Anxious much?

[mikemet]

I guess most of us are in the same boat when it comes to patience. I have lost all of mine. I am day 5 in my brew experience- and I am bursting at the seams right now.

I do have something worth a mention... I know its hard to tell whats good and bad and most just need patience- and patience on top of patience-

Im smelling my beer coming out of the airlock- and man is it smelling good. I am not sure if im lucky- or distorted- but wow im making an IPA and is smells drinkable today.

Does it normally smell so good coming out of the airlock? It looks like beer, well beer with stuff floating all in it- not sure if that classifies this as "drinkable" but eh- you know

My friend is brewing a batch- his kreutzen reached all the way up to the airlock- mine is much tamer (about 2 inches off the top of the beer). Is it normal to have such differences? We are using different yeasts- one swamp cooler- the other not. Im just curious.

 

[progmac]

a warm fermentation tend to be fast and furious (i'm guessing the one w/out the swamp cooler is up to the airlock..). what you mention is totally normal.

if you're really eager, you should be okay doing 2+2 with an ipa (2 wks fermenter / 2 wks in bottle). don't try to pull that with a porter though.

 

[Revvy]

Nope, sometimes it can smell like shi*...Literally. Some yeast produce sulphur smells. Some can smell like bananas, or other smells. It's not what it smells or tastes like in the fermenter that matters. Only what the finished beer is like. And often on the journey it may smell, look, taste awful...and be perfectly normal.

And as to differences in fermentation....
There is nothing "typical" in brewing...No two fermentations are ever exactly the same.

When we are dealing with living creatures, there is a wild card factor in play..Just like with other animals, including humans...No two behave the same.

You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...


Yeasts are like teenagers, swmbos, and humans in general, they have their own individual way of doing things.

 

[CBXBob]

I'm about a year in (next month) and am going to brew my 11th extract batch today. I've found that I am gaining patience. I think that may be because I've got about 15 gallons in bottles right now