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
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