Summerbythelakeside
New Member
So I brewed up a batch on Thursday night, using the Brewer's Best Weizen kit, with the addition of some coriander, grains of paradise, a smidgen of zest from an organically grown orange, and a pinch of ginger root. Just experimenting. Just as I was reaching the end of the boil, I turned around to grab a sip of water and when I turned back, a moth had appeared in my wort. Stupid thing wasn't looking where it was flying or something. I plucked it out and continued the boil for an extra five minutes figuring it would sterilize the wort from anything the moth might have infected it with. (Damned if I was going to waste an entire batch over some stupid insect.) Then I proceeded according to the instructions that came with the kit. After I'd chucked my wort into the fermenter I took a starting gravity reading (1.043) and pitched the packet of Munton's yeast that came with the kit. I airlocked the fermenter and it went into the basement, as that's the coolest part of the house. By this time it was somewhere between o-exhausted-thirty and 3 AM so off I went to bed. (Yes, I keep crazy hours. At the moment, I work at home, and I'm an insomniac nearly all the time anyway.)
Around 11 AM the following day (Friday) I went downstairs and saw the airlock merrily bubbling away, so I figured no problems and went about my day. I checked it again late in the afternoon, and found to my chagrin that there was no activity. Giving the fermentation bucket a small kick released a couple of bubbles but that was all. I checked the temperature in the basement and it was 79F. Our basement is never that warm! But it had been a hot, humid day, more so than usual. The directions with this kit said to keep the fermenter at between 68F and 72F, so I figured maybe my yeast had crapped out due to the higher temperature. So my next stop was the brewing supply shop up the block (great neighborhood we live in, eh?) to ask the advice of an expert. After searching for a yeast among his current stock that could tolerate temperatures into the upper 70's and only coming up with stuff he didn't have and would have to order, I decided upon Plan B and got FutureHubby to carry the bucket back upstairs for me and put it in our spare room, and put our window air conditioner - which we usually don't even bother to install for the short Cleveland summers - into a window in there, and shut the door. Took the temp back down within the recommended range and waited to see if anything happened, but nope. Nada. (Nor was anything happening with the three gallons of experimental honey-apple-cherry-pomegranate metheglin now keeping the weizen fermenter company... it's been stuck for even longer... ) So I went back to the brewing shop again on Saturday, and I came home this time with a vial of White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast, on the recommendation of the guy who runs the shop. Got some more Lalvin 71B-1122 to dose the metheglin too, while I was at it, hoping the more hospitable temperature would help. Yeah, right. Zip. Zilch. Not a bubble to be seen, even though I added yeast nutrient and everything.
So tonight I took a gravity reading again, and the weizen's at about 1.016 (near as I could tell without my glasses). According to the kit directions, it should have started at between 1.048 - 1.052 and finished between 1.010 and 1.014 so it's been a tad off-kilter all along. It looks pretty dark, somewhat viscous, though it smells beery. Tomorrow I'm going to take another gravity on the metheglin, though I'm a little less worried about that as it tastes okay, just really sweet and had only about 5% alcohol as of the last reading, but I can cut it with vodka if I have to and get a reasonable product in the end. But the weizen worries me. It appears to have only fermented for 12 hours at absolute most, 13 hours being the time between pitching the original dry yeast and the time I noticed it had ceased activity.
Thoughts? Conjectures? Advice?
Around 11 AM the following day (Friday) I went downstairs and saw the airlock merrily bubbling away, so I figured no problems and went about my day. I checked it again late in the afternoon, and found to my chagrin that there was no activity. Giving the fermentation bucket a small kick released a couple of bubbles but that was all. I checked the temperature in the basement and it was 79F. Our basement is never that warm! But it had been a hot, humid day, more so than usual. The directions with this kit said to keep the fermenter at between 68F and 72F, so I figured maybe my yeast had crapped out due to the higher temperature. So my next stop was the brewing supply shop up the block (great neighborhood we live in, eh?) to ask the advice of an expert. After searching for a yeast among his current stock that could tolerate temperatures into the upper 70's and only coming up with stuff he didn't have and would have to order, I decided upon Plan B and got FutureHubby to carry the bucket back upstairs for me and put it in our spare room, and put our window air conditioner - which we usually don't even bother to install for the short Cleveland summers - into a window in there, and shut the door. Took the temp back down within the recommended range and waited to see if anything happened, but nope. Nada. (Nor was anything happening with the three gallons of experimental honey-apple-cherry-pomegranate metheglin now keeping the weizen fermenter company... it's been stuck for even longer... ) So I went back to the brewing shop again on Saturday, and I came home this time with a vial of White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast, on the recommendation of the guy who runs the shop. Got some more Lalvin 71B-1122 to dose the metheglin too, while I was at it, hoping the more hospitable temperature would help. Yeah, right. Zip. Zilch. Not a bubble to be seen, even though I added yeast nutrient and everything.
So tonight I took a gravity reading again, and the weizen's at about 1.016 (near as I could tell without my glasses). According to the kit directions, it should have started at between 1.048 - 1.052 and finished between 1.010 and 1.014 so it's been a tad off-kilter all along. It looks pretty dark, somewhat viscous, though it smells beery. Tomorrow I'm going to take another gravity on the metheglin, though I'm a little less worried about that as it tastes okay, just really sweet and had only about 5% alcohol as of the last reading, but I can cut it with vodka if I have to and get a reasonable product in the end. But the weizen worries me. It appears to have only fermented for 12 hours at absolute most, 13 hours being the time between pitching the original dry yeast and the time I noticed it had ceased activity.
Thoughts? Conjectures? Advice?