Having an unusually long primary activity. How normal is this?

[user 338926]

Made a stout (sweet milk stout) with an OG of 1.062. With two pounds of lactose, which I've never used in a recipe before, I suspect the FG is going to end up sort of high. At least compared to other more conventional beers. (Lactose is not fermentable, or so it says)

It's now day 12 and there's still regular bubbling. Using an S trap, let's say every 15-20 seconds it releases gas. Initially, the ferm temp went a little high (using Safale US-04) up to 71.5. I immediately cooled it back to 65 and it's been either there or slightly lower for the remaining time. That was day one when I caught it. So it was working really fast then, and continued to work consistently since.

On day 6 the gravity was 1.022. So, not a ton of work to do. It's been at 65F but the bubbling hasn't slowed very much since that sample was taken. At the time I did open the fermenter and the surface was about 70% free of bubbles, so not working very hard. I have not taken another sample since because I need to open the fermenter again to do so.

Has anyone ever had a beer work this long? If this was an imperial stout, I could maybe understand it. But I'm typically used to 3 days for the serious fermentation and a few days after there's no more bubbling, even if there is very slight activity. This just doesn't seem to be slowing at a normal rate. So much so I even considered a bacterial infection, though the beer tastes fine. If it was contaminated, I am pretty sure I would taste it. Especially if it was so much as to be bubbling because of it, that's hard to miss.

 

[Jag75]

Only way to know is by checking with a hydrometer. If the reading shows the same for multiple days then your good . I think it's done at 22. That's about right for this style of beer . My stout usually comes in at 1.069 and finishes around 22 to 24 .

Welcome to HBT !

 

[mac_1103]

How big a batch? Two pounds of lactose will add around 15 unfermentable gravity points to a 5 gallon batch.

Just as not seeing bubbles early on doesn't mean that a beer isn't fermenting, seeing bubbles late doesn't mean that a beer is still fermenting. It could just be off-gassing.

 

[bellhp]

Sounds pretty normal in my experience ,I would let it ride . when it quits bubbling there's your clue to take a reading and or bottle . I don't muck around in my beer till she quits bubbling , but that's just me , some people like to take multiple readings throughout fermentation . Whatever you do RDWHAHB.

 

[user 338926]

Only way to know is by checking with a hydrometer. If the reading shows the same for multiple days then your good . I think it's done at 22. That's about right for this style of beer . My stout usually comes in at 1.069 and finishes around 22 to 24 .

Welcome to HBT !

Ok, I'll check again and if it's stabilized, I'll cold crash starting tonight. I've had lots of higher gravity beers finish higher and never cared about it before. But, with so many videos of folks talking about under-attenuation being a big problem, I figured I'd add a little more patience to my recipes. But patience can be pretty hard ya know!

Thanks for the welcome. I think I was on here years ago, but moved and haven't brewed at the new house in about 6 years. I could not find an account under any email I can currently access, so it's possible I just lost access to an old one. But no matter, I started another account if there was a first). One username I use all over the internet was in use, and it definitely isn't me. So... had to dream up another handle.

How big a batch? Two pounds of lactose will add around 15 unfermentable gravity points to a 5 gallon batch.

Just as not seeing bubbles early on doesn't mean that a beer isn't fermenting, seeing bubbles late doesn't mean that a beer is still fermenting. It could just be off-gassing.

10 Gallon batch. Never before heard anyone mention the possibility of off-gassing. I use 3 different fermentation vessels, Big mouth bubblers, a 15G stainless conical and a 15G Plastic pharmaceutical barrel I made into a fermenter. This is in the latter. It has a large lid with steel band-clamp, and a silicone seal for the lid. Evidently it's perfectly air-tight. I did not add a valve for emptying, so I have to rack out of it.

Sounds pretty normal in my experience ,I would let it ride . when it quits bubbling there's your clue to take a reading and or bottle . I don't muck around in my beer till she quits bubbling , but that's just me , some people like to take multiple readings throughout fermentation . Whatever you do RDWHAHB.

I'll take another and likely will be kegging in the coming days.

Thanks everyone!

 

[user 338926]

FYI, the recipe is a MoreBeer Kit. Sweet Stout they call it. Lightest Stout they offer. Everything else is like 8% or higher.

 

[hotbeer]

Is anything normal when making beer?

It's been a while since I had a beer bubble so long. But several times I've had them stop, clear up, then start bubbling again and get everything on the bottom stirred up and become cloudy again. One did this for almost six weeks. After it looked completely dead for a week and cleared up so I could see to the other side of the FV, I bottled it and it is one of the beers I consider my best.

Wish I could find the picture I took of it. It was pale ale and was so clean that it sparkled when held up to the sunlight in a glass.

 

[user 338926]

"Is anything normal when making beer?"

Hard to say...
In another thread here someone is talking about a yeast that's going wild, then slowing, then going wild again, then slowing again. Thankfully I've never seen that before.

 

[hotbeer]

"Is anything normal when making beer?"

Hard to say...
In another thread here someone is talking about a yeast that's going wild, then slowing, then going wild again, then slowing again. Thankfully I've never seen that before.

I've seen that before. Two maybe three times with the kits I used to use that just simply gave me a packet labeled "YEAST". Though at least a dozen times other of those kits exhibited pretty much what we consider normal behavior. All the packets had the same code stamped on them. So I think they were the same yeast. Just don't know if it was beer yeast or bread yeast or what it was.