Well, here's a new one for me.
I put together a pilsner recipie and brewed on Feb 5. 5 gallon recipie, OG was 1.047. Pitched a 1.5 liter starter and put it in my wine cellar which is a consistent 51 degrees this time of year.
It took a couple of days to kick off and then went .... Slowly. Fermentation was going fine but it built up a couple inches of krausen and then just sat there .... For days .... With the airlock bubbling every 5 seconds ... For two weeks.
Just to see, I checked the gravity . It was all the way to .... 1.024???? What have those lazy yeasts been eating all this time?
I just checked my yeast supplies and realized I pitched the wrong one. I made the starter with Wyeast 2112. Steam beer yeast. Yeah, as in Wyeast's website says:
"This strain is particularly well suited for producing California Common-style beers. It retains lager characteristics at temperatures up to 65°F (18°C) and produces malty, brilliantly clear beers. This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation."
Great. So there it is, chugging along at a bubble every 5 seconds at 51 degrees.
So what do I do here? My options appear to be:
1: Leave it in primary until my wine cellar reaches 60 degrees sometime in July
2: move it elsewhere in my house where ambient temps will be 64-66 degrees (weeklong diaceytl rest!)
3: pitch 34/70
I got nothing against Steam beers, in fact that's why I had the 2112 in the first place. But I got to dry this beer out.
I guess it's got to be option #2, and then back to the cellar and #3 if that's not working.
I put together a pilsner recipie and brewed on Feb 5. 5 gallon recipie, OG was 1.047. Pitched a 1.5 liter starter and put it in my wine cellar which is a consistent 51 degrees this time of year.
It took a couple of days to kick off and then went .... Slowly. Fermentation was going fine but it built up a couple inches of krausen and then just sat there .... For days .... With the airlock bubbling every 5 seconds ... For two weeks.
Just to see, I checked the gravity . It was all the way to .... 1.024???? What have those lazy yeasts been eating all this time?
I just checked my yeast supplies and realized I pitched the wrong one. I made the starter with Wyeast 2112. Steam beer yeast. Yeah, as in Wyeast's website says:
"This strain is particularly well suited for producing California Common-style beers. It retains lager characteristics at temperatures up to 65°F (18°C) and produces malty, brilliantly clear beers. This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation."
Great. So there it is, chugging along at a bubble every 5 seconds at 51 degrees.
So what do I do here? My options appear to be:
1: Leave it in primary until my wine cellar reaches 60 degrees sometime in July
2: move it elsewhere in my house where ambient temps will be 64-66 degrees (weeklong diaceytl rest!)
3: pitch 34/70
I got nothing against Steam beers, in fact that's why I had the 2112 in the first place. But I got to dry this beer out.
I guess it's got to be option #2, and then back to the cellar and #3 if that's not working.