Brewed an Oatmeal Cream Stout this past Friday....

[21Hokie]

using an English Ale 002 yeast. I never saw the typical piston type action of the air lock at any point - have seen that little thing pumping on all of my other brews. Anyhow, I took a specific grav reading yesterday evening (BG was 1.066 and it had dropped to 1.034 which puts it at about 4.2%) Should I be concerned that I never saw the vigorous fermentation? Should I consider re-pitching? I do still have 3 days left in the primary. Am I good to go based on the readings? Thank you brewing wizards!

Tastes fabulous by the way!

Bill below
12 lbs 2-Row
1/2 lb Crystal 40L
10 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Crystal 120L
6 oz Oatmeal
2 oz Black Patent
8 oz Roast Non-Malted Barley (not really sure what that one means???)
3 oz Dextrine Malt
1 lb Lactose (added with 15 min remaining in boil)

1/2 oz Columbus (60 min)
1 oz Kent Golding (60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (30 min)

155 degree single infusion mash

 

[21Hokie]

Oops.....actually eliminated the black patent altogether.

 

[CPFITNESS]

dude, relax, it's only been 4 days! probably has plenty more fermentation to go

 

[kingwood-kid]

Most of the barley and wheat brewers used has been malted, that is, the seeds are soaked in water to make the grain produce enzymes that will break starches into sugars. Your oatmeal and roasted unmalted barley skipped this step, they were just plucked off the plant and cooked. So no enzymes. The chocolate and crystal malts had enzymes, once, but they've been cooked off.

More importantly, WL002 is notorious for quitting before its work is done. You don't need to repitch now or ever. You'll just have to gently agitate/swirl/rock your fermenter to get the yeast off the bottom and back into solution. You probably don't need to do this yet, and racking to a secondary (something a lot of us don't bother with) will accomplish the same thing. English brewers used to "walk" their yeast by rolling the beer barrels around the brewery when fermentation had stalled.

 

[21Hokie]

Most of the barley and wheat brewers used has been malted, that is, the seeds are soaked in water to make the grain produce enzymes that will break starches into sugars. Your oatmeal and roasted unmalted barley skipped this step, they were just plucked off the plant and cooked. So no enzymes. The chocolate and crystal malts had enzymes, once, but they've been cooked off.

More importantly, WL002 is notorious for quitting before its work is done. You don't need to repitch now or ever. You'll just have to gently agitate/swirl/rock your fermenter to get the yeast off the bottom and back into solution. You probably don't need to do this yet, and racking to a secondary (something a lot of us don't bother with) will accomplish the same thing. English brewers used to "walk" their yeast by rolling the beer barrels around the brewery when fermentation had stalled.

What I was hoping to hear. I will be racking into secondary tomorrow evening. I appreciate your response. Was planning on Irving it a couple of weeks in the secondary just to aid in clarification. This will be my first beer I'm kegging. Any other suggestions?

 

[kingwood-kid]

Kegging is perfect, as the stop-start pattern of this yeast leads to occasional bottle bombs. I don't think clarity should be a problem with this beer; the yeast is known for bright beers. You may want to secondary in a CO2 flushed keg so you can agitate without risking oxidation.