Fermentation seems slow...used washed yeast

[THEDIETZ]

so i brewed a APA on saturday (11/19/11)with all Bravo hops. My O.G was 1.061.

I used washed yeast from a beer I made. I collected and washed the yeast on 7/24/2011.

so to get this yeast ready i made a 2000ml starter on sunday (11/13/11). I had the starter on my homemade stir plate and it fermented out in 2 days. I put it in the fridge for the yeast to settle...then decanted the liquid off the top and made another 1000ml wort to put on top of the yeast thursday night (11/17/11) to get the yeast ready. It fermented on the stir plate no problem.

On saturday I brewed my beer and pitched in the yeast. I had fermentation going within 3 hours and i thought things looked good.

I noticed today that airlock activity has really slowed down.. So i took a gravity reading. I am only at 1.042. Shouldn't I be a lot lower than that by now? espcially with the airlock activity slowing way down..THe yeast was WLP001.

The way this thing took off i was expecting to see my final gravity when i took the reading.

Also some info you might need to know is this is a 10 gallon all grain batch.

I will obviously take another reading tomorrow. but if it hasn't gone down much i guess i'll have to go buy some fresh WLP001 on wednesday when my local homebrew store is open.

So should i be worried about this or am i nuts?

 

[TyTanium]

Saturday to Monday? I wouldn't be worried about it yet. Give it at least 2 more days. Some will tell you to not even touch it for a week (or longer). Did you aerate?

 

[THEDIETZ]

yeah i think i am jumping the gun a bit. I don't thinki considered the fact that it was only 2 days when I posted that. regarding aerating....usually when i collect my wort into my bucket i use a santized hose and let it fly into the bucket to aerate it....then i dump the bucket or wort into my fermentor pretty vigorously....i have never had problems with this method for 3 years.

My last beer didn't ferment out completly...stopped at 1.026...and i think it has me paranoid on this one...

 

[statseeker]

I think you're too early to be paranoid. As was said before, dont read too much into the first few days unless nothing happens and your gravity doesnt change for a few days. If you have to rouse the yeast a little bit, I wouldnt worry about it too much. Whats your fermentor temp? Upper 60s? If it's below 65 I would consider letting it ramp up to room temp until you get some consistent activity.

 

[THEDIETZ]

My basement temp is 67...my main reason for being nervous was how fast it took off with lots of activity and it slowed down just as fast...I checked this morning and still some activity going on...I am going to try to not think about it until after Thanksgiving

 

[statseeker]

Good idea.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

This may very well not be the problem, but you should calibrate your mash thermometer. I had a problem with 3-4 beers in a row finishing way high and found it was my mash thermometer of by 6-8 degrees.

2 days in is too early to tell yet, but I would calibrate it anyway regardless of how the fermentation goes. Very common for them to not be accurate.

 

[THEDIETZ]

I used a digital Taylor with the probe on a 3ft cord...I keep it in my starters while boiling to sanitize it and it is usually only 1-2 degrees off...I understand what your saying but I don't think that is a problem.
Best case scenario is that I am paranoid and have no problem!

I just recently got into washing and reusing yeast and I guess I am not that confident yet

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

I used a digital Taylor with the probe on a 3ft cord...I keep it in my starters while boiling to sanitize it and it is usually only 1-2 degrees off

Don't be so sure. I threw my Taylor away a while ago because it was off about 20F from room temp up through mash temps, but read only a couple degrees off when checked in boiling water. The only reason I noticed it was that it was sitting on my brewing table and it was reading 45 degrees when I knew the outside temp wasn't that cold.

I had one of those long metal probe style with the dial also that read 6-8F off at mash temps, but read within 1-2 at boiling.

So I then bought a lab grade thermometer and checked that against all of my thermometers along with the one on my pH meter through all ranges of temp up to boiling and I now use the lab grade alcohol one for mashing. I use the metal one to get my strike close as it is convenient and then make sure with the accurate one.

Not to try to put more worries in your head, I just want to tell people to make sure to calibrate all of their thermometers. They are off way more than people realize and can leave a person wondering why their beer didn't finish out or was too thin.

 

[THEDIETZ]

I just checked my thermometer in 172 degree water vs another digital thermometer and one standard probe (non digital) thermometer. All were within 1 degree of each other....so that is not an issue