Weird fermentation

Recipe:

-1 lb. chocolate malt
-1/2 lb. roasted barley
-1/2 lb. carapils
-5.5 lbs. dark DME
-WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast in a 1-pint starter
-3 oz. unknown hops that I picked from my aunt-in-law's place in September and froze (half for boiling, half for finishing)

O.G. was 1.062

Info from White Labs on my yeast:

WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast

Clean, highly flocculent, and highly attenuative yeast. This yeast is similar to WLP002 in flavor profile, but is 10% more attenuative. This eliminates the residual sweetness, and makes the yeast well suited for high gravity ales. It is also reaches terminal gravity quickly. 80% attenuation will be reached even with 10% ABV beers.

Attenuation: 70-80%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum fermentation temperature: 65-70°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

Anyway, to my problem: I pitched on Sunday evening around 5:00, and had ~1 bubble/sec on yesterday morning. It slowed considerably by last evening, and now I have ~1 bubble/3-4 seconds. I'm going to wait for it to stop completely and then take a gravity reading and go from there, but in the meantime, I want to know a couple of things.

1) This yeast was very clumpy when I bought it, and was still in my starter. I guess the flocculation tends toward the high side. Do I need to stir up the beer with a long spoon to get my yeasty friends active again? I hate the thought of opening the carboy for anything, especially if it will involve stirring. I *did* take a slight peek at it yesterday, and there wasn't krausen, but a very thin layer of bubbles on the top. Not sure if it fell already or what.

2) Is it possible that it finished that quickly? My last couple batches were higher in gravity and had pretty explosive fermentation for the better part of a week. This one is already very slow at 36 hours.

3) Why can't this stuff ever go smoothly from start to finish?

1 - Don't stir. Be patient.
2 - Yes it is possible, but give it a few days before you take a reading.
3 - Because if it was easy, anyone could do it.

Anything can and will happen.

My Winter Wit II is STILL bubbling. I pitched last wednesday. It went great guns for a day, then slowed waaaaay down, and now has been bubbling 10 times a minute for the past 2 days. This is the longest I've ever seen one of my beers keep bubbling; nearly a whole week! Who knows how long this will keep up.

All-in-all, let it do its thing. You'll probably get good beer that way.

5gBrewer said:

Anything can and will happen.

My Winter Wit II is STILL bubbling. I pitched last wednesday. It went great guns for a day, then slowed waaaaay down, and now has been bubbling 10 times a minute for the past 2 days. This is the longest I've ever seen one of my beers keep bubbling; nearly a whole week! Who knows how long this will keep up.

All-in-all, let it do its thing. You'll probably get good beer that way.

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My concern is just the opposite, though: there wasn't nearly enough activity. It never seemed to bubble very rapidly, and it's already slowing down to a crawl. Weird.

I need to use my glass carboy as a primary from now on and leave my hydrometer in there.

ayrton said:

My concern is just the opposite, though: there wasn't nearly enough activity. It never seemed to bubble very rapidly, and it's already slowing down to a crawl. Weird.

I need to use my glass carboy as a primary from now on and leave my hydrometer in there.

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There are no hard fast rules about the number of days it will ferment... You can search the entire internet and look at every web-site dealing with brewing and find different answers. Any one who tells you it will take 3 days is talking out their ass. You can say it may take about 3 days. It may be done in as little as 12hrs. I had a small beer ~4% and it had started within 3 hrs of brewing and was done when I woke up the next morning - not slowed - finished.

The only true way to find out if fermentation is done is to take a hydrometer reading and then another in a day or 2, if they are the same it's done.

It was probably most active while you were sleeping. All of the things that affect fermentation are in play, temp, humidity, sugars (O.G.), health of the yeast - everything.

Relax, let the yeasty boys do their job, check the gravity and then again in a day or 2. As others said - DON'T stir ir!!! Once yeast is pitched, you DO NOT want to aerate your beer, you won't like the results.

FWIW - I wouldn't want a glass hydrometer floating around in my primary just waiting to get broke during a move.

dcbrewmeister said:

There are no hard fast rules about the number of days it will ferment... You can search the entire internet and look at every web-site dealing with brewing and find different answers. Any one who tells you it will take 3 days is talking out their ass. You can say it may take about 3 days. It may be done in as little as 12hrs. I had a small beer ~4% and it had started within 3 hrs of brewing and was done when I woke up the next morning - not slowed - finished.

The only true way to find out if fermentation is done is to take a hydrometer reading and then another in a day or 2, if they are the same it's done.

It was probably most active while you were sleeping. All of the things that affect fermentation are in play, temp, humidity, sugars (O.G.), health of the yeast - everything.

Relax, let the yeasty boys do their job, check the gravity and then again in a day or 2. As others said - DON'T stir ir!!! Once yeast is pitched, you DO NOT want to aerate your beer, you won't like the results.

FWIW - I wouldn't want a glass hydrometer floating around in my primary just waiting to get broke during a move.

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I'm aware of most of that, but I guess my surprise is at the shortness of the ferment. I've never seen one finish so quickly, and it seems hard to believe that it could go from an OG of 1.062 to an acceptable FG in so short a time frame. But if you've had a 4% ABV beer finish fermenting overnight, then I guess it's conceivable. Thanks all!

I went home and watched my airlock for five solid minutes, and I didn't see a single bubble. I sanitized a glass and got some wort out and put it in the hydrometer, and the gravity was 1.040.

Bleep.

Now I'm in a pickle. Should I rouse the yeast, or pitch something else? Why the heck would it not have attenuated? My temperatures were a constant 70 throughout, and my starter was kicking ass when I pitched it. I had plenty of aeration. Clearly something is amiss, but I'm clueless.

ayrton said:

I went home and watched my airlock for five solid minutes, and I didn't see a single bubble. I sanitized a glass and got some wort out and put it in the hydrometer, and the gravity was 1.040.

Bleep.

Now I'm in a pickle. Should I rouse the yeast, or pitch something else? Why the heck would it not have attenuated? My temperatures were a constant 70 throughout, and my starter was kicking ass when I pitched it. I had plenty of aeration. Clearly something is amiss, but I'm clueless.

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What are you using for temp control? It may simply have gone to high (70 is the top end of that yeast) and the yeast is sleepy (hopefully) try dropping the temp a few degrees and the yeast may come back to life.

dcbrewmeister said:

What are you using for temp control?

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The thermostat on my wall.

If anything, the temperature would have dropped, as we turn down the heat at night. Still, it's worth a shot. Seems strange that the yeast would get that flakey even if I was a degree or two outside its range.