Fermentation appears to have halted prematurely. Botched batch?

[smaknstein]

Background. Probably done a couple dozen extract batches over the last several years. never lost a batch. 9 days ago I brewed a double batch (consecutively since I only have one burner) of a RyePA. Both 5 gal batches were cooled , strained and racked into 6.5 Gallon Big Mouth Bubblers. Yeast (Safale US-05) was pitched at 70 deg F. Both batches commenced to bubble the airlocks in a reasonable amount of time. After a day or two bubbling slowed on both but I noticed that, while one airlock had water standing up in the outbound chamber (as expected) the other airlock showed the water at equal levels. 4 days after brew day I racked both batches into secondary fermentors (glass carboys). After some initial action, possibly due to oxygenation from the racking process, I found that I was in the exact same place as far as the fluid levels were concerned. One with apparent pressure while the other well, not so much. Called a friend of mine and fellow home-brewer and asked his opinion about introducing more yeast. His opinion was "can't hurt". Pitched another 1/2 packet of yeast and saw an initial reaction that quickly dissipated. I did not take an initial reading with a hydrometer so, I would imagine using one now would be of little help (unless I used it to compare the batches). Something apparently went wrong. Is it the opinion of this forum that this batch is salvageable or have I lost the right to say that I never lost a batch?

 

[VikeMan]

I'm not sure what your concern is. Is it the relative levels of liquid in the airlocks? That doesn't necessarily tell you if fermentation is happening.

You should measure the gravity, then measure again in 2-3 days. If it's the same both times and in the neighborhood of what you were expecting, then attenuation is finished. If you're not sure what final gravity to expect, check the recipe. If the recipe doesn't say, post the recipe details here and someone will help with that.

 

[day_trippr]

Greetings, @smaknstein, and welcome to HBT!

This sounds like a classic "relax, don't worry, have a home brew" scenario
Two consecutively brewed batches and pitched from separate packs may well not be so identical that their progression is literally in lockstep. And they may not finish at the exact same Specific Gravity.

The half-packet you pitched basically provided a half-bazillion nucleation sites for the CO2 dissolved in the beer to use as break-out mechanisms. No worries there, the extra yeast didn't hurt anything, but likely didn't do much if anything to move the batch along.

As @VikeMan suggested, take consecutive Specific Gravity readings - of both batches - and look for stability over a few days, then package it up...

Cheers!

 

[Calder]

Check gravity and I suspect you will find it is finished.

I have brewed a lot, and several years ago I had a batch I was certain didn't even start fermenting. I even contacted the yeast supplier to see if there were any bad batches about (it was Nottingham, and they had recently had a problem batch). They said my yeast was OK ........ I checked the gravity 3 days after pitching yeast and it had finished.