One Gallon IPA seems done fermenting after 2 days?

[brewcommute]

Hi All,

I'm a total noob so bear with me here... so far I've done a 5-gallon ingredient kit extract brew which went well, and two days ago I did an all-grain one gallon attempt at an IPA, mashing with a paint strainer bag in a 5 gallon pot, then boiling in the same pot (i believe this is called beer-in-a-bag? Went smoothly for me!). I was loosely adhering to the recipe here:

http://mikesbrewreview.com/first-1-gallon-all-grain-batch/

But this is what I wound up doing:

2 lbs Rahr Pale Ale malt
1/2 lb CaraWheat crystal/carmel malt
Mash 60 mins at 155F in 1.125 gallons water
Strain/sparge by gently pouring water over bag, one slow cup at a time, with 0.875 gallons at 175F
boil 60 mins 1/2 oz. Centennial hops
boil 15 mins 1/4 oz. Cascade hops
boil 1 min 1/4 oz. Cascade hops
Chill with wort chiller i made (the coil isn't perfectly uniform but it works great and I made it to connect to my kitchen sink)
half packet of Safale US-05 yeast (I have a feeling this was too much), not rehydrated

I brewed the batch at night, and it had already begun to ferment within a half hour. The following morning my 3-piece airlock was dropping every 5-6 seconds, and by the time I went to bed at night it was dropping every 2 seconds. But now today is the second full day of fermentation, and my airlock isn't moving at all (not the slightest). I've tested all seals with sanitized water, looking for bubbles, but cant find any leaks - when i lightly press the lid of my bucket the airlock rises, which indicates to me that my seal is in tact. The temperature in my apartment fluctuates between 65-70F (i'm in the northeast, old building, it's cold outside, and I have radiators so I'm doing my best!). The temperature today is no different than yesterday.

Has anyone else brewed any similar one-gallon batch, or have any advice on what may have caused fermentation to stop? I can't exactly open it up to take a reading, and it wouldn't matter anyways because good ol' noob This Guy forgot to take one before I pitched the yeast. Ha.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

Mike

 

[aryoung1980]

I don't do one gallon batches but it sounds like you pitched more yeast than you probably needed. Odds are it ate through your sugars pretty fast.

The only way to know if it's done fermenting is to take a gravity reading over consecutive days. If it stays the same, it's done.

Although I think your batch will be done fairly quickly from the large pitch, I would still give it time. Even when active fermentation slows/stops the yeast will clean up many of it's by-products.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

Don't always trust your airlock. The yeast are still working even though the airlock activity has stopped. Take a reading regardless in a couple days and if you're below 1.016 you're probably pretty close to done. S-05 is a fairly high attenuating yeast so I'm sure your final gravity should be around 1.013 - 1.010.

I just brewed a 1 gallon IPA and dumped a whole vial of white labs liquid yeast into mine. Aggressive fermentation for about 2 days and then basically stopped. I'm gonna let it sit another 5 days then take a reading. Pretty much always on the mark.

RDWHAHB

 

[brewcommute]

Thanks for the insights, guys!

Aryoung I had no idea the yeast went back to clean up its own mess so to speak when it runs out of sugar to eat. I only ever read the wait was to be sure fermentation had finished but I suppose the two are related.

Humbolt that's exactly what I wanted to hear, "don't always trust your airlock." I do have a funny, completely baseless feeling that it isn't finished. And thanks for the final gravity estimates.

What about secondary fermentation? I had been planning to move it, if for no other reason than to be able to de-sludge it twice - I was amazed at how much gunk I left behind in primary on the 5 gallon batch I did. And keep in mind this was a beer-in-a-bag brew so (or so I've read) it's inherently more cloudy on account of the rudimentary "sparge" if you can even call it that. I also wanted to dry hop but I may be getting ahead of myself.

Seeing as I'm blasting through this fermentation, should I move to secondary sooner than 5-7 days?

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

Yeah you can move it to secondary to dry hop, but anytime you move to secondary you run te risk of infection, so make sure you have a spray bottle of saniclean or Starsan at hand.