Fermented out in 3 days, wow!

[smizak]

Cue Revvy in 5, 4, 3, 2...

I dunno what this means.

Revvy is a veteran member who tends to have a calming effect on nervous n00b brewers.

By all means, your beer will be perfectly fine if you leave it alone for another ten days. You'll learn after you do a bunch of batches that you don't always have to leave it for two or three weeks. Sometimes you do. But if your hydrometer reading is stable, the sample tastes good, and the yeast are dropping out, the beer is done.

 

[xjncoguyx]

Revvy is a veteran member who tends to have a calming effect on nervous n00b brewers.

By all means, your beer will be perfectly fine if you leave it alone for another ten days. You'll learn after you do a bunch of batches that you don't always have to leave it for two or three weeks. Sometimes you do. But if your hydrometer reading is stable, the sample tastes good, and the yeast are dropping out, the beer is done.

Well this is about my 7th batch, just my first stout, and first time using this particular strain. I was more or less just trying to find out if anyone had used this strain and what it ferments like and whether or not its possible to have fermented out already. I had already planned on leaving it a little while longer to settle everything out, but this thread just kinda blew up and became a bigger discussion than the original info that i wanted. Although it turned into a very informative discussion and very interesting to see everyones take on different situations. Cheers to everyone. Hopefully this experiment turns out delicious.

 

[midfielder5]

I was more or less just trying to find out if anyone had used this strain and what it ferments like and whether or not its possible to have fermented out already.

don't take this the wrong way, but I would assert that the Original Post's question(s) were poorly phrased. the title just implied an excitement about finishing in 3 days - wow!
Plus, there is no "right" answer [just different opinions, as you found out]

 

[motobrewer]

Contrary to what most will tell you, even in a lager, primary fermentation is done within two weeks. The yeast have finished off the sugar and their by-products.

Lagering is simply for clearing. It helps at cold temps to drop the yeast and proteins out completely. I have had lagers that were bottled after two weeks and spent about a month in the refrigerator, and I would defy anyone who tasted it to tell me it wasn't bulk cold-conditioned.

Even my ales aren't really clear and perfectly carbed unless they've had at least a week in the fridge, most two.

i don't agree. while i agree primary phase is over at 2-3 weeks, to quote John Palmer:

...the yeast uses the long conditioning phase to finish off residual sugars and metabolize other compounds that may give rise to off-flavors and aromas...

 

[peoplesbrewingcoop]

Ok so now im confused. What you're saying completely contradicts what the others said. The yeast has flocculated out, and the refractometer reading is showing the beer where its supposed to finish up at. I was going to leave it sit in there for a total of 10 days just to be safe anyway.

At temperatures you are using give it 3 days if you don't want to deal with any more complicated crap. If you want to be more complicated take a small batch out, maybe enough to measure the gravity. Take one batch and put in the refrigerator and the other heat to a high temperature. If there is alpha-acetolactate in the beer it will be converted to diacetyl and have that buttery taste.

That is what I did with my recent American Amber Ale I brewed. Just waited for the final gravity to hit its mark, wait a few days and give it a taste at a higher temperature.

Here is more info on a diacetyl rest

 

[xjncoguyx]

don't take this the wrong way, but I would assert that the Original Post's question(s) were poorly phrased. the title just implied an excitement about finishing in 3 days - wow!
Plus, there is no "right" answer [just different opinions, as you found out]

Not really exciement, i was just shocked. And hoping for some input as this is my first stout.

 

[smizak]

i don't agree. while i agree primary phase is over at 2-3 weeks, to quote John Palmer:

...the yeast uses the long conditioning phase to finish off residual sugars and metabolize other compounds that may give rise to off-flavors and aromas...

If you've listened to the Brew Strong lagering show, he's sorta backed off of that position. While it's possible the yeast are doing some things at that temp, the vast majority of them are flocculated on the bottom of the vessel and doing nothing. The effect is negligible. Some lager brewers totally filter out the yeast before lagering, so it's not possible for them to have any effect post-primary.

 

[motobrewer]

so, then what's the point of lagering? purely clarifying? i think there's more to it than that.

i'm sure noonan is turning in his grave over this discussion

 

[v2comp]

This was a brewing experiment we did last summer that showed our newer club members the differences that just the yeast makes.

from left to right: Nottingham, Safbrew T-58, Safale US-05, WLP 300, and Safbrew WB-06
this was about 12 hours after pitching in an ambient temperature environment of 72 degrees.

