Just a question of curiosity

[vrodbrad]

Good day all. So last Friday I made up my Chocolate Espresso Stout. It was an all grain. Starting gravity was 1.097. It started bubbling in the Fastfermenter the next day. Steady no massive bubbling in airlock. I know that it is not a sign. but I like hearing the bubbles. Early Wednesday morning I lost heat in the house for the furnace went out. temp on fermenter went down to to 58 degrees. temp is back up now. And yesterday I took a reading with my refractometer to see something where it was at. I will check with hydrometer. to be sure.

The reading on the refractometer read 11 brix. when I put that number into beersmith under the tools/refractometer for fermenting wort along the with the sg number it recalculated the gravity now at 1.012. Would this be correct is my question.

Have a good day all and brew on

 

[porterpounder]

That's a good, hard working ferment, and yes that is a good reading. Not always accurate with the calculation, so check with a hydrometer, but sounds like it is fine.

 

[RM-MN]

Good day all. So last Friday I made up my Chocolate Espresso Stout. It was an all grain. Starting gravity was 1.097. It started bubbling in the Fastfermenter the next day. Steady no massive bubbling in airlock. I know that it is not a sign. but I like hearing the bubbles. Early Wednesday morning I lost heat in the house for the furnace went out. temp on fermenter went down to to 58 degrees. temp is back up now. And yesterday I took a reading with my refractometer to see something where it was at. I will check with hydrometer. to be sure.

The reading on the refractometer read 11 brix. when I put that number into beersmith under the tools/refractometer for fermenting wort along the with the sg number it recalculated the gravity now at 1.012. Would this be correct is my question.

Have a good day all and brew on

I don't like hearing bubbles. It often means that the temperature it too high so the ferment happens too quickly and the yeast end up making fusel alcohol and a bunch of unintended esters that reduce the quality of the beer. Cool and slow is better.:rockin:

 

[vrodbrad]

Yeah, I will defently take a hydrometer reading. For the bubbling the entire time it bubbled about every 5 seconds. I like the sound of the bubbles It is like a bubbling stream on a creek that relaxes you at night lol. It did stay at a constant temp of 68 until furnace went out. I agree about the fusel and esters. I have had one beer where that happened and it was so bad I had to dump it. Have to Head to Portland for A VA appointment tomorrow. Next week Friday I plan on putting some oak chips in the beer for a couple of weeks then let it age for a few months or so.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I wouldn't touch it for another week or more. High gravity beers, especially in lower temps, are going to take their time to find Final Gravity. Checking the gravity isn't going to help the beer and simply risks infection.

You'll want the fermentation to be done by the time you are adding oak chips, but it's really tough to rush a High Gravity stout. It's quite possible it won't be good for drinking until 3-6+++ months in the bottle anyways, so an extra couple weeks in the fermenter won't hurt.

Sounds delicious. The last time I made a chocolate coffee porter it took about 5 months in the bottle to round out (it wasn't a high gravity brew either).

 

[Homercidal]

This is not a beer to rush. I agree with HarborTown to let it sit. Even if the main portion of the ferment is done, that doesn't mean the yeast are done. They can still be cleaning up stuff they made earlier. I'd give it a week or so before doing anything, and then I'd consider racking to secondary for a bit more clearing. The secondary is nice if you think you won't be able to bottle or keg in the near future. For smaller beers I'd probably skip it, but for bigger beers, you can relax and let them take their time and it's good to get the beer off the yeast that is sitting on the bottom of the fermentor.

 

[GHBWNY]

I like the sound of the bubbles It is like a bubbling stream on a creek that relaxes you at night lol.

Which gives me a great idea! Someone needs to make a CD of just bubbling fermenter sounds. How relaxing would that be??!! For marketing purposes, you could break it up into 10 separate tracks just to give it further interest. Some title suggestions might be:

1. "I'm Fermenting Over You"

2. "That's Not What I Ferment"

3. "How Can I Ferment You?"

4. "One Fermented Evening"

5. "Who's Fermenting You Now?"

6. "We Were Ferment For Each Other"

7. "I Can't Ferment Your Face"

8. "Should I Stay Or Should I Ferment?"

9. "Love The One You Ferment With"

10. "Here's Where The Fermenting Ends" ...


... and this post.

 

[vrodbrad]

Yeah I will do what Harbortown said. I am going to leave until next Friday. Check gravity if not done. wait another week then put in secondary with oak chips then let age and sit. omg ghb that is way to cool and funny

 

[GPP33]

I don't like hearing bubbles. It often means that the temperature it too high so the ferment happens too quickly and the yeast end up making fusel alcohol and a bunch of unintended esters that reduce the quality of the beer. Cool and slow is better.:rockin:

Uh? Even fermenting at 60-65 (below the recemonded temp range of some strains) I get a constant stream of bubbles. Yeast produce CO2 when they process sugar. If you're not getting bubbles you have a leak. It's physics, or biology, or some combination of the two.

 

[vrodbrad]

Good morning all. Well checked the gravity and it is sitting at 1.005 which according to beersmith it is at a 12.3% This is higher than the last time I made it. The last time I made this I had to split into two mash batches cause my mash tun was not big enough but this time my mash tun was big enough to hold all the grains. I checked the reading with my refractometer and hydrometer and both read the same. So I think from now from pulling a sample to test the gravity I will just use the refractometer since not wasting the precious beer. lol. The oak chips are in and will sit for two weeks. Then I will put the beer in a keg and let age that way for a 6 or more month's. If I can be patient maybe a year.

Thanks for the input guys. And have a good day. I am recovering from the flu. ugh.