Scratching My Head...

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modelflyer2003

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Having some issues with my brew. First was a Caribou Slobber, but stouts are my choice. I brewed a Midwest Irish Stout. Would love to say the brew went off without a hitch, but I was jostling the brew kettle in the ice bath when cooling it down. Ended up not letting the Wort settle out. When I poured the chilled wort into the primary fermentor I ended up with the trub too. I figured oh well, going to leave it in the bottle when I rack to the secondary in 2 weeks. I pitched the yeast when temperature was 72 degrees. The first location was the back bathroom, the one we never use) and the temp strapped to the side of the tank wrapped in the towels was 74 degrees. The fermentation was fine and active not real aggressive, but decent. I checked the temp in my basement and it was 71 near the floor. I moved it downstairs on day 3 and for the rest of the first week it fermented fine. At the end of the first week the airlock went silent. At two weeks I transferred to the secondary. I checked the gravity 1.030. The OG was 1.043 (Recipe says OG should be 1.042-1.046). I know there is no way the beer is finished fermenting. The kit was 1 year old I will say but I find it hard to believe that the yeast was bad, because it had 3-4 days of normal airlock activity and Krausen formation. I know that the airlock is a poor judge of yeast activity, but my Slobber was active until I bottled it 7 months after brew date (I procrastinated). Couple of possibilities: stuck fermentation, yeast was too old, needs higher temp (at 70.8 right now), not enough oxygen in the wort. When I brewed I put the two gallons of water in the primary and shook the heck out of it for several minutes. After I poured the wort into the primary and added enough to make 5 gallons I forgot to aerate more. I would think the very agitated 2 gallons would be sufficient as well as the pouring into the primary of the wort and rest of the water, but maybe I am wrong. I am committed to seeing it through, but I am scratching my head. What do you think?
 
Your temperatures are a little high but not to the point of damaging the yeast. Keep in mind that you need to measure fermentation temperature not ambient(in the room) but seems as though you are.

Dry yeast has a longer shelf life than the liquid smack packs a lot of us use but it's still recommended to keep it at fridge temps.

Although you aerated before pitching you certainly aren't in the recommended range of dissolved o2 however many of us pitch in under aerated wort and never have problems.

Considering the health of your yeast, lack of adequate aeration it's possible that your yeast wasn't healthy enough to complete fermentation and may have stalled to put it simply.

Swirl it around to rouse the yeast and take a hydrometer reading after a couple days. If it hasn't budged than you can proceed to repitch a healthy packet of fresh yeast.

Good luck.
 
You don't need to aerate when using dry yeast (straight from Fermentis) so aeration wasn't your problem. Just the little aeration you did with the transfer was fine for dry yeast.

72° isn't terrible. I like to pitch a little lower but nothing too bad. 74° is a little on the high side but still ok for dry yeast. What yeast was it? I know the ideal highest temp for US-05 is 72° but the range goes up to 77°.

My guess is the yeast was just old and not kept cold.
 
Pouring all the wort and the trub into the fermenter is not an issue. The trub will settle.
If your kit was a year old and had the original yeast pack with it the yeast was not viable enough to do the job. You will probably need to pitch more yeast to get it to finish up.

Typo on the Caribou Slobber? Still active at 7 months? That is impossible. It was done fermenting in a week or two after brewday. Unless it also stalled after a few days, then finished up at the end of 7 months with 6+ months of no activity in between.
 
I pitch my dry yeast around 79* almost all the time. Never had a problem. I chill down to 62 right after that.
 
Typo on the Caribou Slobber? Still active at 7 months? That is impossible. It was done fermenting in a week or two after brewday. Unless it also stalled after a few days, then finished up at the end of 7 months with 6+ months of no activity in between.

I am sure you are right. I would say that the airlock would still bubble every now and then, but I know that is not a good indicator. Here were the Slobber numbers: Didn't get OG (rookie) on 11/27/15, 2-8-16 1.027, bottled 7-4-16 1.025. Yes. I know the gravity was nowhere near where it should have been either. Another head scratcher. But it still taste good.

Maybe I should buy a Beer Bug.
 
I am sure you are right. I would say that the airlock would still bubble every now and then, but I know that is not a good indicator. Here were the Slobber numbers: Didn't get OG (rookie) on 11/27/15, 2-8-16 1.027, bottled 7-4-16 1.025. Yes. I know the gravity was nowhere near where it should have been either. Another head scratcher. But it still taste good.

Maybe I should buy a Beer Bug.

Buying more things won't help except to lighten your wallet.

If you started with an extract kit, your OG was not 1.027. It was what the kit said it was. Your reading is from incomplete mixing of the concentrated wort with the top off water. When the yeast got done eating the sugars the beer was completely mixed so your FG reading is correct but too high. Warm up the beer a bit to encourage the yeast to complete their job and that reading might go down a bit.

