Ho big was my mistake???

[MikePenn]

Moved to beginners thread

Good Morning, so I am on my second brew. The first one I did was just a nice and simple box set that seemed to have little room for error. This one I found a recipe provided by one of my favorite local microbreweries. The wort came out great and my boil times were on spot, I cooled everything quickly but then realize as I looked for my yeast that it was still in the fridge. I took my White Labs California Ale out of the fridge, warmed it up in my hands for a couple of minutes and then pitched it in to 80 degree wort. I have my fermentation area at 70 degrees. After about 24 hours I went to check and saw that fermentation had begun. Being the child that I am I went to check on it again about 48 hours later and say that fermentation had stopped. The first question is did I shock my yeast and is that what cause such a quick end to the process?

Part II of the story; I went around reading as many articles as I could about what went wrong (which is where is learned that shock is probably the big factor) in some of these articles it was suggested that maybe I should open her up give her a good stir and hop for the process to continue back up. Knowing the risks of infection I went ahead and as carefully and cleanly as I could, I opened it up and stirred. It has been another 24 hours since then and no fermentation has begun. I plan on sitting this through the full 7 days testing the FG, dry hopping, and transferring to a secondary. Has anyone made this mistake, you think I am fine? Any advice would help, my buddy told me to dump it but how will I learn if I don’t taste the mistakes I make.

 

[tmoney645]

DO NOT DUMP IT. Give it another day, if you dont see anything pick up a pack of dry yeast like us-05 or nottingham. Sprinkle it in there an let it do its thing.

 

[GrogNerd]

if you have ANY doubt that you should dump it... DON'T DON'T DON'T

3 weeks in primary, adding your dry hops however many days before that according to your hop schedule. take a hydrometer reading at that time and re-pitch ONLY if the reading is anywhere near your ORIGINAL gravity - which is the ONLY measurable indication that fermentation didn't occur.

beer is very forgiving. remember; you are doing something that people like you did a 1000 years ago, without benefit of thermometers, hydrometers and not even knowing what the hell yeast was. they didn't know it was a living organism. they just called it "godisgood"

you have access to better equipment, ingredients, technique and almost unlimited information

it all comes down to waiting and trusting that the magical little beasties know what they're doing, even if you do not.

 

[day_trippr]

"80 degree wort. I have my fermentation area at 70 degrees. After about 24 hours I went to check and saw that fermentation had begun. Being the child that I am I went to check on it again about 48 hours later and say that fermentation had stopped."

What was the yeast used on this batch?

Given the temperatures involved, it actually would not surprise me that a hydrometer check would show this brew had fermented out 72 hours from pitching. And if that's the case, it would not surprise me if it tastes a bit hot.

Let it ride. For science!

Cheers!

 

[MikePenn]

I used WP0001 (i think that is enough 0's). I have good news, I bought a new fermenting bucket, brewed a new batch (a fat tire clone) and I am going to direct my attention to that. This is so that I can ignore the one discussed in this thread and it work some magic. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

This mistake of mine led to me adjust how I am keeping notes. I went through the different threads and found a couple of great ideas; the goal is of course not to just be lucky but consistent.

 

[feinbera]

...what was your starting gravity, and, did you take any final gravity readings?

As day_trippr said, at those temperatures and with a not-too-big beer (say, SG of 1.05something), it's entirely possible that the yeast will have chewed that down to 1.01something in 48 - 72 hours.

Of course, if you did ferment that warm, it would probably benefit from a couple extra weeks of "cleaning up" anyway, so, carry on...

 

[stpug]

"80 degree wort. I have my fermentation area at 70 degrees. After about 24 hours I went to check and saw that fermentation had begun. Being the child that I am I went to check on it again about 48 hours later and say that fermentation had stopped."

What was the yeast used on this batch?

Given the temperatures involved, it actually would not surprise me that a hydrometer check would show this brew had fermented out 72 hours from pitching. And if that's the case, it would not surprise me if it tastes a bit hot.

Let it ride. For science!

Cheers!

I agree that your batch is mostly likely complete fine, and nearly completely fermented within 3 days. I rarely see vigorous activity longer than 2 days with minimal activity on day 3.

 

[GrogNerd]

I used WP0001 (i think that is enough 0's). I have good news, I bought a new fermenting bucket, brewed a new batch (a fat tire clone) and I am going to direct my attention to that. This is so that I can ignore the one discussed in this thread and it work some magic. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

This mistake of mine led to me adjust how I am keeping notes. I went through the different threads and found a couple of great ideas; the goal is of course not to just be lucky but consistent.

WLP001 +1!
fat tire clone +2!
learning +3!

why I love HomeBrewTalk is that you can learn from reading others' mistakes, but sometimes you gotta learn from your own