To stir or not to stir

[Bubbles2]

Greetings thanks for looking in,

My first batch started a bit slow on the yeast activity and after 24 hours I had a semi-decent froth atop the batch. However it was not enough to warrant a big tube for blow off, so I removed the tube that is atop my fermentor and switched it out to a rubber bung with a two stage bubbler deal. Sanitized all of course.
Now here is the thing.... the yeast seems to have subsided and looks to be barely 'munching along'...I thought should I aerate with a vigorous stir as I did when I did not see much activity 18 hours in the beginning...? Which either I did not wait long enough or indeed the "Good stir" did aerate and then at 24-30 hour mark began to take off as aforementioned.
69f steady temp.
IT only has been started @ 9pm the eve of the 27th, the next day at 11am I gave it the stir, it looked good by 6pm the 28th and was doing OK (not like I've seen some great heads on others brew here) just a bit of activity....Never took up the head space in my 6.5 Big Mouth Bubbler Fermentor. And now it has REALLY settled down.. total time in the fermentor would be.....(drum roll) ......84 hours....I have not measure the gravity yet as I figured I am few days way to early.
Thoughts from experience...?

 

[flars]

How a fermentation begins depends upon the yeast used, wort OG, initial aeration or oxygenation, pitch rate, and wort temperature at pitch.

I wouldn't stir the yeast unless it was a stalled fermentation at about three weeks in the fermentor. Have to add stir to rouse the yeast but no aeration.

 

[Owly055]

Do not assume that the airlock activity represents the actual fermentation on any screw top fermenter. The first thing to do is probably to take some good black electrical tape, and tape the top to the fermenter well, so all the gas must pass through the bubbler. The BMB is transparent, so you can see the fermentation taking place......... All my fermenters are transparent except my Fast Ferment, which is not being used. The ONLY fermenter where the bubbler can be relied on to represent the fermentation activity is the carboy (or better bottle). All others can and will leak. If your yeast has floculated, and you never saw much "boiling" activity or krausen, you probably have a stalled fermentation...... do a gravity reading to see where you are before doing any "remedial" procedures. Use a hydrometer, not a refractometer for this.

There really are no "rules" to brewing except arbitrary ones. Whatever gets results is acceptable as far as I'm concerned. The only concern of course is sanitation. If you feel your aeration was inadequate, you could even sanitize your boil kettle, and simply dump the wort back into it with plenty of splashing, and then dump it back into the BMB with similar splashing. I've resorted to extremes like this that make people throw up their hands in horror, but gotten the results I wanted. I don't know what yeast you are using, some yeasts tend to stall...........or what you did in terms of a starter, but I personally would have no hesitation about resorting to "extreme measures" in remedial brewing. Most of my brews are near final gravity by this time..........

H.W.

Greetings thanks for looking in,

My first batch started a bit slow on the yeast activity and after 24 hours I had a semi-decent froth atop the batch. However it was not enough to warrant a big tube for blow off, so I removed the tube that is atop my fermentor and switched it out to a rubber bung with a two stage bubbler deal. Sanitized all of course.
Now here is the thing.... the yeast seems to have subsided and looks to be barely 'munching along'...I thought should I aerate with a vigorous stir as I did when I did not see much activity 18 hours in the beginning...? Which either I did not wait long enough or indeed the "Good stir" did aerate and then at 24-30 hour mark began to take off as aforementioned.
69f steady temp.
IT only has been started @ 9pm the eve of the 27th, the next day at 11am I gave it the stir, it looked good by 6pm the 28th and was doing OK (not like I've seen some great heads on others brew here) just a bit of activity....Never took up the head space in my 6.5 Big Mouth Bubbler Fermentor. And now it has REALLY settled down.. total time in the fermentor would be.....(drum roll) ......84 hours....I have not measure the gravity yet as I figured I am few days way to early.
Thoughts from experience...?

 

[Bubbles2]

Thank for the insight.
I used
White Labs English Ale WLP002

I pitched it with the brew at the same temp as the yeast. 68-70f for the both. FWIW. Going to measure gravity now and be back with a number. I will seal the BMB with tape as suggested too.

Thanks again

 

[mongoose33]

You don't need to seal it. I've used BMBs exclusively (47 batches) and never has one failed to seal sufficiently to bubble through the airlock.

Two things: first, when you say 69 degrees, is that ambient temps or the actual temp of the wort? If ambient, the actual temp is probably 5-10 degrees higher. If this is the case, your fermentation will proceed faster.

Second, I don't know if I've ever had an ale take 84 hours to finish active fermentation, so I can't imagine yours isn't finished. Especially at 69 degrees or higher.

All that's left for you now is the drinkin'.

 

[mongoose33]

Do not assume that the airlock activity represents the actual fermentation on any screw top fermenter. The first thing to do is probably to take some good black electrical tape, and tape the top to the fermenter well, so all the gas must pass through the bubbler. The BMB is transparent, so you can see the fermentation taking place......... All my fermenters are transparent except my Fast Ferment, which is not being used. The ONLY fermenter where the bubbler can be relied on to represent the fermentation activity is the carboy (or better bottle). All others can and will leak. If your yeast has floculated, and you never saw much "boiling" activity or krausen, you probably have a stalled fermentation...... do a gravity reading to see where you are before doing any "remedial" procedures. Use a hydrometer, not a refractometer for this.

