Flanders on fruit - Slow - is this normal?

[Calder]

Tuesday evening (36 hours ago) I racked 1.5 gallons of a 13 month old Flanders on to 6 lbs of mashed and pasteurized fruit.

I was expecting a lot of activity so I left room in the fermenter with the plan to top-up the fermenter with an additional half gallon after the major activity subsided in about a week.

But ..... very little is happening. There is some activity as shown by positive pressure in the airlock and I see the liquid in the airlock moves over a period of time, but it is not bubbling (well, there may be a bubble an hour, but I don't wait around to measure it), and there is no obvious kraeusen on the top of the beer.

Is this normal? Is this just too early, and the yeast are still waking up?

I have previously added fruit some of the same beer and there was a lot of activity, but the beer was obviously younger at that time.

 

[metal850]

13 months is pretty old for sacc. I would think that the primary organisms left are not sacc and if there is some left its dormant. Give it some more time for the sacc to wake up, 36 hrs is nothing.

Also you could always have a blowoff setup if ur worried about a heavy ferm.

 

[AmandaK]

I added 8lbs of Beltan tart cherries to a year old Flander's Brown Ale. Not a lot of visible activity, but my gravity is steadily dropping again. No krausen, no pellicle, no bubbling. In a glass carboy. Take a gravity reading and it'll all work out. I went from 1.008 before cherries to over 1.030 after cherries and a few weeks later, it was 1.020. Headin' back down!

 

[Calder]

I added 8lbs of Beltan tart cherries to a year old Flander's Brown Ale. Not a lot of visible activity, but my gravity is steadily dropping again. No krausen, no pellicle, no bubbling. In a glass carboy. Take a gravity reading and it'll all work out. I went from 1.008 before cherries to over 1.030 after cherries and a few weeks later, it was 1.020. Headin' back down!

8 lbs in how many gallons. To get that increase in gravity, I'm assuming it is only 1 gallon.

 

[jusware]

1.5gals on 6lbs of fruit seems like overkill to me. I like overkill though. You'd better hope the sacc is dead or you'll end up with wine and not beer.

 

[madjustin]

Mine took about 5-7 days to be active, but it wasn't explosive, just mostly visible bubbling that moved through the cherries and caused airlock activity. This was 5.5 lb of Montmorency cherries to 5 gallons of a 12-month Flanders Brown.

Edit: not pasteurized either

 

[AmandaK]

To get that increase in gravity, I'm assuming it is only 1 gallon.

It was 4 gallons.

 

[Calder]

It was 4 gallons.

Cherries are about 10% sugar (+ or - some). So 8 lbs = 8 ozs cane sugar or a total of 23 gravity points. In 4 gallons, that would increase the gravity by .006. Once you account for the volume 8 lbs of cherries will take up, (probably almost a gallon), then the overall gravity increase would be closer to .004.

I'm missing something some where.