopjedi said:
When discussing brewing with my brewmaster, we basically agreed that as long as it tastes good, it doesn't matter what the alcohol content is.
Bravo!
hopjedi said:
But if you run into questions like i have right now, then it would be very beneficial to track those changes in gravity.
These questions you have right now will become second nature to you after a few batches. The first few are like walking through a field you think is full of landmines. You want a landmine detector for assurance. Eventually, you realize that there are no landmines.


-walker
 
Well, I had bottled on the 5th of May, with the intention of having the first taste on the 19th or 20th.

I AM WEAK!!!!!!!!!!
I AM ONLY A MAN!!!!!!!!!

whew, better now.
cracked one open after chilling it down on the 12th.
good head for only a week in bottles.
Tasted so good I had a couple more the next day.
And the next day, and the next day.
I was originally hoping to have it ready to drink by the 25th.
I will be lucky to have a 12 pack left by the 25th!!!.
Darn this stuff is good!!!!
Need to get cracking on next one soon.
 
hopjedi said:
Well, I had bottled on the 5th of May, with the intention of having the first taste on the 19th or 20th.

I AM WEAK!!!!!!!!!!
I AM ONLY A MAN!!!!!!!!!

whew, better now.
cracked one open after chilling it down on the 12th.
good head for only a week in bottles.
Tasted so good I had a couple more the next day.
And the next day, and the next day.
I was originally hoping to have it ready to drink by the 25th.
I will be lucky to have a 12 pack left by the 25th!!!.
Darn this stuff is good!!!!
Need to get cracking on next one soon.
welcome to our world.
 
Back
Top