Newbie brewer!

[dirtfreak15]

Hey guys! Thought I'd join to learn all I can and make sure what I'm doing is correct!
I've ready brewed an amber ale from a kit, turned out great! Surprisingly lol a tad watery.. My fault.

And my oatmeal stout is fermenting right now.
(Pictures attached of that)

So I have a 5gal stainless steel boiler and a 6.5gal glass Carboy. I've been boiling 4 gallons and then after transferring to the Carboy I add 1 gallon plus what I lost from the boil.
The first time I used dry yeast but this time I used white labs liquid yeast.. It exploded like a shaken soda when I opened it. A bit worried about there not being enough yeast... The yeast did take and foamed up. (Pic attached of it) have yet to take a gravity reading.
Also my instructions suggested just a 2 week primary fermentation and then bottling after checking the gravity to make sure it's stable.

Fermenting temps where in the 70-75deg for the ale and now they are at 60-65 for my stout. Fermentation seems slower and less violent. Not sure if that's due to temp or loosing yeast during the explosion.. Haha

Also I'd like to make my oatmeal stout into a oatmeal chocolate stout.. I purchased coco nips. How do I go about using them? How long do I primary and secondary ferment? Suspend the coco nips or just pour in and strain after?

Thanks in advanced for the help!
I'm still learning so might not be up to date on terminology.
I'm open to all suggestions, tips, I just want to make some good beer!

 

[hercher]

Add your cocoa nibs either to a secondary, or to the primary after fermentation is complete.

 

[theveganbrewer]

I will first say it looks like you are clean and well organized, and the beer looks great, so you're off to a good start. I have not used cacao nibs so I'll keep my response to the yeast.

There is almost no way to know if you've put enough yeast on there if you don't know how much you lost. I would go out on a limb here and say regardless of how much you lost, you weren't pitching enough yeast to begin with. Make sure when you shake the vial next time to slowly open it a little bit at a time, to let the gas escape. It might help to open it at a colder temperature before it warms up.

What happens when you don't get enough yeast in there is that a) the yeast might not be able to eat all the sugars so you might end up with a sweeter beer than normal and b) stressed out yeast from under pitching can create off flavors. For the most part these aren't serious problems, your beer will still be good, possibly very good, but they are things over the next few batches you should work on fixing and controlling. Do some research on "proper yeast pitching rates"

Onto the question on why your activity is what you consider slower and less active. Each yeast strain is different and will have different activity. The oxygen levels, temperature and health of the yeast can make the same yeast act much differently. I wouldn't worry too much about what it looks like, just make sure you get to your final gravity on the recipe. If you want some more reading on yeast, head over to the library and pick up a copy of the book called, "Yeast"

 

[BrewingPrepper]

My first thoughts are temp related. At 70-75 degrees which seems slightly high allowed the yeast to ferment more vigorously but possibly fizzled out quickly. At 60-65 it seems a little cool slowing down the fermentation and causing it to not be as vigorous. Maybe a few more experienced brewers will let me know if im on the right track.

Congrats on your brew though the stout looks good. My first is fermenting now and Im gonna go 3 weeks. Then bottle for 2 weeks

 

[emmdubb23]

Your beer is probably fine, different yeast react different ways, if you are concerned about yeast quantity look into making a starter. I like white labs yeast, but honestly get better fermentation from fermentis and danstar dry yeasts.

Add your cocoa nibs to the secondary, after active fermentation stops, it will probably start fermenting a bit again. Anyways, relax and have a homebrew.

 

[dirtfreak15]

Thanks guys! Good info. I feel a bit better now. Excited to drink it and make more haha

 

[emmdubb23]

Thanks guys! Good info. I feel a bit better now. Excited to drink it and make more haha

That's why we are all here!

 

[roger617]

I agree adding the nibs to the secondary. I just cracked open a bottle of my first attempt at a chocolate porter where I added nibs to the secondary and it turned out awesome!