Second Batch - Brown Ale

[Budista]

Hey all,

Thanks in no small part to the answers and help from this forum, we have our first batch bottled, conditioned and already drinkable. It's not bad at all; a simple lager from an all-wort kit that ended up a bit fruity. We all agree it's not going to win any awards, but it's nice to drink on a summer day. The fermentation temperature (which spiked to almost 80 degrees for a day before I caught it) seems to have created some off flavors, but not ruined the beer entirely.

We started our second batch yesterday: a brown ale extract brew that looks and smells amazing. Due to a scale malfunction, we may or may not have tripled the amount of chocolate malt in the steeping phase which I hope won't ruin the beer. Regardless, it looks beautiful and smells great.

My question is this. With our lager kit, I noticed very vigorous fermentation about 7-8 hours after pitching (where we just sprinkled the dry yeast onto the top of the beer). This time we rehydrated the yeast (Danstar Nottingham), added our finished wort to it a bit at a time to bring the temperatures equal and then gently stirred it into the primary.

12 hours later there is a thin, weak head on the beer with virtually no heat production. Just wondering if we have the temperature a bit low (really trying to avoid that spike we had with the kit yeast last time). It's an ale, so I suppose 65 is a bit low for it to be at this time around. I've taken it from the water bath and covered it with a towel, along with putting a small space heater into the fermentation closet.

Hopefully we can bring the temp up a bit, but is it possible to have stalled it this early? Should I stick a spoon in there and give it a stir once the temp goes back to 65-70?

Thanks again for all your help!

- Budista

 

[halite]

You won't have stalled it by having the temp a little low, even if you had the yeast will continue as normal once the temp comes back up. Yeast is a funny thing, no two fermentations are the same even if you think you have created the exact same environment for it.

Best advice would be to leave it for a week and then do a hydrometer reading, that will tell you exactly how things are progressing.

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

I think you're fine - yeah, you can raise the temp slowly to see what happens but I wouldn't take a risk by openning an stirring it.

 

[KevinW]

Not unusual to have little or even no activity after just 12 hours, especially with temps in the mid 60's. Most of my ales have worked just fine in the mid to upper 60's so far!

+1 for Halite and that each batch will ferment differently.