Fermentation stuck?

[Piruz]

Hi! Im brewing my first BIAB brew, a belgian witbier. My OG was 1.052 and using Mangrove Jacks M21 dry yeast. I rehydrated it, and fermenting started nicely, there was thick krausen on top of my beer, but 3 days later it was gone??

Now at fifth day I opened fermenter and took gravity test, it was 1.018, no krausen, and tasted sweet and no carbonation at all. My apartment is a little warm, 24C.

Could the fermenting be stuck or what should I do? Just wait?

Thanks for advices

 

[Griffin495]

Leave it alone. Let all the yeasties do their thing. Its natural for the krausen to drop off and your gravity will probably fall some more. The yeast still need time to work on it and to do other things. I don't even check on my beer for 3 weeks. Even if your gravity had stabilized at 5 days, the beer will get better if you give the yeast time to clean up a bit after themselves.

 

[Revvy]

The major, active part of fermentation is done... the yeast is slowing down, but they're not finished... they're still going to slowly eat up another 8 or 9 points of gravity.. just let them fo their thing, and like Griffin said, clean up after...

This is a game of inches.

 

[flars]

Are you checking the specific gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer? The refractometer will give an inaccurate reading when alcohol is present.

 

[Morrey]

Not saying this is your problem, but I think your beer may suffer from fermenting at high temps. If your flat is 24C or 75F, that is the upper end of M21's range. BUT, keep in mind the yeast's own exothermic heat produced during fermentation can drive the fermenting wort up as much as 5-10F on top of ambient. Now that you are in the 80F + range, some off flavors can manifest themselves in your beer.

Basic Tips:

*Sanitation
*Fermentation Temperature Control
*Check gravity once ferm begins with floating hydrometer OR use online calc program to adjust for alcohol presence in wort if using refractometer

 

[kh54s10]

It is generally accepted that the average fermentation takes 5-7 days then a little more to clean up off flavors that are naturally produced during fermentation. Therefore, I never even open my fermenter, unless I suspect a problem, in less that 14 days. If I was to really rush it I might go to a minimum of 10 days. This hasn't happened yet.

Agreed that fermentation temperature control is important and one of the quickest ways to make your good beers better.

 

[Griffin495]

We all seemed to skip over the part "and no carbonation at all" There won't be any carbonation in your fermenter. It's not till after you've added priming sugar, bottled it and the yeast have started using up that priming sugar and produced CO2, will you see any carbonation, so don't worry about that right now.

 

[Piruz]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll let it sit some more time and wont touch it meanwhile.