First ever all-grain brew, fermentation question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gaburko

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
31
Reaction score
36
Location
Switzerland
I've been lurking on the forum for a while and brewed a few extract brews in preparation for my all-grain journey. Long story short, I brewed over the weekend a pale ale and transferred to my carboy once cooled, added the wyeast and it started bubbling nicely in less than 24 hours which gives me hope I'm doing it right. HOWEVER two things bother me:
1. as can (barely) be seen on the (lousy) photo there's quite some sediment at the bottom of my carboy. Obviously there will be even more once I cold crash in 10ish days time from now and obviously i will filter that through, but the question is if this is normal?
2. the fermentation activity seems to be stronger than what i thought. Its 20c so i am not worried about temp, but there's particles that roam the carboy as if they are alive. thats huge entertainment for my 6 year old who now understands that yeast is a live thing, but should it worry me?

thanks and if these are stupid questions, tell me they are stupid, but also please help me out :)

20170320_221130.jpg
 
From my experience its super hard not to have that sediment on the bottom, depending on the type of beer. More additions more sediment. Also all the stuff moving around means you have active fermentation, your yeast is doing its thang!
 
It looks perfect. Absolutely perfect.

A good fermentation in a carboy will look like an active storm drain with all the stuff churning around in there.

Not only is it not a problem, it is doing everything it should be doing.

I just did a high gravity old ale with about 20% rye. I lost almost a quart through the blow-off tube as the krausen and the trub it carried was pushed out of the carboy. That batch looked crystal clear when I pitched. When fermentation started, there was crazy foam and lots of stuff swimming around. Trust me, what you are seeing is 100% fine.
 
You are golden! Your "science" experiment shows active "alive" yeast colonies working hard to convert sugars into alcohol so you can have some "dad" time after a day with the 6 year old!

That bottom layer of trub and yeast cells will be up to 2" thick on the bottom when all is said and done!

Enjoy your success!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top