No airlock activity for chocolate porter (long post)

[TheBrewBrotha]

Brewed two batches of the same chocolate porter and having some fermentation issues.

First batch, brewed 12/24, came out to 1.044 as I was shooting for 1.67 OG. Very low numbers but decided to let it ride and know that I've left out ingredients on brew day which messed this one up. Pitched WY1048 starter and no krausen or airlock activity occured but some small patches of gathered bubbles appeared ontop and never went away as it's now day 10 of being in primary. Using a FerMonster (cleaned with pbw, sanitized w/ starsan) and noticed that the lid has a 1/2 inch crack on top and the o-ring (sanitized) is missing so I am assuming it somehow fell into the beer when transferred and pitching of the yeast. I have not taken a hydrometer reading in case it's infected and plan to ditch the entire ferm vessel once I am done with it.

Second batch, brewed 12/25, came out to 1.064 of 1.067 target goal. Much better outcome. Again, pitched WY 1048 starter and within 6hrs had a thick krausen but no airlock activity. After 26 hrs the krausen was gone and til this day no airlock activity. Took a hydrometer reading last night and the beer is sitting at 1.034 so I am going to let it ride for another week and check the readings a few times throughout. Smells great of chocolate and tastes damn good.

My plan was to allow the beers to ferment for 8-10 days then rack into secondaries ontop of vanilla beans for another 7 days. My concerns is should I transfer if OG is still high or will it continue to drop once racked off the yeast? Also, the second batch was tested in my new ferm chamber and due to being a NOOB i hooked up my temp controller wrong which dropped the beer to 42f and froze about 5% of the beer on the side of the carboy. Is it safe to say I may have killed the second batch?

 

[LLBeanJ]

I wouldn't transfer until FG is reached. I'm surprised it's not done yet since you made a starter. Can you post the recipe?

Some of the yeast was probably killed off during the partial freeze, but the majority of the colony should be fine.

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

I wouldn't transfer until FG is reached. I'm surprised it's not done yet since you made a starter. Can you post the recipe?

Some of the yeast was probably killed off during the partial freeze, but the majority of the colony should be fine.

Thanks for the response! I did figure some yeast may still be working. For the first 8 days the second batch was at 67f the entire ride but never had airlock activity so suggest there's a leak in the lid of the vessel also somewhere.

Recipe:
38% 2 Row
23% Brown Malt
7% Munich
7% Chocolate
7% Crystal 10
7% Oats
3% CaraPils

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat the airlock activity. If you have viable yeast, fermentable wort, and hospitable temps for fermentation, you will have fermentation.

That recipe looks to contain a fair amount of unfermentable sugars, but I would expect it to get down to at least 1.020-ish. Give it a few more days and check again.

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat the airlock activity. If you have viable yeast, fermentable wort, and hospitable temps for fermentation, you will have fermentation.

That recipe looks to contain a fair amount of unfermentable sugars, but I would expect it to get down to at least 1.020-ish. Give it a few more days and check again.

Thanks for the feedback. I forgot to include that I did add a cocoa and sugar blend in both batches. Batch 1 had 6oz cocoa and 4oz sugar. Batch 2 had 4oz cocoa and 4oz sugar. Also included 4oz of dark brown sugar in batch 2 with 1oz of vanilla extract as well.

Mixtures were added at flame out on batch 1. Added at last 15min of batch 2.

 

[meatcleaver]

Recipe:
38% 2 Row
23% Brown Malt
7% Munich
7% Chocolate
7% Crystal 10
7% Oats
3% CaraPils

less than 50% base malt? I'd expect it to finish high for sure.
for future batches I'd tweak the recipe to maybe..
65% 2-row
10% Munich
10% brown
5% chocolate
5% crystal
5% oats

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

less than 50% base malt? I'd expect it to finish high for sure.
for future batches I'd tweak the recipe to maybe..
65% 2-row
10% Munich
10% brown
5% chocolate
5% crystal
5% oats

Hey thanks so much for that help. I am a noob to this and this was my first attempt at recipe building. I am still not sure if any of these batches are salvageable but I will for sure update your suggestions in beersmith and give it a shot.