You have the order of operations backward. You want to start the ferment cooler, then warm the beer, not the reverse. Also, what counts is the temperature of the beer, not the air temp. Your basement might be 71 degrees near the floor but the floor might be much cooler and setting your fermenter on the floor may have made the beer too cool for the final part of the ferment.
 
I'm glad someone mentioned the 7 months fermentation being too long. With the first one, I am guessing that your yeast was dead, probably early on because it was too hot. With an airlock, you can get activity base on temperature changes (even slight) as the wort and fermenter expand and contract. It's not fermentation, it's just the air moving out of the airlock.

With this one, it's odd. Even old yeast that starts up like yours should continue fermenting. It's not like it was on its last legs, ate some sugar, and died. First they reproduce, giving you more yeast. Then they eat. So one yeast cell could eventually ferment your batch.

The beer bug will tell you what the temperature is, but it won't control it for you. Don't get that yet.

If you're at 71 degrees now (ambient temperature), I still think it's warm. Warm enough, anyway.

You never mentioned what yeast you're using. You might have made it drop out by cooling it fast when you moved it. I would suggest pitching again and letting it run it's course in your secondary fermenter.
 
Buying more things won't help except to lighten your wallet.

If you started with an extract kit, your OG was not 1.027. It was what the kit said it was. Your reading is from incomplete mixing of the concentrated wort with the top off water. When the yeast got done eating the sugars the beer was completely mixed so your FG reading is correct but too high. Warm up the beer a bit to encourage the yeast to complete their job and that reading might go down a bit.

You have the order of operations backward. You want to start the ferment cooler, then warm the beer, not the reverse. Also, what counts is the temperature of the beer, not the air temp. Your basement might be 71 degrees near the floor but the floor might be much cooler and setting your fermenter on the floor may have made the beer too cool for the final part of the ferment.

Thanks for your advice, everyone. I think I wasn't clear in my post. On the first brew (Caribou Slobber) I didn't get an OG of 1.027; that was the gravity at the two month mark. I forgot to check an OG. Have not recorded the temps at gravity readings. To check my gravities I am using the Refractometer, I am not eyeballing it. My goal isn't to start the fermentation temperature low and go higher. It has just worked out that way. I don't have my system down yet, I guess. As far as which yeast I used. I used the one that came in the kit, which is the Safale Ale S-04. I didn't know to keep the yeast in the refrigerator. I have three Northern Brewer Kits downstairs with yeasts that have been sitting in the basement since Christmas last year. I guess I should replace them, even though the expiration dates are January 2017. I practice at a very busy Rheumatology office, so I will use that excuse as to why I haven't brewed them yet [sigh].
 
Thanks for your advice, everyone. I think I wasn't clear in my post. On the first brew (Caribou Slobber) I didn't get an OG of 1.027; that was the gravity at the two month mark. I forgot to check an OG. Have not recorded the temps at gravity readings. To check my gravities I am using the Refractometer, I am not eyeballing it. My goal isn't to start the fermentation temperature low and go higher. It has just worked out that way. I don't have my system down yet, I guess. As far as which yeast I used. I used the one that came in the kit, which is the Safale Ale S-04. I didn't know to keep the yeast in the refrigerator. I have three Northern Brewer Kits downstairs with yeasts that have been sitting in the basement since Christmas last year. I guess I should replace them, even though the expiration dates are January 2017. I practice at a very busy Rheumatology office, so I will use that excuse as to why I haven't brewed them yet [sigh].

Unless you have used a correction factor your refractometer will read the FG incorrectly because of the alcohol in the beer.

Your goal should be to start the beer low (to avoid the esters and fusel alcohol produced with higher temps) and then go higher to get the yeast excited so they finish eating the intermediate products that they form as a natural part of fermentation.
 
Unless you have used a correction factor your refractometer will read the FG incorrectly because of the alcohol in the beer.

Your goal should be to start the beer low (to avoid the esters and fusel alcohol produced with higher temps) and then go higher to get the yeast excited so they finish eating the intermediate products that they form as a natural part of fermentation.

Not sure what a correction factor is, but I did use distilled water to zero it. I do appreciate all the help. Wish I could give you all a beer, but that doesn't seem practical. My first beer (Slobber) I think has lots of esters and fusels alcohol in it because the initial temp was 80-82 degrees and it fermented like a madhouse in the beginning. So much so that I needed a blowoff tube in 6.5 gal carboy. This batch (Irish Stout) is the polar opposite.
 
You can't get a FG reading with a refractometer without correcting for the alcohol content. The numbers you are getting are not the actual FG. My advice would be to get yourself a hydrometer, they are inexpensive. I thought a refractometer would be great, just a drop or two and get quick readings. Well I'd take two back to back readings and get different results, not to mention all the correction factors. Junked it and went with all hydrometer readings. Much more accurate and consistent.
Also your temps are too high. Get some way to control temps, in the 60's and you'll end up with a much better product.
 
ohhhhhh, now we find out what's what. I imagine that your final gravity was closer to predicted.
 
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