Did it ferment too fast?

[bmbauer]

Hey guys,

So up until this point I have only made ciders, however recently I made the jump to beer (its about time). I made the irish red from a northern brewer kit and everything seemed to go well (except for a little bit of excess splashing when transferring to the primary that has me slightly worried and transferring slightly more trub than I probably should have.)

Anyways, I added the yeast (nottinghams if that tells you anything) and threw it in the primary and let it go. The room I keep it in varries in temp slightly, but typically sits around 68-72 degrees. Its the coldest and darkest room in the house so its really the best I can do.

I woke up the next day, about 16 hours later, to find my airlock full of everything and spilling over everywhere. I put in a blowoff tube and kept it there for another 24 hours. When I woke up today however 40 hours or so later, I had very little bubbling from the blowoff tube so I put the airlock back on. Since then....I see no bubbling in the primary and no movement in the airlock.

Is it possible that fermentation is already over?
Is this bad?
Can/should I do anything?
Is it possible that there is contamination that messed things up?

Thanks guys!

 

[jekeane]

Nottingham is a fast and efficient yeast and that NB kit is a session beer so there is less work for the nottingham to do. You are likely fine and have learned a lesson about the versatility of blow off tubes : ) Are you using an ale pale or a carboy? If you are using a bucket it is often the case there is a leak somewhere, especially after a mess and that is why you aren't seeing airlock activity. Clean up the best you can and let it sit for 2 week and you'll be fine!

You may consider an ice bath for your next beer. Fermentation causes heat so the beer will be several degrees warmer than ambient room temperatures. Google hombrew swamp cooler to get some ideas.

 

[reeberom]

Hey guys,

So up until this point I have only made ciders, however recently I made the jump to beer (its about time). I made the irish red from a northern brewer kit and everything seemed to go well (except for a little bit of excess splashing when transferring to the primary that has me slightly worried and transferring slightly more trub than I probably should have.)

Anyways, I added the yeast (nottinghams if that tells you anything) and threw it in the primary and let it go. The room I keep it in varries in temp slightly, but typically sits around 68-72 degrees. Its the coldest and darkest room in the house so its really the best I can do.

I woke up the next day, about 16 hours later, to find my airlock full of everything and spilling over everywhere. I put in a blowoff tube and kept it there for another 24 hours. When I woke up today however 40 hours or so later, I had very little bubbling from the blowoff tube so I put the airlock back on. Since then....I see no bubbling in the primary and no movement in the airlock.

Is it possible that fermentation is already over?
Is this bad?
Can/should I do anything?
Is it possible that there is contamination that messed things up?

Thanks guys!

Welcome to home brewing. I had a brown ale, what I like to call diarrheaed all over my office. I say, like the suck in the military, embrace it.

 

[BigFloyd]

It fermented so quickly because it fermented at much too warm of a temp. What was the wort temperature when you pitched the yeast?

Nottingham works best if pitched into cool (55-60*F) wort and kept at cooler temps (57-62*F beer temp) while it's active those first few crucial days. Nottingham starts kicking off some funky esters at 68*F (beer temp, not air) that get worse the more it goes above that.

Left in a room 68-72*F, the temp inside your fermenter may have gotten as high as 80*F. That's quite likely to give you some significant flavor issues. I'm afraid that the damage from the higher temps has already been done.

 

[bmbauer]

I pitched pretty cold, probably about 60 degrees or just less, but i agree it probably got much too hot. My next purchase should probably be some sort of cooling system to control my wort temperature.

 

[unionrdr]

It could also be that only initial fermentation is over. It'll then slowly, uneventfully ferment down to FG. Having said that,I had an ESB fermented with rehydrated S-04 go from 1.060 down to 1.014 (corrected) in 10 days flat!

 

[jekeane]

a 7cf chest freezer holds 2 6g carboys and can be found pretty cheap on craigslist. They often go on sale at HD and wallyworld for $169 with shipping but you can get them for $50 or so on craigslist. You would then need a temperature controller which you can make from items on ebay/radioshack for around $25. (stc-1000)

 

[beekeeperman]

I had a fairly vigorous initial ferment on a ale i started this week.
After about 24 hrs from pitching the yeast it really took off for about a day then stopped. Pressure in the airlock equalized for about a day and then it started
fermenting again. I thought it was over too but guess i was wrong.

Ist batch so all new to me.