On Sunday, I decided to brew a pretty simple small batch BIAB AG pale ale, because as we all know a full carboy is a happy carboy. Everything went very well with my brewday, according to Beersmith I hit 77.5% efficiency, I ended up with about 2.75 gallons of wort in the carboy, and I came in at 1.052 OG (expected 1.048). Aerated the wort by rocking/shaking the carboy, then pitched a packet of Nottingham in at a wort temp of about 68. I did not rehydrate the yeast, I just pitched it on top. Closed everything up and set it in the basement (ambient temp of ~65 degrees).
Monday morning before work, I went to check on it and the airlock was furiously bubbling, roughly once every 2 seconds. Had a nice big krausen, I'd say about an inch and a half thick. Smelled glorious. Came home Monday night and found that the krausen had fallen and there was no discernable activity in the airlock (I know, that's not a good indicator, but for reference there was none). Same yesterday morning, and still nothing last night. I could tell something was happening, as the bubbles on the surface were showing signs of life, and if I looked really close I could see movement in the wort itself (bubbles rising up for lack of a better way to describe it).
My first thought was that maybe I didn't have a great seal, since I didn't actually pick up a bung for this carboy (got it used on Saturday) and just used one of the orange carboy caps with two openings (one capped, the other with an airlock). So I stopped at a LHBS near my office at lunch today (just discovered it's there, yay) and picked up a bung. Got home, washed it and sanitized it, and decided to check grav while I had it open. Sanitized my thief, opened up the carboy, got my sample - it's at 1.010. According to Beersmith, my estimated FG is 1.011.
So...is Nottingham that fast, or did I just way overpitch by putting a whole packet in? The sample actually tastes pretty good, and I'm sure after I leave it to clean up for a couple of weeks it'll be great, but I didn't see anywhere near that amount of activity from the small batch Centennial Blonde I did with Wyeast 1056.
Monday morning before work, I went to check on it and the airlock was furiously bubbling, roughly once every 2 seconds. Had a nice big krausen, I'd say about an inch and a half thick. Smelled glorious. Came home Monday night and found that the krausen had fallen and there was no discernable activity in the airlock (I know, that's not a good indicator, but for reference there was none). Same yesterday morning, and still nothing last night. I could tell something was happening, as the bubbles on the surface were showing signs of life, and if I looked really close I could see movement in the wort itself (bubbles rising up for lack of a better way to describe it).
My first thought was that maybe I didn't have a great seal, since I didn't actually pick up a bung for this carboy (got it used on Saturday) and just used one of the orange carboy caps with two openings (one capped, the other with an airlock). So I stopped at a LHBS near my office at lunch today (just discovered it's there, yay) and picked up a bung. Got home, washed it and sanitized it, and decided to check grav while I had it open. Sanitized my thief, opened up the carboy, got my sample - it's at 1.010. According to Beersmith, my estimated FG is 1.011.
So...is Nottingham that fast, or did I just way overpitch by putting a whole packet in? The sample actually tastes pretty good, and I'm sure after I leave it to clean up for a couple of weeks it'll be great, but I didn't see anywhere near that amount of activity from the small batch Centennial Blonde I did with Wyeast 1056.