fermentation stopped

[brandon0982]

A friend and I brewed some octoberfest and brown ale out of a book of clone brews. Anyways, he left them here in the 6.5 gal carboys and they got to bubbling at once a minute after 12 hours, but now 48 hours after adding the yeast its slowed down to once every 5 seconds for the octoberfest, and once every 20 seconds for the brown ale. the temperature is 60F in at night and low 70s in the daytime. Is that normal or did something happen to our beer?

 

[Rudedawg]

It could be done, I have had them finish in 48 hours before. Take a reading and check. If not, I have put in a nother batch of yeast and finished. Good Luck.

 

[Bensiff]

+1 to Rudedawg. However, it sounds like your fermentation is sputtering out early though. If you start with a very healthy pitch of yeast that is the proper cell count and oxygenate your wort properly you should figure 3-5 days to hit terminal gravity. If you didn't do this then you will be looking at easily doubling this time frame. Just make sure to let the hydrometer reading tell you when it is done and not bubble counting.

 

[trigger]

How much yeast did you pitch? Was it liquid or dry? What were the OG's? Were they extract or all grain recipes? What was the exp date on the yeast? Did you make a starter, and if so how big? Did you aerate and how? What was your pitching temperature? These are some of the basics that can effect the speed/activity of the ferment?

I second what the above two posters said. For example I brewed an IPA on Saturday that I pitched 3 cups of thick slurry into straight from another fermenter. It was blowing out of the bucket at 5 hours. Now, about 60 hours later, the krausen is totally fallen and the bubbling is very slow. I'm about 0.002 short of where I figured it'd end at, but I'm going to leave it alone for a few more weeks before kegging it to condition.

While this isn't exactly "normal," nothing really is in homebrewing. I would say that you should probably let them be for another few days to a week, then take a gravity reading. There's a lot more than just fermentation that affects airlock activity. The temperature swings, the solubility of CO2 in the beer, atmospheric pressure, the list goes on...

Before you take any drastic measures wait a bit, then take the gravity. If it's not done wait about 3 more days and take another gravity reading. If both are the same and both are a lot higher than what was expected then it's time to get worried. Other than that sit back and enjoy the anticipation of drinking some good beer.

 

[Pappers_]

I don't see any reason for concern. Your thread title says "fermentation stopped" yet you have signs of ongoing active fermentation (airlock activity). Leave it be for another two weeks then take a hdrometer reading.

 

[LCTitan]

I basically had the same thing happen this weekend with our West Coast Pale Ale. I made a yeast starter with Wyeast American Ale 1056 and after adding it to the aerated wort fermentation activity started very rapidly after about six hours and lasted for about 48 hours. After that only a few bubbles in the Airlock every five seconds or so. Really not to worried about this though as I know I pitched the correct amount of healthy yeast from the starter. I had to put this batch in the swam cooler after the first day due to rising temps in our area. I'll leave this batch in the primary for a month and then bottle.

 

[riromero]

Sounds normal to me. Don't mess with it.

 

[redalert]

Let it go for a month on both beers and I guarantee you will hit your terminal gravity.