For my first all grain brew Im trying one of the Heady topper clones - http://www.eckraus.com/blog/heady-topper-double-ipa-clone-recipe. I've done a couple of things incorrectly. For starters, I didn't make a yeast starter due to timing ( I didn't consider it until too late and i didn't want to push off brew day - i consider this a mistake i wont make a gain). Secondly, I ended up about a gallon short in my fermenter. To compensate, I boiled another gallon and tossed it in to the carboy - AFTER taking my OG reading, so i dont have a reliable OG to go off of, unless someone knows how to compensate for adding a gallon of watetr to the wort. I pitched the Wyeast 1028 at 73 degrees.
On day two - I saw promising activity in the carboy at 7:00am. Light bubbling, the beginning of great things to come. By 7:00pm, it was kicking fierce.
On day three - I woke up to a krauson and strong activity all day
On day four - there was similar activity in the morning as i went off to work, but when i came home, the krausen had dropped, activity was low, and the wort had dropped to 63 ish degrees from the steady 68-70 i was ale to maintain for the first 3 days. With little experience, i fear a stalled or sluggish fermentation. I placed a heating pad on low underneath the carboy to slowly bring the wort back to temp and gradually noticed decent activity by bed time (yet nothing like the day before).
Day Five (today) - i woke up to a 70 degree wort with the airlock tossing a co2 bubble once every two minutes - very different from last night.
My questions...
1. How do i know how my fermenting wort is supposed to behave over the complete cycle?
2. Is this a stalled fermentation? What caused it? temperature? lack of yeast starter? How do I salvage this batch? Can i pitch more yeast or will the alcohol kill it - or can i build a starter first?
I plan on either purchasing a space heater with thermostat for the room to keep it at 68degrees - or a carboy warmer. not sure yet. But i really would like to revive this beer, OR, considering the time line - is it acting normal and amI just freaking out?
thanks everyone.
On day two - I saw promising activity in the carboy at 7:00am. Light bubbling, the beginning of great things to come. By 7:00pm, it was kicking fierce.
On day three - I woke up to a krauson and strong activity all day
On day four - there was similar activity in the morning as i went off to work, but when i came home, the krausen had dropped, activity was low, and the wort had dropped to 63 ish degrees from the steady 68-70 i was ale to maintain for the first 3 days. With little experience, i fear a stalled or sluggish fermentation. I placed a heating pad on low underneath the carboy to slowly bring the wort back to temp and gradually noticed decent activity by bed time (yet nothing like the day before).
Day Five (today) - i woke up to a 70 degree wort with the airlock tossing a co2 bubble once every two minutes - very different from last night.
My questions...
1. How do i know how my fermenting wort is supposed to behave over the complete cycle?
2. Is this a stalled fermentation? What caused it? temperature? lack of yeast starter? How do I salvage this batch? Can i pitch more yeast or will the alcohol kill it - or can i build a starter first?
I plan on either purchasing a space heater with thermostat for the room to keep it at 68degrees - or a carboy warmer. not sure yet. But i really would like to revive this beer, OR, considering the time line - is it acting normal and amI just freaking out?
thanks everyone.