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Stephen Perry

Stephen Perry

Barnyard Brewer
Joined
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Location
New Bern, NC
Have an oatmeal stout (oatmeal peanut butter stout to be more specific) that I brewed, i dumped trub and all into 2 separate carboys. I have approximately 6 gallons of wort and trub in one and approximately 2.5 gallons in the other. My wort temps were right around 66 when I pitched the yeast in both. I used US-04, 3/4 of a pack in the small carboy and 1-1/4 packs in the large one. I've checked every 12 hours over the last 3 days, in the morning and at night, each day. I thought it was starting to take off yesterday because I saw small air bubbles coming to the top of the wort slowly, but no real activity in the airlock. I've never had this issue before. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Also, for more info on my equipment, I use a freezer for a fermentation chamber. Have an inkbird controller that I keep the temp set at 67, using a heat pad for the heat source.

Thanks!
 
Some questions to help diagnose:

1. Any krausen formation? If you can see the liquid inside, is it murky? S04 is a pretty hardy bugger. And don’t open if you can’t tell. Peanut butter has a high oil content and may mess with krausen formation.

2. Can you describe the wort making process? Mash temps would be most helpful. Are you sure you mashed at right temp?

3. What fermentor type are you using (bucket, carbon, conical, etc?) and material of the fermentor? It is possible you have a leak in the sealing of the fermentor.

4. Can you confirm fermentation chamber temps with a second thermometer?

5. Any chance to take a gravity reading? Did you take an OG?
 
Ralphie0523 said:
Some questions to help diagnose:

1. Any krausen formation? If you can see the liquid inside, is it murky? S04 is a pretty hardy bugger. And don’t open if you can’t tell. Peanut butter has a high oil content and may mess with krausen formation.

2. Can you describe the wort making process? Mash temps would be most helpful. Are you sure you mashed at right temp?

3. What fermentor type are you using (bucket, carbon, conical, etc?) and material of the fermentor? It is possible you have a leak in the sealing of the fermentor.

4. Can you confirm fermentation chamber temps with a second thermometer?

5. Any chance to take a gravity reading? Did you take an OG?
Click to expand...

1.If there is any krausen it's a very thin film. I could take a picture tomorrow and post. For my peanut butter I add PB2 with 10 mins left in the boil. I used my ball valve on my keggle to run some of the wort off into a separate pot so I could whisk in the PB2, then poured it back in to the boil for the last 10 minutes.

2. Mash temp was at 155. I dont have a full setup for all grain, so I mashed with the grains in a grain bag in my boil pot, then after my 1 hour I soaked them in a separate pot with 165* water for 15 minutes, then let the grains drip for a minute before dumping that pot into the boil kettle. Boil was 1 hour with hops at 60 minute and 10 minute.

3. Fermenter is a glass carboy with rubber stopper and airlock. I spray starsan everywhere including around the stopper and saw no bubbles.

4. Yes, I have a Matco brand laser thermometer that is accurate to the .1* (used to be a mechanic, hence the matco brand)

5. My OG was 1.060 at 66*F. I had thought about taking a gravity reading now to see if anything has happened, but didnt want to rush in and take a chance at messing anything up. But I could do that tomorrow afternoon.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

Just for giggles, are you seeing any streaks from the bottom of the glass carboy? Like plumes going up? If not, maybe try increasing temp a degree or three to see if you can encourage fermentation?

seem to have eliminated a leak, mash temp and normal ferm temps. At this point anything short of a gravity reading is pure speculation.
 
Here's a couple quick pictures. I bumped the fermentation temp up to 69
 

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So, my question is then could the PB2 I added to the boil and then dumped with the trub in the carboy, prevent the typical big ole krausen that I'm used to seeing? I know people usually say the oils of the peanut butter affect it.
 
Did you use peanut butter or pb2?

Oh I see you used pb2 . From what I've read people didnt have an oil issue with pb2 like they did with peanut butter.
 
There's only one way to know for sure your beer is fermenting: Take gravity sample!

Here's an easy method to siphon out some beer for a hydrometer sample:
  • For that, use a 2-3' piece of thin vinyl tubing, 1/8" (or 3/16") ID, 1/4" (or 5/16") OD.
  • Sanitize tubing, airlock area, etc., remove airlock or entire bung.
  • Snake about half the tubing inside the fermenter, underneath the beer surface.
  • Point the other end down, below the beer level, and start sucking on it. Have a clean container ready.
  • As soon as you get flow, keep the siphon going while diverting the stream into that container.
  • When you've collected 4-6 ounces, enough for a hydrometer sample, pull the tubing out of the fermenter, quickly in one swift motion to prevent the beer from flowing back into the fermenter, that's essential (preventing possible infection).
  • Replace airlock/bung.
It sounds more complicated than it really is. It becomes second nature quickly after the first 2 or 3 times.
If you're not confident about the procedure, do a few practice runs using a bucket with water.

