NB Dry Irish Stout Questions

[edwardjls]

OK... I'm just being curious and wanted to just ask around if all is going okay with my latest batch. I'm still pretty new to brewing and have been reasonably successful with a couple Ales so far. I am making my first attempt at Stouts with the Northern Brewer Dry Irish Stout (5 gallon extract kit). I'm trying a few new things with this batch that I haven't done prior.. These are, making a starter with liquid yeast and aerating with a diffusion stone.. But I did have some concerns at the start of making the starter as I had a smack pack of Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale that never inflated after smacking (Confirmed inner pouch had burst upon smack) Even though the pack never inflated, I still pitched the yeast to the starter and let it sit for about 36 hours.. Since I was not fully confident in the health of this starter, I decided to hydrate a packet of dry yeast (Nottingham Danstar). Well on Wednesday, I boiled up my kit and followed the directions included. I pitched both the starter and the Nottingham yeast at 76 degrees F. I remembered to aerate and did so for about 20 minutes after pitching (probably should have did this step prior to pitching). I took my OG reading and came up with 1.038 which is a bit lower than the 1.042 that was suggested to expect. Well I moved my carboy (6.5 gallon big mouth bubbler) to my fermentation chamber and set it to 18 degrees C. Late that evening, I noticed that I was already getting bubbles through the 5/16 blow-off tube and the krausen was forming.. The next morning the krausen was about 4 inches tall and was bubbling vigorously, also the little yeasties were really swirling and swimming about.. on Friday morning, the krausen had reached the top of the carboy and had evidence that it had even traveled into the blow-off tube, BUT there was no more bubbling. I was wondering if perhaps the airlock the blow-off tube was attached too might be plugged.. so I squeezed the carboy a bit and could see the water level at the end of the tube, rise and fall as I did so. So seemed like the airlock was still working despite that the krausen was slightly visible through the base of the airlock stem above the rubber stopper. Well this morning (Saturday) I went out and checked on the batch and the krausen has dropped.. it is now about only 3/8 - 1/2 an inch thick and still no signs of bubbling from the end of the blow-off tube. Also.. the yeasties seemed to have really settled down also. I am still seeing little white dots heading to the surface that resemble carbonation that I suspect are CO2 from the yeast cake on the bottom. It just seems a little premature to reach this stage to me and am hoping I'm not experiencing a stuck fermentation. As I have read quite a few threads on stouts that had problems with stuck fermentation. Anyways.. I just wanted to get some feedback from the community as to whether or not this is normal or if some intervention is needed... Ohh and one more question.. There was no mention in the kit directions, but should I have added some wirlflock towards the end of my boil to improve clarity of the finished product? If so, then I missed that opportunity..

Thanks
Ed

 

[mrdail87]

All sounds pretty normal to me. Irish and British Yeast strains tend to very flocculant, and start falling out of suspension pretty quickly quickly.

I've used both of those yeast strains with similar results. Also, be aware just because it isn't bubbling, doesn't necessarily mean it's stopped fermenting.

As far as the whirlfloc, you should be fine. More flocculant strains make for clearer beer. Plus, when brewing stout, it's so dark already the clarity isn't going to have a huge impact.

 

[flars]

76°F was quite warm to pitch the yeast. Having the wort in the low 60°s and warming to fermentation temperature would have caused less stress on the yeast. The very active fermentation is the result of over pitching with the two yeasts. Stouts are forgiving because the flavor of the stout can hide some brewing errors. Your product will be still be very drinkable. Don't rush your beer though. I would give this one a minimum of three weeks in the fermentor for the yeast to clean up the naturally produced off flavors of fermentation.

Question about your starter with WY1084. You said you let it sit for 36 hours. I am thinking you did not use a stir plate. Without a stir plate a starter will finish much faster if you swirl the container as often as possible for aeration. A stir plate gives the starter wort continuous aeration.

Should have mentioned NBs Dry Irish Stout is in my frig year round.

 

[edwardjls]

Mrdial87 & flars...Thanks for the info... Its good to know that no major alarm bells went off with what I'm experiencing. As for the wirlfloc I had kinda suspected that the dense dark color of the beer would negate any big need for the clarifier.. I had asked because I noticed a few people posted their use of it with their stouts... With the next batch of this NB Stout, I will note that my pitch temperature should be lower.. Do you have any recommended temp? I chose 76 degrees as the directions suggested 78 degrees or lower.. however I did just notice something of a contradiction in the NB brewing directions.. There is a side note that says the wyeast 1084 should be pitched between 64-72 degrees.. As for the starter.. You are correct that I did not use a stir plate.. I used a 2000ml flask and left it in a busy part of the house were me and the misses would swirl the concoction often.. I was hoping that maybe 36 hours might be a fair amount of time to get some extra yeast cells... For now, I am going to let the fermentation continue in my primary for the suggested 3 weeks and then rack over into the secondary for at least another 3 weeks... I have heard that sometime after racking into the secondary, that I should bring the temperature up to help clean up the byproducts.. Any advice on when and to what temperature I should do this at? My end goal will be to keg this batch.. I was thinking of cold crashing the batch down to about serving temperature for about 3 days prior to transferring to Keg... Wow.. and questions keep popping up... Any advice on carbonating the batch? I am going to be using just the standard C02 as I am not yet ready to invest in a nitrogen system..

 

[KepowOb]

If I were you I wouldn't transfer to the secondary. If there are any off flavours that need cleaning up, it'll happen if you leave it in the primary. I'd personally be kegging that up at 21 days (assuming stable gravity readings), and if you want to let it sit longer, then after 4 weeks instead of three.


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