Houston... do I have a problem?

[Coastalbrew]

I brewed a batch of Denny's Rye smile IPA on 10/4. I pitched the yeast, wy1450, a little cool 61*. Fermentation progressed very slowly for the next 5 days, in the mid to low 60's and then I let the temp rise to 73-74*, where it has sat for the last 15 days. The air lock activity never got particularly vigorous as I had expected, but remained slow and steady. I opened up the fermenter this morning to dry hop and found this...

The beer smells great. The floaters look like yeast rafts to me, but I have never had a beer go 20 days in fermentation and the yeast not drop out. What gives? I went ahead and dry hopped, and tried to rouse the yeast to see if I can get things to normalize a bit. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

TIA

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Looks like the brown bits that form on the Krausen - so probably yummy. Did you take a gravity reading.

Fermentation progressed very slowly for the next 5 days

How did you determine this?

Buckets are notorious for not sealing completely so airlock activity can be deceiving. Ales can ferment out very quickly so 5 days of activity is normal. If you are concerned about the fermentation being stalled then take a gravity reading. That said, it has been over two weeks, and you have roused the yeast, so not much left to do, except dry hop, bottle, and enjoy.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Looks like the brown bits that form on the Krausen - so probably yummy. Did you take a gravity reading.

How did you determine this?

Buckets are notorious for not sealing completely so airlock activity can be deceiving. Ales can ferment out very quickly so 5 days of activity is normal. If you are concerned about the fermentation being stalled then take a gravity reading. That said, it has been over two weeks, and you have roused the yeast, so not much left to do, except dry hop, bottle, and enjoy.

It was strictly observational. I had the fermenter hooked up to a blow off tube for a week. It bubbled into the bucket of sanitizer enough to create a small ring of foam around the hose. Then I switched to the air lock and it has continued to slowly bubble ever since. Some of this bubbling I'm sure is due to off gassing as the temp has changed, but I've never opened the fermenter after 20 days to find anything like this. Typically everything big has dropped out of suspension after about 14 days. I don't typically take a reading until bottling day, which will be about a week from now, so hopefully things will have settled out by then.

Thanks!

 

[moreb33rplz]

Yeast is a mysterious creature. Enjoy the delicious looking beer

 

[day_trippr]

Denny's is a known "low 'n' slow" flocculating strain.
And as I don't see anything untoward it just looks like that batch hit the yeast raft jackpot
What's the current gravity?

Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Denny's is a known "low 'n' slow" flocculating strain.
And as I don't see anything untoward it just looks like that batch hit the yeast raft jackpot
What's the current gravity?

Cheers!

Lol. Yeah 1450 is a little different. I haven't checked the gravity yet, will probably check mid week, with the plan to bottle next weekend

 

[Coastalbrew]

Update: gravity was stable for 3 days at 1.017, which is just slightly below the predicted FG. Bottled today and all the yeast rafts have settled out and the beer was pretty clear, just some hop debris left in suspension. Batch had a giant yeast cake, more than .75 G in a 4G batch, so I ended up with 3G in the bottles. Hydrometer sample tastes really nice and I am stoked to try this beer finished. Cheers!