You may need to decarbonate the sample by stirring it or by inverting it back and forth a few times until it stops foaming.
After taking the reading, drink the sample to get an impression of how the young beer tastes, it's a learning experience. Make some notes for posterity!

There are other methods, but I find this the easiest and most straightforward, and doesn't take special equipment aside from the 2-3' of skinny hose. I keep it on the bottom of my 2-3 gallon Starsan bucket.
 
IslandLizard said:
There's only one way to know for sure your beer is fermenting: Take gravity sample!

Here's an easy method to siphon out some beer for a hydrometer sample:
  • For that, use a 2-3' piece of thin vinyl tubing, 1/8" (or 3/16") ID, 1/4" (or 5/16") OD.
  • Sanitize tubing, airlock area, etc., remove airlock or entire bung.
  • Snake about half the tubing inside the fermenter, underneath the beer surface.
  • Point the other end down, below the beer level, and start sucking on it. Have a clean container ready.
  • As soon as you get flow, keep the siphon going while diverting the stream into that container.
  • When you've collected 4-6 ounces, enough for a hydrometer sample, pull the tubing out of the fermenter, quickly in one swift motion to prevent the beer from flowing back into the fermenter, that's essential (preventing possible infection).
  • Replace airlock/bung.
It sounds more complicated than it really is. It becomes second nature quickly after the first 2 or 3 times.
If you're not confident about the procedure, do a few practice runs using a bucket with water.

You may need to decarbonate the sample by stirring it or by inverting it back and forth a few times until it stops foaming.
After taking the reading, drink the sample to get an impression of how the young beer tastes, it's a learning experience. Make some notes for posterity!

There are other methods, but I find this the easiest and most straightforward, and doesn't take special equipment aside from the 2-3' of skinny hose. I keep it on the bottom of my 2-3 gallon Starsan bucket.
Click to expand...

That's what I plan on doing when I get home in a couple hours. I have a barrel thief that all I have to do is stick it in the carboy and as it goes down the check valve allows liquid in and when I take it out the liquid stays in and I can put my hydrometer directly in there. I'll post my findings when I test later
 
Stephen Perry said:
That's what I plan on doing when I get home in a couple hours. I have a barrel thief that all I have to do is stick it in the carboy and as it goes down the check valve allows liquid in and when I take it out the liquid stays in and I can put my hydrometer directly in there. I'll post my findings when I test later
Click to expand...
Be careful using that wine thief as a "hydrometer jar."
I broke my first hydrometer that way when it torpedoed down to the bottom (partly due to the lower gravity, it sinks faster and deeper), leaving a thief full of beer, thin glass shards and steel pellets. :tank:
From then on, I only used the thief to collect samples.

Once I switched to plastic bucket as fermenters, I wanted to leave the (wide) lid on to preserve the CO2-rich headspace as much as I could, hence the skinny tubing siphon method.
 
So I took my gravity reading and it's at 1.020...so apparently I've been worrying for nothing...sorry guys... this is my 3rd time with using US-04 and each of the previous times it went pretty aggressively after about 24 hours of pitching and lasted for 3 days or so. So I dont know if maybe the PB2 and amount of trub affected it or what. I'm gonna let it finish out till next week and check again.

@IslandLizard I actually set my hydrometer in it before I put it in the carboy that way it fills around the hydrometer and I collect only what I have to so I can see it float.
 
Stephen Perry said:
@IslandLizard I actually set my hydrometer in it before I put it in the carboy that way it fills around the hydrometer and I collect only what I have to so I can see it float.
Click to expand...
Then let the beer flow back so the hydrometer bottoms out?
The bottom of many wine thiefs is not soft or padded, it's irregular, star shaped, etc.

Just be aware, hydrometers are very, very fragile instruments. The glass is less than 100 microns (0.1 mm) thin, then there's a plug of 20-30 grams of steel pellets in the bottom encapsulated by that thin glass...

Here's some (extensive) testimony:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/official-broken-hydrometer-count.148083/page-41
 
bracconiere said:
glad the yeast are working, and the laws of 'beer' haven't stopped....
Click to expand...
Ain't that the truth.

I wonder if there's a smiley that reflects RDWHAHB.
Stephen Perry said:
5. My OG was 1.060 at 66*F. I had thought about taking a gravity reading now to see if anything has happened, but didnt want to rush in and take a chance at messing anything up. But I could do that tomorrow afternoon.
Click to expand...
Usually it's 42, but here, 5. was the the right answer.

She'll need some time (raise her slowly toward 70-72F over a few days), may even creep down a few more points. Then keep temps constant, don't let them drop, or risk the yeast calling it done.
 

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