Stuck fermentation?

[dmcman73]

So I brewed a pumpkin brew this past weekend and used a liquid yeast. After a day, the vapor lock was bubbling like crazy at around 75 degrees (just as the instructions stated on the yeast vile) by Wednesday night until today I have not noticed any activity in the vapor lock, no bubbles. Is this normal? Should I cool it down to see if fermentation will start again? I don't have a place to put the carboy to cool it any further, can I place it in a sink filled with some cool water?

Thanks.

 

[thood6]

Generally fermentation will move quicker not slower at higher temperatures. People will recommend warming up to help a beer finish up. HOWEVER 75 is probably too hot for most ale yeast, especially if it is ambient temperatures rather than the fermenter temperature.

Do you have a hydrometer to check the gravity of your beer?

 

[bookworm0367]

You should try putting it in some type of container like a storage bin. Give it a nice ice bath to sit in. Apply wet towels and put a fan blowing toward it. These few things bring your temps down considerably. Every so often add ice and dip you towels in the cold water and reapply.

 

[stvo]

It's only been 5+ days... your best bet now is to try to keep it 68-70 for another 2+ weeks then check if you reached FG

 

[RM-MN]

It's normal for an ale yeast to rip through the easy sugars, faster if it is warmer but in this speedy process it makes a bunch of intermediate products that take time to break down but which give off no CO2 to indicate this is happening. Since you started the ferment this warm, leave it at this temp to finish up as cooling it now will have no advantages and may cause the ferment to stall.

I would have preferred you to start the ferment much cooler, something like 60 to 65 F. and then let it warm up after 3 to 5 days as that makes a much cleaner flavor. Here's a nice write-up by someone who knows yeast. I find my timeline longer than he states but the process is the same. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[duboman]

Regardless of where the beer is at, 5 days is not enough time to do anything yet. Gravity readings are the only way to determine exactly where your beer is at so give it another 5 days to 10 days and check gravity.

 

[dmcman73]

I actually just took a gravity reading. My SG was 1.046. The reading I just took was 1.010 which is what the FG should be for this beer. I also tasted the beer, it's carbonated but just doesn't taste right, kind of like bitter medicine is how I can describe it.

Since it's been 5 days, should I rack it into a secondary? There is a lot of sediment in this brew from the pumpkin plus is has about a 1/2 thick "foam" (krausen?) at the top that looks like there is a slot of yeast in it. When I put my wine thief in there, a lot of stuff started to fall to the bottom which appeared to be yeast.

 

[thood6]

I actually just took a gravity reading. My SG was 1.046. The reading I just took was 1.010 which is what the FG should be for this beer. I also tasted the beer, it's carbonated but just doesn't taste right, kind of like bitter medicine is how I can describe it.

Since it's been 5 days, should I rack it into a secondary? There is a lot of sediment in this brew from the pumpkin plus is has about a 1/2 thick "foam" (krausen?) at the top that looks like there is a slot of yeast in it. When I put my wine thief in there, a lot of stuff started to fall to the bottom which appeared to be yeast.

That bitter medicine is most likely from fermenting too hot. It may improve with a little age.

 

[dmcman73]

That bitter medicine is most likely from fermenting too hot. It may improve with a little age.

So should I rack it to secondary and let it sit for a few weeks or should I let it sit in the priamary for a full 2 weeks in the primary then rack to the secondary for another couple of weeks? I'm not going to bottle it, it will be going straight to keg.

The only reason I want to rack to secondary is to filter out all that trub. I then plan on cold crashing it at well where my 6.5 gallon carboy will have a hard time fitting in the mini fridge I have.

Thanks

 

[RM-MN]

How about option 3, leaving it in the primary for 3 to 4 weeks so the ferment is done, the yeast have done the cleanup and settled out and all the trub is at the bottom of the fermenter so you can carefully siphon the beer off the top of it.

 

[thood6]

Most here just do a straight primary and skip secondary. I would even leave it for another couple weeks. The yeast may clean up some of the off flavors you don't like. Then keg it, put some gas on it and cold crash for several days.. The first pint will be cloudy but the rest will be perfectly clear.

 

[thood6]

how about option 3, leaving it in the primary for 3 to 4 weeks so the ferment is done, the yeast have done the cleanup and settled out and all the trub is at the bottom of the fermenter so you can carefully siphon the beer off the top of it.

+1

 

[dmcman73]

Most here just do a straight primary and skip secondary. I would even leave it for another couple weeks. The yeast may clean up some of the off flavors you don't like. Then keg it, put some gas on it and cold crash for several days.. The first pint will be cloudy but the rest will be perfectly clear.

Thanks for the advice. Now if I leave it in the primary, should I be worried that there is no activity in the air lock? Since it's already at it's FG I would assume no right?

Also, I was able to get the temp down to about 68-70 degrees by keeping it in a sink in the basement filled with cool tap water, would this be a good temp to leave it at?

Thanks again, this is my second brew so still new to all this.

 

[thood6]

Yeah no activity in the airlock is fine. In fact you shouldn't judge fermentation based off airlock bubbles anyways. Anything from atmospheric pressure changes to a cat bumping the fermenter can affect bubbles in the airlock. But you shouldn't expect anymore visible fermentation to occur and that's good.


Anywhere from 65-75 is ok now that active fermentation Is over. Just put it somewhere relatively cool and forget about it for the next couple weeks. You might be pleasantly surprised about how it tastes once it's bottled and carbed up.

Don't forget to update us on how it turns out.

Cheers

 

[dmcman73]

Thanks, I will definitely update everyone in a few weeks. I'll keep it in the primary.