one day of fermentation, now krausen is gone and no activity

[ShowStopper13]

I bought this kit http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/i ... kit-1.html form NB, the Irish Draught extract. I brewed this past saturday and by the time it was all done and in the carboy it was about 7pm, by 11pm there was fermentation activity and Krasuen had formed. Sunday there was a good amount of activity looking through the carboy, then monday i checked it about 9am and there was very little activity and the krasuen started to disapear, by about noon it was totaly gone and there was no activity to be seen.

When i took a OG reading it was 1.042, tuesday i too a reading and it was at 1.016. I did notice that the water that the caroby was siting in did get very cold, might have been below 60. The wife changes the ice for me while i am at work and put 2 2liter botles of ice in so the temp dropped. Any way i took the carboy out and left it at room temp for 24hrs and no sign of activity. I put back in the "swamp cooler" this morning and figured i would just let the yeast clean up and have a lower ABV beer. I used the Danstar Windor Ale yeast...


Can anything be done to fix it?? Should i just let it sit for a few weeks and hope that it keeps fermenting? should i re-pithc??? did i mess up the batch by brining it back to room temp and then cooling it again?? Should i just stop worrying???

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[HexKrak]

Well visible activity from the airlock isn't a very good indication of fermentation. I'd wait a few days and take another sample. It may be working away quietly. If you did put the yeast to sleep in the low temp water you could probably re-pitch, but I'd give it some time and more telling readings first.

 

[BrewNinja1]

Just because you cant see anything doesnt mean there is nothing happening. The ONLY way you can tell if fermentation is over is to check the FG. Usually 3 days in a row with the same gravity means its done.

 

[ShowStopper13]

Thanks for the responses, with every other batch i am used to seeing the yeasties moving all around in the carboy (wasnt looking at airlock activity) and since the krausen fell back in it kind of freaked me out.. I will take another reading and see where it is.

 

[Revvy]

Your beer is fermenting.....Leave it alone. You don't need to mess with it, you don't need to check with it. You just need to let it be, and let it finish.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that anything's wrong, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working dilligantly away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years.

 

[dogtailale]

Like Revvy says just let it sit.

I had one beer with a Wyeast 2565 pitched at 8pm, few bubble at 10pm, got up at 5am (to go see john) massive fermentation, went back to bed got up at 8am zero not one bubble. let it sit two days later SUPER MASSIVE fermentation. 6 days later it slowed down. 2.5 weeks later finally down to a bubble every 2 minutes.

Time is your friend

 

[ShowStopper13]

Sounds good, i know by reading the forum i should freak out.. but guess what i did!! This is the first batch that i could not really "see" the fermentaion.. and i think that is my favorite part of the process.. i am gonna just step away from the beer and let it do its thing!