Same beer in two batches; different result

[Fleet_of_Foot]

I followed a five-gallon recipe and split the wort into two separate 5-gallon buckets. (The recipe is the "Easiest Beer I Ever Made" stuff in another long thread on this board.)

Everything went well during brewing, everything was sterile. I basically have the exact same thing split into two 2.5-gallon quantities.

It's been 48 hours. Now one bucket has been fermenting like crazy and the other is not doing much at all. The first one started bubbling about 6 hours after I sealed the bucket and it's been going nuts ever since. The second bucket isn't moving.

These buckets are identical except for the yeast. I pre-started the yeast, and it clumped up. I immediately realized I shouldn't have done that because it would be hard to split evenly. I split it as best I could between the two buckets but I wished I'd bought two packets of yeast - one for each bucket.

The only thing I can think is that I didn't split the yeast evenly, and I got way more of it in the first bucket than I did in the second.

I'm wondering how long I should wait before I just dump the non-functioning bucket and use it for something else? I know fermentation is hard to predict BUT these are two identical buckets so there can't be that much variability, can there?

Also, is one packet of yeast too much for 2.5 gallons of brew? If I do this in the future, should I put one packet in each bucket, or should I pre-split one packet into two quantities BEFORE I start it?

 

[enohcs]

Why did you split it between 2 buckets?
I would do one of two things.
First, you can wait. The second bucket might just be lagging due to the small amount of yeast.
Second, and likely what i would do, dump the slow bucket into the active one. Just make sure you do this slowly and carefully so as not to introduce oxygen into the brew.

 

[Fleet_of_Foot]

I split it because the largest thing I have is 5-gallon buckets. And I can't put 5 gallons of beer into one bucket, as there won't be any room for fermentation.

I can't dump one into the other for the same reason.

I probably should have just scaled it down to 4 gallons and used one bucket.

 

[enohcs]

Then instead of dumping 2.5 gal, bring the volume up to 4.5 gal and dump 0.5 gal. If your worried about activity, use a blow off tube instead if an airlock.

 

[matt2778]

Are you sure it's not just the lid? I have an ale pale 6.5 gallon bucket that rarely ever shows airlock activity.

 

[Fleet_of_Foot]

Are you sure it's not just the lid? I have an ale pale 6.5 gallon bucket that rarely ever shows airlock activity.

Well the buckets are identical. The lids are identical. The airlocks are identical. Everything is identical except the amount of yeast (and for all I know the yeast is identical too because I did the best I could to split it evenly).

 

[enohcs]

Did you open it up to see if any kreusen has started to appear?

 

[Revvy]

That's just the wildcard nature of our yeasty friends.

There is nothing "typical" in brewing...every fermentation is different, and should not be used to compare one with another...you can't do that.

No two fermentations are ever exactly the same.

When we are dealing with living creatures, there is a wild card factor in play..Just like with other animals, including humans...No two behave the same.

You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...

With living micro-organisms there is always a wildcard factor in play...and yet the yeast rarely lets us down. So it is best just to rdwhahb and trust that they know to what they are doing. It sounds like you are brewing by a calendar, or instructions and not by what your beer is really doing, the problem is that yeast don't know how to read so they seldom follow their scripts. They dance to their own tune and its seldom 4 x 4 Time.

Don't assume the worst with the yeast, realize that they've been making beer since long before our great great great grandfather copped his first buzz from a 40 of mickey's out back of the highschool, so they are the experts.

Yeasts are like teenagers, swmbos, and humans in general, they have their own individual way of doing things.

And worrying because it's not happening how fast or slow you think it should be is really not worth the energy.

It may not be what you expected it to be but that doesn't mean anything's wrong.

And remember, as the sticky says, fermentation can take 24 to 72 hours.

And that doesn't mean airlock bubbling...that means numbers on a hydrometer....

Relax...everything's fine....