Slow Fermentation

[CowboyShootist]

Greetings,

This is my third batch of Extract beer. The first was a simple Ale, the second a Honey Lager and this batch is an American Wheat.

In the first 2 cases fermentation started pretty quickly (less than 24 hrs) and was relatively vigorous and then slowed to a crawl. This particular batch has taken a full 24 hours to start and it's relatively slow as well, bubbles about every 5-10 secs or so.

In this batch I did use liquid yeast starter, a Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat. I smacked the package and after about 2 hours the package didn't seem very "plump" and the wort was at about 68F so I dumped the package into the fermentation bucket. I did areate vigorously and sealed it up.

Temp in the house has been between 68-70 so that doesn't seem to be an issue. My blow off tube is a 7/16 OD plastic tube into a nalgene bottle of pure water. I am wondering if I should toss another package of yeast into the fermenter? It is fermenting now but nowhere near what I would have expected.

If you have any advice or comments I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers
TC

 

[Pharmguy]

So the wheat beers are known to have vigorous and out of control fermentations but they dont have to. Your beer is fermenting, walk away. The yeast you used is a bavarian wheat blend, I have read a few post in here that claim they have had slow ferments with it.

 

[Tlylebrew]

Somebody is going to say it, so here it is: RDHAHB

The yeasties are doing their job. You just didn't smack the pack early enough.. It will be fine.

 

[cuinrearview]

FYI, a smack pack is not a yeast starter. If you smack it, wait for it to blow up, then pour it into a proper starter (1 qt. water/1 cup DME) then that is what we talk about when we say "yeast starter". I've done hefes with a White Labs vial pitched straight to the fermenter and have made it work as well. In fact I'm on my second generation of washed (do a search) hefe yeast that was started this way. Now I use a starter for it. So much easier and so much less bucket watching.

That being said, if you have some activity then the yeast is having a party and that is all you want to worry about. Leave it alone for a couple weeks and then bottle it up.

One more thing, the bubbles in the airlock really don't tell you whats going on. If you know someone that ferments in a carboy they will confirm this for you. The yeast swirl, pause, then explode into a violent maelstrom while they make beer and if you have a bad seal on the bucket, too little liquid in your airlock, or even the right strain of yeast you'd never even know it if all you did was watch the bubbles escape.

 

[CowboyShootist]

FYI, a smack pack is not a yeast starter. If you smack it, wait for it to blow up, then pour it into a proper starter (1 qt. water/1 cup DME) then that is what we talk about when we say "yeast starter". I've done hefes with a White Labs vial pitched straight to the fermenter and have made it work as well. In fact I'm on my second generation of washed (do a search) hefe yeast that was started this way. Now I use a starter for it. So much easier and so much less bucket watching.

That being said, if you have some activity then the yeast is having a party and that is all you want to worry about. Leave it alone for a couple weeks and then bottle it up.

One more thing, the bubbles in the airlock really don't tell you whats going on. If you know someone that ferments in a carboy they will confirm this for you. The yeast swirl, pause, then explode into a violent maelstrom while they make beer and if you have a bad seal on the bucket, too little liquid in your airlock, or even the right strain of yeast you'd never even know it if all you did was watch the bubbles escape.

OK, I used the wrong "term" when I said Starter. And I do have more activity now, it's bubbling about once a second or so. So far everything I have brewed has turned out OK even though the fermentation part of the process hasn't been what I expected.

I don't use the bubbling as my determining factor for fermentation, I use the hydrometer for that still I don't understand why the fermentation process isn't more active. I'm not using an airlock I am using a blow-off tube setup. Perhaps the smaller tube (7/16) and the length is causing the flow of CO2 to attenuate in some way.

Either way, it's seems to be on the move so I'll let sit for at least a week and most likely two.

Thanks
TC

 

[SeamusMac]

I've been using Wyeast 3068 quite a bit and I find that it'll often start off slow and a couple of days later I'll come home from work and the krausen will have filled up the headspace and my entire 4' blow-off tube! At 72 hours it's usually going full steam ahead.

 

[CowboyShootist]

Yeah it's cooking along nicely now.