Good morning, I cooked up an Oatmeal Porter late on 1/28 using this recipe (more or less): http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/68633/oatmeal-porter
I pitched Safale US-04 dry yeast without rehydrating, as the instructions asked for on the bag itself and online (though I know there is much debate on dry/liquid yeast and rehydrate/starter/dry pitch). After no evidence of fermentation in the airlock after 24-48 hours, I pulled the airlock to get a glance inside. It looked like a thin layer of krausen was on top, with a more cake-y krausen buildup on the sides of my plastic fermenter bucket. It did smell kind of beer-ish though, which I took as a good sign. Since there was no activity in the airlock whatsoever and the krausen was much thinner than I had seen in previous batches (pale ales, not porter), I grabbed some more Safale US-04 and pitched it on the third full day (1/31), thinking it had been sitting mostly dormant and at risk of infection or staling without healthy yeast.
Still, after another 24 hours I didnt see evidence of fermentation in the airlock and figured it was time to re-sanitize everything and take a hydrometer reading. My OG when I pitched the first yeast was 1.054. My reading on 2/1, 28 hours after pitching the second packet of US-04, was 1.016 (this would be 4 full days after brew date). The way I see it, this batch is fermenting and it has already hit close to the target level.
So now my question is how long do I let it sit in the fermenter and when should I bottle? I dont have an extra bucket (except the bottling bucket), so it will be sitting in the Primary Fermenter this whole time. I have seen estimates for several weeks, but this is only a ~5% brew so its not as strong as some of the stouts and porters I have read about that suggested a month in fermentation.
My ancillary question, then is this evidence that my fermenter is busted (deteriorated, etc.) and I need to get a new one? Its a hand-me-down from my dad and Im not sure how long he used it and how long these last. When I push on the lid it does bubble some in the airlock, but I cant help but wonder why this is my second batch in a row that obviously fermented based on hydrometer readings, but had absolutely NO evidence of airlock activity. The last one was a pale ale and it fermented fine but then did not carbonate almost at all and I dont know why. It could have been that I tried to sanitize the bottle caps in water that was too hot and messed up the seal. Ive done a few pale ales, but not many, and in my inexperience I dont want to over-think things and ruin batches by worrying too much.
I pitched Safale US-04 dry yeast without rehydrating, as the instructions asked for on the bag itself and online (though I know there is much debate on dry/liquid yeast and rehydrate/starter/dry pitch). After no evidence of fermentation in the airlock after 24-48 hours, I pulled the airlock to get a glance inside. It looked like a thin layer of krausen was on top, with a more cake-y krausen buildup on the sides of my plastic fermenter bucket. It did smell kind of beer-ish though, which I took as a good sign. Since there was no activity in the airlock whatsoever and the krausen was much thinner than I had seen in previous batches (pale ales, not porter), I grabbed some more Safale US-04 and pitched it on the third full day (1/31), thinking it had been sitting mostly dormant and at risk of infection or staling without healthy yeast.
Still, after another 24 hours I didnt see evidence of fermentation in the airlock and figured it was time to re-sanitize everything and take a hydrometer reading. My OG when I pitched the first yeast was 1.054. My reading on 2/1, 28 hours after pitching the second packet of US-04, was 1.016 (this would be 4 full days after brew date). The way I see it, this batch is fermenting and it has already hit close to the target level.
So now my question is how long do I let it sit in the fermenter and when should I bottle? I dont have an extra bucket (except the bottling bucket), so it will be sitting in the Primary Fermenter this whole time. I have seen estimates for several weeks, but this is only a ~5% brew so its not as strong as some of the stouts and porters I have read about that suggested a month in fermentation.
My ancillary question, then is this evidence that my fermenter is busted (deteriorated, etc.) and I need to get a new one? Its a hand-me-down from my dad and Im not sure how long he used it and how long these last. When I push on the lid it does bubble some in the airlock, but I cant help but wonder why this is my second batch in a row that obviously fermented based on hydrometer readings, but had absolutely NO evidence of airlock activity. The last one was a pale ale and it fermented fine but then did not carbonate almost at all and I dont know why. It could have been that I tried to sanitize the bottle caps in water that was too hot and messed up the seal. Ive done a few pale ales, but not many, and in my inexperience I dont want to over-think things and ruin batches by worrying too much.
