Slow fermentation? Confirmation question.

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CapnHook

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I'm brewing NB's Chinook IPA. It is at 7 days in the fermenter today. I'm fermenting in a a water bath cooled by frozen water bottles, and ferm temps have been in the mid 60s all week, mostly 64 to 67, although one day it crept up to 68.

I used a blowoff tube, but never saw bubbles in the bottle of water the tube was in. I relaxed, didn't worry, and DIDN'T have a home brew, 'cause I'm all out. Today I opened the fermenter to take a gravity reading. There was a nice krausen still floating on top. The OG was 1.05; today was 1.02, so I'm thinking that since the krausen hasn't fallen and the gravity is still a bit high, there is still fermentation going on. I used a wine thief to get the sample, and there were tons of small bubbles rising in the tube - another indication, I think, of continuation of fermentation, I think.

After only a week, I hadn't planned on taking any action - I've got another 3 weeks or so before kegging (my first kegging, too), but I just wanted more experienced brewers to confirm that my opinion is correct - or to teach me if it isn't.

Thanks much!
 
What yeast did you use? I am curious because I have a milk stout that I used Northwest Ale and the krausen hasn't sunk yet.

7 days is not long enough for full fermentation. Sometime fermention is fast and rigorous, other times it is very slow. The drop in gravity shows that is is fermenting.
 
SafAle 05. I expected more vigorous activity. The wort smells fine, and from the small taste I had from the wine thief, the flavor will be very good. The hop schedule had only 2 oz of Chinook during the boil, and 1 oz for dry hopping in a week or two. But the small taste/smell I had was very light on the hops. If I brew this extract again, I will increase the hops at least 50%, and maybe double it.
 
Take another SG reading 7 days from today. The CO2 is most likely escaping around the lid, nothing to worry about. Be sure to sanitize around the top of the bucket before opening.
 
My last batch was an American strong ale and I used US-05 in that. I let it go for 1 week at about 61F (a bit too cold) then moved it up to about 66F-68F for the last 2 weeks. I had planned to cold crash, but the weather did not cooperate. Took about 2 weeks to hit FG. It took about the same amount of time for the krausen to drop out fully..maybe even 2.5 weeks. I bottled after 3 weeks. Airlock activity was nothing crazy. However, this is the first time I've used my new 6.5 gallon plastic Big Mouth Bubbler (love it BTW) and the yeast activity inside was going crazy for about 2 weeks, then it slowed quite a bit.

Let it go for another week and take a reading. Then wait a couple days to take another reading. Hopefully they will be the same.
 
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