First off, yes I know, airlock activity is not the be all, end all sign of fermentation. But this one is pretty odd, and had some unusual occurrences, so looking for some thoughts. Beer is a session IPA. OG of 1.048. I wanted it to finish high for a little more body so I was planning to mash at 156. Over shot a bit and ended up at more like 158. The yeast is a lower attenuating one, Wyeast Denny's Favorite 50. And one more odd thing - when I took the smack pack out of the fridge, it was already partly swollen. Smacked it, and by the time I was ready to pitch it had blown up to capacity, so I figure no problem. Cut it and no unusual smell, so good to go.
I pitched at about 68 degrees at about 6PM Sunday. Put my BMB in a water cooled temp controlled cooler and brought it down to 64. Normally my ferments start very quickly, but this was my first time with this yeast. Monday morning I was a little surprised that there was no activity yet and the surface of the wort was pristine. Headed off to work with only the slightest concern.
Arrived home at 7PM Monday and was very happy to see bubbles in the airlock, and an inch or so of krausen. Should be end of story, right? Went to check on it again around 11PM before bed and... no airlock activity. Odd, but still not really worried. Went to bed.
Tuesday morning... no airlock activity. Tuesday evening (tonight)... no airlock activity. Still a nice layer of krausen, and if I push down on the lid, I get bubbles in the airlock, so not like it developed a crack or leak somewhere. lid is screwed down tight. So here are my thoughts:
Is is possible that 6 - 12 hours of moderately vigorous fermentation on Monday is all I'm going to get?
Did my 158 degree mash not extract near enough fermentable sugars?
Was there a problem with the yeast? Package date was early January.
Am I fermenting too cool? currently about 65.
As long as there is krausen, I'm not going to worry and will wait until it goes down to take my first gravity reading. Otherwise, anything else I should do? Thanks.
I pitched at about 68 degrees at about 6PM Sunday. Put my BMB in a water cooled temp controlled cooler and brought it down to 64. Normally my ferments start very quickly, but this was my first time with this yeast. Monday morning I was a little surprised that there was no activity yet and the surface of the wort was pristine. Headed off to work with only the slightest concern.
Arrived home at 7PM Monday and was very happy to see bubbles in the airlock, and an inch or so of krausen. Should be end of story, right? Went to check on it again around 11PM before bed and... no airlock activity. Odd, but still not really worried. Went to bed.
Tuesday morning... no airlock activity. Tuesday evening (tonight)... no airlock activity. Still a nice layer of krausen, and if I push down on the lid, I get bubbles in the airlock, so not like it developed a crack or leak somewhere. lid is screwed down tight. So here are my thoughts:
Is is possible that 6 - 12 hours of moderately vigorous fermentation on Monday is all I'm going to get?
Did my 158 degree mash not extract near enough fermentable sugars?
Was there a problem with the yeast? Package date was early January.
Am I fermenting too cool? currently about 65.
As long as there is krausen, I'm not going to worry and will wait until it goes down to take my first gravity reading. Otherwise, anything else I should do? Thanks.