Fermenting over already?

[AeroT]

I brewed midwests 20 minute mexican cervesa kit on Sunday night. It came with dry yeast which made me a little nervous cause I usually use liquid yeast. It's been 2 days and prior to today the airlock was bubbling like mad. Today... no bubbles just silence.

Is that normal? Should I add more yeast?

 

[jlaureanti]

It might have fermented out already.

What was your OG? I would give it 3 or 4 more days and take a hydrometer reading.

 

[Boleslaus]

I would also wait until a week or so, then you can check with your hydrometer. That is the only way to tell you if it is done. However, even if it is finished fermenting, you should leave it in primary for 3 weeks.

 

[cadarnell]

no bubbles is curious??? ... really, really slow bubbles would be what I would expect after a couple days of going mad ... if there are zero bubbles at this point maybe air has found a new way out ... either way, it's not done yet I'm sure ... I'd give it another 5 days and take a hydro .. if you are way high from your FG then, try searching stuck fermentations ... there's a ton of threads on that issue. good luck !!

 

[TopherM]

Temperature is a catalyst to fermentation. Fermentation easily finishes in less than 48 hours at higher temps. What was the temp where your fermenter was located? I would bet your primary fermenter was at an ambient temp of about 75F+ to have it ferment that quickly, where ideally, ale yeast should ferment at an ambient temp of closer to 62-65 F.

 

[AeroT]

Fermentation easily finishes in less than 48 hours at higher temps. What was the temp where your fermenter was located? I would bet your primary fermenter was at an ambient temp of about 75F+ to have it ferment that quickly, where ideally, ale yeast should ferment at an ambient temp of closer to 62-65 F.

Yeah your right. It was showing about 77F the whole time. My johnson controls unit comes today, so I'm going to throw it in my fermentation chamber at 63ish and see if that helps.

I'm pissed. Did I ruin it? I had a really good boil going and cooled the kettle down to 80 degrees in like 14 minutes using ice. Thought I had a good batch going.

 

[gr8shandini]

Your temps don't have to be that warm to ferment quickly. I've had plenty of beers finish in 48-72 hours in the mid to high 60's.

Edit: Well I guess they were that high. What yeast did you use? I've found that S-05 is pretty forgiving in terms of high temps. Whatever you used, it certainly isn't "ruined." You just might have some esters you didn't bargain for.

 

[Revvy]

You don't really know if fermentation has stopped or not, just that your airlock has.

Airlock bubbling means nothing.

A beer may ferment perfectly fine without a single blip in the airlock. Or airlocks can start or stop or start and stop again, for a ton of other reasons, like temp changes, getting nudged by the cat or the vacuum cleaner, changes in barometric pressure, but your beer could still be fermenting fine.

Or the co2 is coming out the lid, or the grommet or the stopper. Nothing wrong with that, if co2 is getting out, nothing nasty is getting in.

That's why you need to take a gravity reading to know how your fermentation is going, NOT go by airlocks, or size of krausen, or a calendar, the horoscope or the phases of the moon (those things in my mind are equally accurate).

The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It's the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

 

[unionrdr]

I'd say,from my experiences,that initial fermentation is done. It'll slow down to a rather uneventful haul down to FG. My first ale didn't bubble once! But it came out fine in the end. Use that hydrometer,it's def peace of mind.

 

[TopherM]

The high fermentation temp is just going to impart some minor off flavors that should condition out pretty easily. Just plan on a 4-6 week conditioning period before you start drinking this one, and that takes care of that.

There really isn't any reason to use the fermentation chamber for this batch, as you've pretty much already passed the point where this batch is going to benefit. Temperature control really only helps during active fermentation, and you don't have much of that left.

This batch is going to be fine, just needs to condition a little longer than usual.

For future batches, use the fermentation chamber and it'll make a HUGE difference! Each strain of yeast has an optimum temp range on the back of the packet (or check the manufacturer's Website). Rule of thumb is that the actual fermentation is about 3-5 degrees warmer than the actual ambient temp of the air in the ferm chamber.

So if you are using something like S-05, which has a 59-75 degree optimum range, you want to hit right in the middle of that range, so you are aiming for about 67 degrees, ferm temp is going to be 3-5 degrees warmer than ambient, so you would set the ferm chamber for about 63, maybe a little higher depending on how well you can maintain temps in your ferm chamber.

Leave it in there in primary for 3 weeks or so, bottle or keg (and carb), and it should condition and peak pretty quickly, like 3-4 weeks for an average gravity beer.

Good luck!

 

[Hang Glider]

+1.
I ferment everything at 63. At a brewery tour of Flying Dog a few years ago, they indicated that they ferment all their ales at 62F.

In my experience, initial fermentation is usually done within 3 days, but I let it sit 3 weeks or more.

 

[HomebrewMTB]

What yeast did they give you? At what temp did you ferment? Cerveza is lager which should be brewed cold (~50*F). If they used ale yeast instead, it can be warmer but still should be less than ~70*F. If you brewed at summer time room temperature, it's probably fermented out quickly but will probably have off-flavors. No worries though. You still made beer and hopefully you learned something.