Do lower gravity beers finish faster?

[jwalk4]

Like the title says, "Do lower gravity beers finish faster?"

My mild (first one) with an OG 1030 has slowed right down after about ~48.

S-04 took off like a shot and my airlock was chugging hard for the first day. Now I barely get a blub-blub in 2 mins.

I'm not too worried, but I was just wondering if this is a normal thing for low grav beers.

S-04 fermeneted at 22C (Actual wort/beer temp).

 

[acarter5251]

I would think so with there being less sugars to be fermented, but I could be wrong. I'm curious to see what someone who knows more about this has to say...

 

[mmb]

Yes. All other things equal, less fermentable sugar will allow yeast to finish quicker and with less stress from high alcohol or osmotic pressure.

 

[Talgrath]

Short answer: Yes. Assuming you use the same amount of yeast, the yeast has less to eat, so it gets to the point of being done faster.

Long answer: Yes, assuming you pitch the same amount of yeast used, but it's not quite a straight line. A beer with a gravity of 1.100 isn't going to ferment at double the time of a beer at 1.050 or four times the time of a 1.025 beer. The more abundant the resources the quicker the yeast will reproduce and eat the fermentable sugars, the more they reproduce with abundant resources the faster they grow since the growth is essentially exponential with limits in place, so 5 billion cells becomes 10 billion becomes 20 billion becomes 40 billion and so on until the limits of alcohol tolerance or food supply is reached. Of course, there's other factors to consider there which is why underpitching is a bad idea and overpitching is too. So, the long answer is that it depends on how much yeast you pitch, underpitching yeast or overpitching, etc.

 

[Yooper]

Part of the quickness comes from warmer temperatures. S04 is fast anyway, but at 22C, it will go faster than at something like 17C (my preference as the highest temperature S04 can ferment for best flavor).

 

[jwalk4]

What I kind of figured.

Thanks, all!

 

[catdaddy66]

Part of the quickness comes from warmer temperatures. S04 is fast anyway, but at 22C, it will go faster than at something like 17C (my preference as the highest temperature S04 can ferment for best flavor).

Good to know. Thanks, Yoop!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[rojopem]

I'm pretty new to brewing and am trying a light 4% ale, 5 gallons, that I have then reused the spent grains for another 5 gallons with more hops, mixed the two together and they have been fermenting for the past two days. Now fermenting very slowly as expected.
Anyone else try this and if so, what were your results?

 

[MaxStout]

I'm pretty new to brewing and am trying a light 4% ale, 5 gallons, that I have then reused the spent grains for another 5 gallons with more hops, mixed the two together and they have been fermenting for the past two days. Now fermenting very slowly as expected.
Anyone else try this and if so, what were your results?

What you describe is similar to a partigyle (except for the mixing part). Some breweries do this--brew a big beer, lauter, then make a smaller beer with the same grain (second runnings). E.g., imperial stout, followed by a porter.

I assume you are taking the spent grains and steeping them for the second part?

 

[rojopem]

What you describe is similar to a partigyle (except for the mixing part). Some breweries do this--brew a big beer, lauter, then make a smaller beer with the same grain (second runnings). E.g., imperial stout, followed by a porter.

I assume you are taking the spent grains and steeping them for the second part?

Yes, I did