I've done 47 batches in BMBs and never had one that wouldn't seal enough to bubble through the airlock. I wonder if the lid isn't sitting down tight.

Thank you for the electrical tape idea--I've been trying to capture CO2 and feed it back into the fermenter when I cold crash, but I usually have some sort of micro leak somewhere that prevents the suction necessary to draw the CO2 back into the fermenter. I'm pretty sure the problem is the seal of the lid--when fermenting if I open the ferm chamber to check, I can smell fermentation smells. Not that this is a bad thing, generally, but since I don't want any leaks, it's a sign of leakage at the lid.

[I've redone the lid such that I've epoxied a rigid plastic tube scavenged from a bottling wand into the lid, and epoxied the normal bunghole closed with a piece of plastic. The only place for a leak has to be the gasket--I did have one fermentation seal tightly enough to draw the CO2 back in, but the current one isn't sealed.]

The electrical tape, if stretched around the lid and bubbler top, might be enough to seal it. I've about given up on finding a way to get the gasket to seal correctly--it's simply too big and there's too much surface area to get it to seal. I've tried turning the gasket upside down, tried using a little keg lube to help it seal against lid and fermenter side--I am about out of ideas

I still have the old rings and lids, been looking at some way to seal that old lid to the fermenter mouth.

On the horizon is a stainless conical, but financially I'm not there at the present time. So I need to figure out how to seal those BMB mouths.

 

[Bubbles2]

OK So maybe I am a worried Papa... Measured, 1026.5 Start was 1067.5
FG per instructions=1013 <--- funny code.
Vigorous stir, and taped lid. FWIW I had two 2.5lb weights sitting atop of the BMB to hold the tapered or champfared edge in...
Tasted it, nice finish but would like it a bit sweeter in the front....I will create another post to address that at secondary time.
Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Bubbles2]

@Mongoose the temp after thieving was 68f in my test tube. So I added 1.5 for calibration difference when measuring for gravity.

As far as the BmB goes and sealing or getting the lid to set in. If you get a standard gym collar sized weight in 5lbs that hole in the center is equal to a Weider bar diameter so you can set it right on top and have clearance for the bung and lock protrusion. I used two. 2.5's either side that kept it down.

 

[flars]

OK So maybe I am a worried Papa... Measured, 1026.5 Start was 1067.5
FG per instructions=1013 <--- funny code.
Vigorous stir, and taped lid. FWIW I had two 2.5lb weights sitting atop of the BMB to hold the tapered or champfared edge in...
Tasted it, nice finish but would like it a bit sweeter in the front....I will create another post to address that at secondary time.
Thanks for the help guys!

What are you brewing? Adding more fermentables in a secondary? If not adding fermentables you can skip the secondary no matter what is written in the instructions. Less risk of oxidation or infection keeping the beer in the primary until it clears.

 

[Bubbles2]

@flars I am brewing this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...e-coffee-and-or-choclate.641384/#post-8179472

I may indeed have to leave it in the Primary as I think my secondary might not be here for a week with the holiday in the middle of it.

I was going to add some coffee in the secondary, however the flavor is good as is with the Chocolate I tossed in as one does with hops last 15min of boil...
I'd like to sweeten it a bit and was wondering about how to do that without boosting the ABV...My GF a pro baker tells me that all this sanitary stuff is a good practice, but it will not kill the yeast unless you are just a 'slob butcher'... Heat kills Yeast. +120f On that note, I was thinking about adding some Agave or Honey in the next couple of days to let the yeast eat on it. Which always brings me full circle of " IF I add too much sugar too late will my bottles be over carbonated? Do you know? I'd just like to sweeten it on first taste because the Chocolate and hops finish is spot on. When I tried it after measuring, and I did stir it up...Hence the GF telling me I am not going to kill the yeast, she fridges hers, does not even look at temps, just eyeballs it via nuke the H20, and so forth. Her Baking is Professional as she has a business doing it.

 

[RM-MN]

@flars I am brewing this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...e-coffee-and-or-choclate.641384/#post-8179472

I may indeed have to leave it in the Primary as I think my secondary might not be here for a week with the holiday in the middle of it.

I was going to add some coffee in the secondary, however the flavor is good as is with the Chocolate I tossed in as one does with hops last 15min of boil...
I'd like to sweeten it a bit and was wondering about how to do that without boosting the ABV...My GF a pro baker tells me that all this sanitary stuff is a good practice, but it will not kill the yeast unless you are just a 'slob butcher'... Heat kills Yeast. +120f On that note, I was thinking about adding some Agave or Honey in the next couple of days to let the yeast eat on it. Which always brings me full circle of " IF I add too much sugar too late will my bottles be over carbonated? Do you know? I'd just like to sweeten it on first taste because the Chocolate and hops finish is spot on. When I tried it after measuring, and I did stir it up...Hence the GF telling me I am not going to kill the yeast, she fridges hers, does not even look at temps, just eyeballs it via nuke the H20, and so forth. Her Baking is Professional as she has a business doing it.

The agave or honey are fermentable and the yeast will have them eaten in a day or 2, leaving you with a more alcoholic, drier beer. What you want is a sugar that the yeast cannot eat, like lactose, or a non-sugar sweetner like Splenda. I'd go with the lactose. Don't use too much of it.

 

[Bubbles2]

Lactose Got it thanks. Cheers and to an epic new year!