need a little advice please

[stevefarns]

Brewed the deception cream stout recipe last Saturday (12/15). Pretty high brew at like a 1.060, at least everyone seems to land right in there. Personally, overtime I buy a hydrometer, I seem to break it right away, so never measure. I didn't go with a starter because to be honest, habeas never dome it and was scared enough after not brewing for 2 years. Also didn't use yeast nutrient... you see where this is going right? Had some decent activity in my primary for about a week, although no where near whatbeveryone talks about on that thread. Used a blow off, but never had a need for it. Well, now I am a week in on a three week primary, the krausen has cleared almost all the way off the top, bubbles are only going into my blowout water maybe once or twice per minute. The temp of the water in the blowout bucket is right at 60 degrees.
So, I am thinking about one of the following, or a combination.
1. Fill the large container that my carbon is in with water, then add a fish tank heater to bring it up to like 70ish.
2. Add another pack of yeast, probably with nutrient.
3. 60 degrees is good enough, rdwhahb.
Any thoughts are very welcome, please!
Thanks.

 

[aiptasia]

3

 

[stevefarns]

Thanks for the quick reply. Checked the wyeast page this evening for that particular strain and 60-70 is their rec. So right in there. I was just expecting a little more active fermentation I think.
I assume that comes from the starter and you get a bigger up front fermentation as opposed to a slower fermentation with no starter?

 

[diS]

It depends on cells number that you start with.
eg. if you didn't made starter and don't have sufficient number of cells, higher starting ferm. temperature is probably right way since yeast will reproduce quickly and to some point will compensate for lower cells number. However, it will result with producing acetolactate which leads to diacetyl production.

I would raise the temperature to ~70F so yeast can clean by them self, but depending on fermentation conditions it may result with more or less success.. next time be sure you pitched right amount of yeast, and pitch it few degrees lower, after that let it rise to fermentation temperature.

 

[stevefarns]

If raising the temp at this point would potentially result in diacetyl, what about pitching another pack of yeast and nutrient?

 

[beergolf]

Step away from the fermenter........

I think you are trying to solve a problem that does not exist.

You had fermentation. often things slow down after a week. Bubbles really mean nothing except the pressure in the fermenter is higher than out of it. The only way to tell is to get a hydrometer and check the gravity.

Yeast has been making beer for thousands of years and knows what to do. Give it time to finish up.

If it would make you feel better you can raise the temp some and it will not hurt anything at this point. I may speed up the process slightly.

Report back in two weeks with a gravity reading.

 

[rjwhite41]

If raising the temp at this point would potentially result in diacetyl, what about pitching another pack of yeast and nutrient?

Diacetyl is created at the beginning of fermentation. As the yeast "finish up" they generally clear it up themselves (depending on how bad it was to begin with).

 

[stevefarns]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm headed to my lhbs tomorrow to get supplies for another batch this weekend. I'll pick up a new hydrometer while I'm there. Don't have an initial reading though.