This was a small 1.042 wheat beer wort. the nottingham tasted like wet green grass(nasty and undrinkable to all but the drunkest in the room), the T-58 had a huge banana /clove/spicy character, the US-05 was very clean tasting(yeast neutral), the WLP 300 was the crowd favorite with a balanced banana/bubblegum flavor and aroma but the WB-06 ws my favorite with a little more banana/clove/traditional flavor and aroma profile.
notice how the T-58 has already started clearing while the US-05 and WLP 300 are still going strong and didnt finish for 2 more days.

 

[peoplesbrewingcoop]

This was a brewing experiment we did last summer that showed our newer club members the differences that just the yeast makes.

from left to right: Nottingham, Safbrew T-58, Safale US-05, WLP 300, and Safbrew WB-06
this was about 12 hours after pitching in an ambient temperature environment of 72 degrees.

This was a small 1.042 wheat beer wort. the nottingham tasted like wet green grass(nasty and undrinkable to all but the drunkest in the room), the T-58 had a huge banana /clove/spicy character, the US-05 was very clean tasting(yeast neutral), the WLP 300 was the crowd favorite with a balanced banana/bubblegum flavor and aroma but the WB-06 ws my favorite with a little more banana/clove/traditional flavor and aroma profile.
notice how the T-58 has already started clearing while the US-05 and WLP 300 are still going strong and didnt finish for 2 more days.

So the conclusion is that different yeasts have different cleaning up times and different flavor profiles. The nottingham tasted like grass because that is the taste of acetaldehyde. If you let it set longer it will react with sulfur dioxide to form a flavorless compound.

 

[xjncoguyx]

This was a brewing experiment we did last summer that showed our newer club members the differences that just the yeast makes.

from left to right: Nottingham, Safbrew T-58, Safale US-05, WLP 300, and Safbrew WB-06
this was about 12 hours after pitching in an ambient temperature environment of 72 degrees.

This was a small 1.042 wheat beer wort. the nottingham tasted like wet green grass(nasty and undrinkable to all but the drunkest in the room), the T-58 had a huge banana /clove/spicy character, the US-05 was very clean tasting(yeast neutral), the WLP 300 was the crowd favorite with a balanced banana/bubblegum flavor and aroma but the WB-06 ws my favorite with a little more banana/clove/traditional flavor and aroma profile.
notice how the T-58 has already started clearing while the US-05 and WLP 300 are still going strong and didnt finish for 2 more days.

I was actually thinking about doing something like this. I haven't used WLP300 yet, i've been using WLP380 for my wheat and it comes out awesome. Everyone says it reminds them of franziskaner

 

[v2comp]

So the conclusion is that different yeasts have different cleaning up times and different flavor profiles. The nottingham tasted like grass because that is the taste of acetaldehyde. If you let it set longer it will react with sulfur dioxide to form a flavorless compound.

while I would generally agree with that scenario playing out, this experiment didnt have that result. the beers were all bottle conditioned for 3 weeks before tasting and then tried again at 3 months and then again at 6 months. the Nottingham fermented beers never cleaned up and if anything may have gotten worse over time. bacterial infection (which was very unlikely in this case), is the only rational explanation I can come up with. I think I still have 1 or 2 of those left. it's been a year, let me go check the beer fridge!

 

[v2comp]

Nope, while it doesnt really seem to have gone away, the grassiness is not as pronounced as it was. I still cant drink it!

 

[peoplesbrewingcoop]

I was actually thinking about doing something like this. I haven't used WLP300 yet, i've been using WLP380 for my wheat and it comes out awesome. Everyone says it reminds them of franziskaner

Don't forget to do replicates with each replicate coming from a different yeast starter. You don't want one bad yeast starter to give you false results.

 

[peoplesbrewingcoop]

while I would generally agree with that scenario playing out, this experiment didnt have that result. the beers were all bottle conditioned for 3 weeks before tasting and then tried again at 3 months and then again at 6 months. the Nottingham fermented beers never cleaned up and if anything may have gotten worse over time. bacterial infection (which was very unlikely in this case), is the only rational explanation I can come up with. I think I still have 1 or 2 of those left. it's been a year, let me go check the beer fridge!

Oh, I see. I got the impression that you drank it after 12 hours of fermentation, but it is the picture that was taken after 12 hours. Silly me.

 

[xjncoguyx]

Don't forget to do replicates with each replicate coming from a different yeast starter. You don't want one bad yeast starter to give you false results.

Oh yeah definitely, i've done 3 batches of it, and they all came out the same. All with brand new yeast and a starter. I just recently did a batch where i added kiwis to the secondary