Fermented to 1.010 in 3 days?!

[BOYDBrew]

I brewed up an IRA 3 days ago.
Took a reading tonight and to my surprise it was at 1.010!
OG was 1.056
Used Wyeast California ale yeast.
My question is... Should I cold crash now to stop fermentation?
I don't want it to get any lower than 1.010...

 

[GenIke]

I'd let it finish on it's own and adjust the next batch if you need to.

 

[austinb]

How much yeast did you pitch? What temperature did you ferment at or if you don't know what was the approximate ambient air temperature where the fermenter was? If you made a starter and had a good pitch rate then a healthy fermentation from start to finish is entirely possible though a little faster than usual. If you pitched strait from the vial then I suspect you may have fermented a little hot which will lead to quicker fermentations but also leads to the possibility of off flavors and methyl alcohols. If that is the case I wouldn't scrap it just yet because it is possible to ferment a little hot and still end up with a good beer though maybe not quite as good as if you had kept it under 70F. If you did in fact ferment hot it may taste a little like a Belgian beer and it doesn't suit your tastes then you can toss it. Also if you suspect you fermented hot start with just one the first night before drinking more in a single sitting because if you got methyl alcohol it can give you a headache and you don't want to find out you got methyl alcohols by drinking 5 of them the first night they are ready. If you get a little headache after just one beer it isn't going to kill you but I imagine you aren't going to want to drink any more of the beer.

If it was just a healthy fermentation under 70F due to a good yeast pitch then I would just wait a while longer before doing anything with it, I would recommend a couple weeks in primary because after the yeast is done fermenting it will then start cleaning up slight off flavors that are a byproduct of fermentation. I doubt that it will get much below 1.010 with cal ale yeast unless you mashed low at like 145F and even then I still wouldn't expect lower than 1.008.

 

[BigFloyd]

I'd not want to stop the yeast from finishing their job by prematurely cold crashing. If they're done eating sugars, now they can spend a few days eating some of the normal by-products of fermentation. Take another reading in a few days. If it's still 1.010, you have the choice of cold crashing (for legit reasons) or letting it run a little while longer.

With some of the caramel malts in an IRA, it can only to a certain point given the attenuation characteristics of the yeast strain. You may well be at that point now.

BTW- What were your pitch and ferment temps?

 

[BOYDBrew]

I'd not want to stop the yeast from finishing their job by prematurely cold crashing. If they're done eating sugars, now they can spend a few days eating some of the normal by-products of fermentation. Take another reading in a few days. If it's still 1.010, you have the choice of cold crashing (for legit reasons) or letting it run a little while longer.

With some of the caramel malts in an IRA, it can only to a certain point given the attenuation characteristics of the yeast strain. You may well be at that point now.

BTW- What were your pitch and ferment temps?

My pitch temp was a bit high around 76... I was tired and loosing my patience for the day so I decided to pitch it and call it a day. Fermentation temp was at 72-75 degrees

 

[TheZymurgist]

My pitch temp was a bit high around 76... I was tired and loosing my patience for the day so I decided to pitch it and call it a day. Fermentation temp was at 72-75 degrees

There's your answer. Definitely don't stop fermentation. It's likely there have been at least a small amount of off flavors produced, and the yeast may be able to clean some of it up once they're done. If you crash it, there's no chance of them cleaning anything up.

I'm sure this batch will still be fine, so don't be worried, but just let it do its thing.

 

[BigFloyd]

My pitch temp was a bit high around 76... I was tired and loosing my patience for the day so I decided to pitch it and call it a day. Fermentation temp was at 72-75 degrees

Which Wyeast strain did you use? As far as I know, they don't call any of their strains "California Ale". Was it 1056 American Ale (similar to WLP001 California ale)? 1272 American Ale II (like WLP051 California V Ale)? They do make a California Lager (WY2112) for making a Cali Common (steam beer).

Whichever one of these strains you pitched, I'm afraid that all of your temps (not just pitching) are too warm by about 8-10*F (more if the 72-75*F was the air temp). Unfortunately, you're likely to note some off flavors, perhaps some banana taste and maybe even fusels.

 

[fork]

Yeah, I don't think cold crashing to stop yeast activity is a good idea. After regular fermentation is complete, the yeast will absorb or remove some undesirable flavors they created during fermentation.

 

[austinb]

White labs lists California ale yeast specs as 68-73 degrees so you were close to that range but I would really recommend the lower end of that range (70 or below). If your actual ferm temp was no more than 75 then you are probably fine. If that was the air temp then your fermentation was likely 3-10 degrees warmer, probably on the higher end of that due to how active your fermentation was and if that was the case you would almost surely have off flavors.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

How did you measure your current SG? If the wort is 72-75 degrees but your hydrometer is calibrated for 60 deg, your actual SG is higher than 1.010, probably 1.012-13.

 

[BOYDBrew]

Which Wyeast strain did you use? As far as I know, they don't call any of their strains "California Ale". Was it 1056 American Ale (similar to WLP001 California ale)? 1272 American Ale II (like WLP051 California V Ale)? They do make a California Lager (WY2112) for making a Cali Common (steam beer).

Whichever one of these strains you pitched, I'm afraid that all of your temps (not just pitching) are too warm by about 8-10*F (more if the 72-75*F was the air temp). Unfortunately, you're likely to note some off flavors, perhaps some banana taste and maybe even fusels.

Sorry it was American ale 1056!!
Too much homebrew for me.
Yeah unfortunately It seems I pitched too early and didn't maintain an ideal fermenting temp.
I'm sure it'll come out ok.
I've been out of the brewing game for 6 months and needed some reassurance about this particular batch.

 

[BOYDBrew]

How did you measure your current SG? If the wort is 72-75 degrees but your hydrometer is calibrated for 60 deg, your actual SG is higher than 1.010, probably 1.012-13.

You know I've never thought of calibrating my hydrometer?!
Do you have any quick tips??

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

You know I've never thought of calibrating my hydrometer?!
Do you have any quick tips??

Test your hydrometer with 60 deg F, distilled water. It should read 1.000. If it doesn't read 1.000, that's not a bad thing necessarily, it just means that you need to account for that in ALL future measurements. You should, in general, calibrate it once every several months, as if the paper inside shifts up or down over time, the accuracy might drift.

Note: this is entirely separate from temperature correction. Once you have your hydrometer calibrated for 60 degrees, you still might need to correct if your wort temperature is different. I believe (someone may need to correct me) that for every 5 degrees above 60, you need to correct by .001 gravity points. So if you read 1.010 at 80 deg F, that's corrected to 1.014 at 60 deg F.