Is 24 hours of activty enough?

[formula2fast]

So my vanilla porter that i brewed saturday didn't start bubbling out of the blow off tube until about 1pm yesterday. Seemed normal. It was bubbling quite a bit yesterday and even into this morning.

I just got home from work and have barely any foam on top, but more importantly, no activity out of the blow off tube. My temp now is 64. Is that too cold? Are my yeasts just sleeping now or do you think that my activity was sufficient. This is my first big batch so am not really sure what to expect. I also did a starter on this batch. Do more yeast cells get the job done quicker? Should i just get it warmed up a bit, or try repitching, or am i ok?

I do understand that just because there is not bubbling doesn't mean it isn't fermenting, but i just want to make sure i on track.

 

[vera]

What was your original gravity reading? What is your current gravity reading?

 

[helibrewer]

Everything is fine...bring your temp up to 67-68 if possible. Every fermentation is different, I've had some reach high krausen and collapse in 2 days, others have taken a couple weeks, just go with the yeast and don't interfere. There is no need to re-pitch anything.

Swap the blow off tube for an airlock at this point if you wish

 

[rexbanner]

You're fine. I'm always puzzled by people who talk about their beer still fermenting after a week. Even on super high gravity beers, I've never had a beer take longer than five days to hit FG. Modern yeasts are like machines.

 

[formula2fast]

My OG was 1.054. I haven't taken a reading yet since OG. I am sure it is fermenting, It just seems like when others talk, that they have activity out of the tube for days. Since I don't have much experience, I did not know if that is normal, or if a day of good activity is enough. If I look into the carboy, I can see some tiny bubbles rising, just not enough to bubble out of the air lock.

I will let her sit for now, but will try to bring up the temp to 68* and put in my air lock. What temp should I not go over for fermenting?

Thanks for always being there for us newbs

 

[Yooper]

A warm fermentation will often go faster than a cooler fermentation (that's not a good thing, to be too warm!) so keep the beer at optimum fermentation temperatures and wait it out. I've had beers ferment out overnight in the past, but usually the bulk of fermentation is over in more like 3 days. Some yeast strains are noted to be faster than others, so that's part of it too.

Temperature, yeast strain, amount of yeast pitched and ingredients all play a role in the length of fermenting time. It sounds find. Which yeast strain did you use?

 

[mpenn35]

Just experienced the same thing with a beer I brewed on Saturday. After 12 hours, I had vigorous fermentation and the bubbles in the airlock were constant, so I switched to a blowoff tube last night and woke up this morning to find nothing had even come out of the tube. Switched back to an airlock before work this morning and got home and there is literally no action in the airlock now. I've never had one stop with the airlock activity in under 36 hours before. Weird.

 

[two_one_seven]

I think rarely if ever is re-pitching yeast the answer. You have to remember that once fermentation has started you have beer. You can't oxygenate the yeast to restart the fermentation again because you will oxidize the beer.

Go with the flow and to steal an old old phrase RDWHAHB...........

Cheers! Prost! and all that good stuff.

 

[formula2fast]

I used wyeast american ale. I will leave it be aside from trying to bring up temp a few degrees.

 

[Dougan]

I've had that yeast go in a day before, but it was when it was fermenting too warm (maybe 70).

Sometimes I see my beers ferment really strong in the first day, and then the krausen drops down, but they still take another 5 or 6 days to hit FG, as they are still slowly fermenting the rest of it out. This seemed to stop when I started focusing more on oxygenating my wort-- not sure if it' srelated or not. But it always hit FG eventually.

By the way, I'm not sure what others are recommending, but I wouldn't start out the American Ale yeast at the 68-- just finishing them that way. Most/all of the off-flavors you get are in the first part of fermentation, so that's where temperature is the most important. At the end, you get less off-flavors, so I like to ramp up my fermentation temp once it's almost done, to give the yeast a good temperature to ferment hard at the end, and finish strong.

 

[formula2fast]

So should I leave it at 64* for a few more days?

 

[two_one_seven]

I would leave it. It will be fine. How long has it been in the primary fermentor now?

 

[formula2fast]

Since about 6:30pm on saturday.

 

[venquessa]

Leave it until Saturday. Take an FG sample. Then expect to leave it at least another week. If the sample is ridiculously high, then worry.

 

[DaDzBrewery]

Also something to remember, and I know its hard to wait, But even after fermentation you still have yeast in suspension eating up all the off flavors and clearing your beer.. So I now never watch my krausen or Blow-off/airloc, I just keep the temps where they should be, wait a week or two for normal gravity beers and 2-4 weeks for higher gravity, then rack to secondary for dry hopping and/or clearing more, for another week or two, then keg or bottle.. Like I said I know it's hard to wait, specially on a new recipe or whatever, but instead of worrying about it, If I start getting itchy to worry, I just start looking up the grain bill for my next brew, and getting that together... It's something that you have to keep yourself a cycle going or you'll drive yourself crazy..... ;0) Cheers buddy

 

[formula2fast]

Also something to remember, and I know its hard to wait, But even after fermentation you still have yeast in susepension eating up all the off flavors and clearing your beer.. So I now never watch my krausen or Blow-off/airloc, I just keep the temps where they should be, wait a week or two for normal gravity beers and 2-4 for higher, the rack to secondary for dry hopping and/or clearing more, for another week or two, then keg or bottle.. Like I said I know it's hard to wit, specially on a new recipe or whatever, but instead of worrying about it, If I start getting itchy to worry, I just start looking up the grain bill for my next brew, and getting that together... It's something that you have to keep yourself a cycle going or you'll drive yourself crazy..... ;0) Cheers buddy

All good advice. I think I am just paranoid because I don't have enough experience yet. Thanks for the words of encouragement guys..Now onto thinking about my next brew

 

[DaDzBrewery]

All good advice. I think I am just paranoid because I don't have enough experience yet. Thanks for the words of encouragement guys..Now onto thinking about my next brew

Nah you're not paranoid, it's excitement .. And believe me the more you brew the more excitement comes with it, because you're getting better beer out of it, it's just after a while you learn how to control that excitement..lol..