Funkenjaeger
Well-Known Member
last weekend I brewed my first 10-gallon batch - it was an ordinary bitter from Jamil's recipe. OG was about 1.041 (Target was about 1.033... learned some lessons about efficiency with heavily-sparged low-gravity batches, among other things)
I used it as a great opportunity to try out a couple of different yeasts side-by-side: Nottingham and Pacman. I've used each one just once before. Nottingham was rehydrated, Pacman was pitched from a washed yeast cake from an APA done recently. Both took off within 24 hours. They fermented in my bedroom, which in retrospect wasn't the greatest idea because we don't keep it heated much, so the wort temperature during fermentation was about 60F.
What a difference! The nottingham half developed a big, fluffy krausen that climbed up near to the neck of the carboy before subsiding, and when it dropped it left the surface pretty much clean except for small, white bubbles from the little fermentation still going on.
The Pacman never developed a krausen higher than about 1/2" or so, and when it fell it dropped down to a really thin, gooey layer on the surface which hasn't yet shown any signs of disappearing. Most of the krausen ring on the fermenter is actually from the jostling around when I moved the carboy in from the other room.
It's been one week since I brewed these. I was expecting them to ferment out VERY fast due to the low gravity and aggressive yeasts, but then again, I hadn't planned on fermenting at 60F either. I moved them out to the living room where they're in the mid-60's about 3 days ago, so I'm surprised that they still haven't finished, but oh well. It's been very interesting seeing the differences in fermentation between these two yeasts in identical wort - and also how much of a difference 5 or 10 degrees makes.
I used it as a great opportunity to try out a couple of different yeasts side-by-side: Nottingham and Pacman. I've used each one just once before. Nottingham was rehydrated, Pacman was pitched from a washed yeast cake from an APA done recently. Both took off within 24 hours. They fermented in my bedroom, which in retrospect wasn't the greatest idea because we don't keep it heated much, so the wort temperature during fermentation was about 60F.
What a difference! The nottingham half developed a big, fluffy krausen that climbed up near to the neck of the carboy before subsiding, and when it dropped it left the surface pretty much clean except for small, white bubbles from the little fermentation still going on.
The Pacman never developed a krausen higher than about 1/2" or so, and when it fell it dropped down to a really thin, gooey layer on the surface which hasn't yet shown any signs of disappearing. Most of the krausen ring on the fermenter is actually from the jostling around when I moved the carboy in from the other room.
It's been one week since I brewed these. I was expecting them to ferment out VERY fast due to the low gravity and aggressive yeasts, but then again, I hadn't planned on fermenting at 60F either. I moved them out to the living room where they're in the mid-60's about 3 days ago, so I'm surprised that they still haven't finished, but oh well. It's been very interesting seeing the differences in fermentation between these two yeasts in identical wort - and also how much of a difference 5 or 10 degrees makes.
