Patience with fermenting?

[Evonnida]

I know I just need to be patient, but I'm so new!

We brewed our first brew, and Amber Ale from a kit. We used a Wyeast Liquid Yeast however. I'm not sure if I agitated the wort enough or not...

It's a 5gal batch, fermenting in a 6.5 gallon ale pail. After about 12 hours, the airlock was bubbling once every 5 seconds. After 24 hours, it's not bubbling at all, although there is pressure as evidenced by the lid.

The ambient temperature is between 67-69, but the stick on thermometer reads 73 degrees. I moved it to the basement, where the ambient is closer to 61-65 degrees.

With all that said, I'm planning on letting it sit for 3 weeks in the primary before bottling. I should be good... right?

 

[DocScott]

Yep. You're good. Good move on bringing it to the basement. You want your ferm temps low for the first several days so you don't get stressed yeast and ester production/off flavors. Leave it be for 3 weeks, it's the hardest part when you first start
Also, don't rely on the airlock bubbling as an indicator of active fermentation. The yeast know what to do, and will do it well.

 

[tre9er]

Yes, but gravity readings before you pitch the yeast and then when you think the beer is done, then again a day or two later, will confirm if it's indeed finished. If it's not finished and you assume it is (even if it's at the gravity the kit says it will finish), you could end up with bottle bombs, not good!

3 weeks should be ample. You can start taking gravity in say, 2 weeks if you see no krausen on the top. Extra time never hurts, though.

 

[BlackRock]

Depending on the wort conditions and the yeast you could be done fermenting in only a few days. At the end of the week when you've got time, take a gravity reading and see where you are at. Then in another day or two take another reading and see if it's changed at all.

The reading you take is what's going to tell you the yeast has done its job. Once you know it's done fermenting then you can consider the remaining time in the ferment chamber a conditioning phase where the beer will eat up and drop out more proteins and other stuff. That could last anywhere from a week to a few weeks. You will find a lot of people talk about packaging (bottling or kegging) their beer in 11-15 days from the day they pitch their yeast. I think that's on the short side, but if your beer finished fermenting in less than a week and then had another week or two conditioning it should be more than ready to package.

As an example, my latest batch of IPA was done on a Sunday. The OG was 1.060 and my expected final gravity was supposed to be 1.016. Mine started bubbling by the next day and went strong for maybe 2 days or so. I took a gravity reading on friday, 5 days later, and my gravity was 1.016/1.017. We left for the weekend and came back with a reading of a solid 1.016. I'm going to rack the beer (aka "move it") from the plastic fermenter into a glass carboy for another week of conditioning.

Then at the end of the second week I'm actually just going to keg the batch and call it good. A lot of people say using a secondary conditioning chamber isn't necessary but I have noticed slight differences between the same batch of beer done with and without moving the beer out of the primary fermenter.

If you get a stable final gravity reading and let your beer sit a week or two before packaging it then all should be good. In the meantime I suggest going out and buying a nice selection of beer to sample each day and think up your next batch. Move away from a kit if you can and do another extract brew with some specialty grains and good hops from the store. Get that going in the next week or so and look forward to your first batch

 

[jethro55]

...After 24 hours, it's not bubbling at all, although there is pressure as evidenced by the lid. "

Is it possible that the airlock is clogged? If so, you have a blow-off in the making.

 

[Evonnida]

Is it possible that the airlock is clogged? If so, you have a blow-off in the making.

There's no gunk or anything in the airlock, and when you press on the lid there are bubbles and sanitized water moves around it's just not constantly bubbling anymore.

I was debating on going to a secondary or not, because when I poured the wort into the fermenter I did not do a very good job of keeping the trub out. I was curious if leaving it in the primary for an extra couple of weeks would help clear it out before I rack to the bottler

Is there another way of filtering to clear the beer up? Maybe when bottling, putting a filter on the bottling spigot?

 

[BlackRock]

Over time more stuff will fall to the bottom. Your beer will clear up on it's own over the next couple of weeks whether you dumped some hops and bits of grain in or not. You'll be fine if you leave it in the primary too. When you rack your beer just be careful not to suck up stuff on the bottom. Maybe just leave a little extra beer in the fermenter and then come back for it after you've bottled off most of your batch from your bottling bucket.

The yeast in your bottles is going to produce more sediment anyway, so it's probably nothing to really worry about at this point.

 

[Evonnida]

So after moving my hail hail to the basement, the internal temperatures reading right around 68, which I think is better than the aforementioned 72°.

However, after not seeing any airlock activity for the last two days, I became concerned with my yeast pitch.I cracked open the top and saw a thick layer of Krausen on top. However instead of this Krausen being on top of a 5 gallon batch of wort, it was on top of about four to four and a half gallons. Is this normal?

Also, Opening the lid it won't affect it, right? Because this is how I'm going to eventually have to take the gravity readings correct?

 

[Evonnida]

So after moving my hail hail to the basement, the internal temperatures reading right around 68, which I think is better than the aforementioned 72°.

However, after not seeing any airlock activity for the last two days, I became concerned with my yeast pitch.I cracked open the top and saw a thick layer of Krausen on top. However instead of this Krausen being on top of a 5 gallon batch of wort, it was on top of about four to four and a half gallons. Is this normal?

Also, Opening the lid it won't affect it, right? Because this is how I'm going to eventually have to take the gravity readings correct?

Hail hail=ale pail. Damn autocorrect

 

[Brewnoob1]

Cracking the lid wont hurt as co2 is heavier than oxygen and is sitting on top of the beer. However, I wouldn't make a habit of opening it up too often or disturbing the co2.

As for the 4 to 4.5 gallons instead of 5...are you sure you put in 5 gallons? I've never seen a significant drop in liquid level unless I have a blow out or something.

 

[unionrdr]

+1. I've had some wild blow offs & still got 5 gallons.

 

[Evonnida]

I'm pretty sure it was close to 5 when we started. However I might've been overestimating the level of Krausen so I could actually have closer to five than I thought. I was just trying to get the lid closed as quick as possible.

 

[Brewnoob1]

I won't lie, I've take my lid off and taken a few big whiffs just because. Never had any issues except the co2 burning my nose lol. You should be fine.

 

[DocScott]

It's really hard to do this, but stop playing with it! The yeast will do what it is supposed to do, but on its own timeline. Leave it in the basement, give it at least 2-3 weeks, then bottle it and wait another 3 weeks.

Opening your fermenter likely didn't do anything but the more you touch/open/play with it, the more risk of oxidation or infection you have.

In terms of clearing your beer, after the 3 weeks of primary fermentation, put your beer in a cold area (32-35*F) for several days to cold crash. You can also use gelatin to further clear your beer after its fermented out.

Like your mom said when you were a kid... Stop playing with it, or it may fall off!

 

[Evonnida]

How long does the Krausen typically last on top of the beer?

 

[whoaru99]

Also, Opening the lid it won't affect it, right? Because this is how I'm going to eventually have to take the gravity readings correct?

I take my samples for gravity readings by taking out the airlock then sticking thin, sanitized tube through the hole and sucking out the sample using a large syringe.

 

[Evonnida]

I just want to make sure everything is looking okay...

This is my first after all.

 

[tre9er]

I just want to make sure everything is looking okay...

This is my first after all.

A very nice robust krausen you have. All's well, my seal it up and check it back in a week