Sam Calagione's Brown Ale

[johnnyc]

Ok, I just got into homebrewing and am on my 3rd batch. The first 2 were from extract kits and went off w/out a hitch. For xmas I got Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing book and decided to make the Beginner's Brown Ale recipe. Everything went fine during the boil. I pitched the liquid yeast (I think it was a White Labs American Ale) in a large pyrex of boiled and cooled water with a few big tablespoons of extract about 5 hours before time to add it to the cooled wort. I got zero activity, NONE. But I pitched it anyway after aerating the wort and aerated again after pitching the yeast.

24 hrs later zero activity still. Unfortunately I did forget to take the OG but ballpark for the recipe was 1070. So the following day I pitched a pack of dry yeast I had rehydrated in warm water for 1/2 hr. The wort took off w/in hrs. So I thought crisis averted. Well, the recipe calls for me to add 10 oz of maple syrup to the fermenter once the OG drops to 1040.

When I checked it a day later it was 1035 so I dissolved the maple syrup in boiled water, let it cool to 75 and stirred it in. After that fermentation completely stopped. Its been 2 days and the SG hasn't changed and haven't had any activity through the airlock. I swirled the fermenter back and forth gently w/out splashing hoping to get the yeast back into suspension but nothing changed. I also moved it from the cool closet at 65* upstairs to 72ish* w/out change. I moved it back to the closet rather than leave it too hot but now I'm wondering if I should pitch more yeast...

Thx in advance.

 

[Homercidal]

Good one. I dont' see anything wrong here. It's possible that the sugars in the syrup take longer for the yeast to consume, so you might not get the same amount of action you saw to start with. Or, the yeast may need time to finish the wort sugars before changing gears and working on the syrup.

I can't imagine that there is anything wrong, but perhaps someone with more experience in adding sugars can chime in?

 

[ChickenSoop]

Let us know how it works out. I got this book too for xmas. Maybe 10 oz of syrup is not enough to actually see activity and gravity might slowly drop over the next 2-3 weeks.

I will be doing Sam's Imperial IPA in the next few weeks, and thought about doing the Brown Ale down the road.

 

[craigd]

Was the syrup all natural maple? Just wondering if it might have preservatives that would inhibit yeast activity... I'm quite curious to hear how this one comes out because I'd like to make it also.

 

[johnnyc]

I used an un-opened bottle of 100% maple syrup. The thing that worries me is that he says specifically that you should see increased activity immediately after adding the syrup. I think if the SG doesn't change today or tomorrow I'm going to pitch another package of yeast on it. Not sure what else to do and this recipe wasn't that cheap.

I'm going to use a different LHBS b/c the one near me is just expensive. A vial of White Lab American Ale yeast was $9.50. They wanted $49 for a 6 gallon carboy!

 

[craigd]

I think I would move it back to the warm area for 2 days and if it still doesn't move I'd pitch again with a dry yeast and wait 2 more days. Stuck fermentations can drive you nuts!

 

[johnnyc]

bump

Still need advice plz. Don't have any experience w/ a stuck fermentation.

 

[Hegh]

Just because the label says 100% maple syrup doesn't mean there's not 1/10th of 1% of a preservative in there. Check the ingredients. That's my only thought, though...

 

[johnnyc]

After swirling the fermenter daily for the past week I finally saw some activity yesterday. Over the past week the SG has dropped from 1035-40 to 1025-30. Guess it'll take a couple weeks to get to the FG so we'll see.

 

[lbernard3]

I am wondering if anyone else has plugged Calagione's recipes into BrewersFriend or BeerSmith and got really different numbers than the author is putting out there?

Lou