Need help with second home brew

[h0ll0wone]

Very new to home brewing. Made Australian Lager Kit - best beer I have ever tasted. Just recently picked up the Premium Australian Bitter. Cant figure out what happened.

Temperature remained constant (27 C) the whole time. Noticed a good amount of foam and the bubbler was bubbling every 5 seconds after 12 hours... at 36 hours now and everything has stopped

1040 OG. Just took a measurement and got 1020 SG.

The only thing odd I noticed was that despite the noticeable fermentation at 12 hours, there was also a considerable amount of sediment at the bottom (the amount of which I only saw at day 7 of the Lager).

Wondering if I killed the yeast?

Any help/advice to bring this batch back?

 

[DavidHawman]

You are probably done. Seems like many brewers using extract kits, myself included, get stuck at about 1.020. Take a measurement for the next few days and see if it remains constant. If so fermentation is done. However, the beer can be improved by letting it sit on the yeast for a bit longer though.

 

[Yooper]

Did you really ferment at 27C, or is that a typo? If so, it's WAY too hot. That could cause some weird fruity flavors, and some "hot" fusel alcohol flavors.

A good range is 60-70 degrees F (beer temperature, not the room temperature!) or 15-22C. Some yeast strains are much more forgiving, but most ale yeast do better in the mid 60s.

 

[h0ll0wone]

Thanks David. I hope you are right. Looking at what came out into my testing cylinder, it still has a lengthy settle time coming. Would never have thought it would go that fast.

 

[h0ll0wone]

No typo Yooper. The kit told me ideal was 21-27C. Figured I was safe
The first kit I did was at 24C.

 

[Yooper]

No typo Yooper. The kit told me ideal was 21-27C. Figured I was safe
The first kit I did was at 24C.

I'd be willing to bet that is why the first one tastes so good, and this one not so much.

Two things you can do to greatly improve your beer are to buy better quality dry yeast (try Nottingham or S05) and control the fermentation temps to no higher than 70 F (21C).

Keep in mind that should be the temperature of the beer, not the room. A very active and vigorous fermentation will produce heat, and it can be 5-10 degrees warmer inside the fermenter than in the room during an active fermentation! I have a stick on thermometer on each fermenter, to roughly gauge the temperature at a glance.

 

[h0ll0wone]

My thermometer is stuck on the side too. So you would assume I killed the yeast then? I did notice 12 hours in way too much trub at the bottom already (the likes of which I only saw day 7 of my first batch).

Any way to save? Repitch after I let the temp drop a bit?

Thanks for your input

 

[Yooper]

Heck, no, you didn't kill it! The yeast LOVE hot temperatures and go crazy. It probably finished fermenting in 24 hours or so, and is now just finishing up the details. Yeast produce a lot of by products when they ferment, so after fermentation is over, when there are no more fermentables, they actually go back and digest some of their own waste products. So, it's fine. Just let it sit and clean up some of their mess that they made.

You may not have the best beer ever due to the extremely high fermentation temperatures, but it'll clean up a bit, and clear up and still be drinkable!

 

[h0ll0wone]

Thanks again, Yooper. Took another gravity reading tonight. Came out a 1014 (last read was 1020). So it is all still working - slowly, but surely. I will just let it sit until the weekend is over. With any hope, it will have all settled out by then (will be a total of 9 days).