Fermentation over after 3 days?

[Proxxy3813]

Hello I recently tried an all grain imperial stout recipe and after 3 days i have basically no noticeable activity in the airlock. Mashed in at 154F for 60minutes on 22lbs of grain with 7 gallons of water into an improvised cooler mash-tun, strained the grain off brought 6 gallons of very tasty wart to a boil and added my hops addition, cooled it in an ice bath down to yeast temp and pitched my starter. I originally had the wort in a 6 gallon ale pale bucket with an attached blowoff tube, after 1 day i noticed there was some wart that was pushed out from under the lid I'm guessing from foam up and the tube bubbling like crazy. 2 days in and it was still bubbling rapidly from the 1/8in tube, day 3 the bubbling was slightly slower and by day 4 it had seemingly stopped which perplexed me. Fearing i was loosing gas around the lid of the bucket I decided to transfer the wort to a sanitized carboy and attached the airlock.
> I used 2 vials of WLP007 one vial with a one liter starter
> I shook the mixture daily to add oxygen
> The mixture did indeed smell very boozy
> No mold no off colors
> There was a clumpy thick yeast cake at the bottom of the bucket
> Gravity reading was about 1.04, we forgot to take an original gravity (drinking and brewing tends to lose steps) but brewers friend estimated it at 1.11.
> Airlock moved a little bit day 5 but is no longer bubbling.
Could this possibly be correct? (almost 9% abv in just 5 days?) Id expect something like that from champagne yeast, but ale yeast? Do i possibly have a stuck fermentation?
All input is greatly appreciated!

 

[brokebucket]

Best thing you can do for your beer is dont mess with it. Leave it be for 3-4 weeks, Then take your gravity reading. Until then, you can only mess it up.

Leave it alone!

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Proxxy,

Your FG seems a little high - what did you use to measure it? Did you use a hydrometer or a refractometer? If you used a refractometer, your FG measurement is artificially high. The refractometer reading is skewed high as a result of alcohol in the fermented wort.

However, done is done - I've had beers ferment in a few days. But that doesn't mean you need to do anything to them. Let the yeast clean up after themselves for a week or two before you mess with them.

Also, shaking your fermenter to introduce oxygen after fermentation starts is not good. Doing so prior to fermentation is great, but after it kicks off, this will lead to off flavors.

Good luck!

 

[jfk69]

I would never, and I mean NEVER, shake the fermenter, after the yeast is added. Why risk oxidizing your beer, especially and RIS that takes time to develop?

 

[helibrewer]

You were significantly under pitched and under oxygenated. You could try San Diego Super yeast but I would make a 2 L starter and pitch it at high krausen.

 

[Devin]

WLP007 always rips through my brews quickly, it seems. That said, like Pliny said above - your FG seems high. I second the question of what you used to measure it. If you did use a refractometer, there are calculators out there on the net that will help reveal the true FG. Also, I am confused as to what you pitched. You said:

> I used 2 vials of WLP007 one vial with a one liter starter

So, did you use 2 vials of WLP007? One just straight and one with a starter? That isn't a very clear sentence.