I am on my second brew. The first was a success! Anyway I came home today from vacation and checked on a Belgian wit I put into my ale pail 7 days ago. I check the gravity and it was at 1.030.... OG - 1.054 and FG- 1.012 ... I noticed that the temp of brew fell to 66 from the 70 it was when I left. In a moment of stupidity I thought it would be a good idea to shake up the pail to mix up the stalled or slowed down yeast and move to a warmer location.... Have I destroyed this batch or will the yeast consume all the air I just pumped into a half fermented beer? Should I dump or see what happens? I was making this to drink during Super Bowl!
Should I dump my beer and start over... or not?
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Effingbeer
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RDWHAHB! Never pour out a beer unless you can't force yourself to drink it. Worst case, you'll learn something.
Something I just learned during the fermentation of my last batch, that the fermenting yeast can cause a temperature increase!! The decrease in temperature might've just been it cooling off after the initial yeast "feast".
... and others may confirm, but I doubt you did anything to the beer to make it worth tossing out yet. Keep it. Make beer! :cheers:
... and others may confirm, but I doubt you did anything to the beer to make it worth tossing out yet. Keep it. Make beer! :cheers:
DakotaPrerunner
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Did you shake it with the air lock on or off. If it was still on the amount of oxygen that would have gotten in while you checked your gravity will quickly be displaced by the C02 that will come out of the wort. You should be fine.
The temp decrease was due to my wife lowering the heat so far down as we left for vacation the day after I started the brew.... The fermentation just slowed down due to cold temps and is not finished after 1 week. I am just worried if my bone head move of shaking the pale has destroyed my beer. I should have just moved the beer into a warmer area and fermentation probably would have picked up again.
DoubleAught
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It's fine!
DakotaPrerunner
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the "air" that came out was actually C02 that you drove out of suspension. I doubt you oxidized the beer at all. Let the yeast finish their job, and enjoy your Superbowl brew.
Effingbeer
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DakotaPrerunner said:
Exactly. You did also move to a nice warm spot too right?
Your beer has gone through the phase where cool temperatures are good to control the rate that the yeast eat sugars as a high temp at that time will give you off flavors. Now would be a good time to warm it up to encourage the yeast to complete the job. During this early phase the yeast create some byproducts and some intermediate compounds that they can break down now. My beers seem to always attenuate farther than predicted and I think that is why.
Your beers get a lower FG because of the actual amount of fermentables. Not because of the amount of by products produced. By products are in addition too other things in the beer.
SJM11232
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Just out of curiosity, what yeast did you use? I've had to "rouse" the pale before, to see if I can get the yeast active again to finish off a bit of a stuck fermentation. But you were wise to leave the lid on. I'm thinking it's going to be fine.
pellis007
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According to their website, the WLP400 likes to ferment at 68F. Generally you want to be at the lower end of the recommended yeast temp range. So, the lower temp was probably better for your batch than the higher 70F. Also, unless you really violently shook your batch, you're probably fine regarding oxidation.
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