when you repitch, what happens?

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hal simmons

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I repitched a brown ale today since it's been 3 weeks, fermentation stopped 1 week ago, and it still has 10 points to go. Original yeast was Wyeast 1338, repitched Nottingham. Just rehydrated the pack, and dumped it in. Didn't aerate, just swirled the carboy to make sure it's mixed in.

What am I supposed to be looking for? Am I going to get active fermentation with krausen and everything? I'm guessing i'll get airlock activity. How soon should fermentation start back up?
 
Did you try activating the existing yeast before you repitched? Often just gently swirling the carboy will get things started up again. As far as new fermentation, it will just start up from where it left off. It won't be dramatic.
 
Yeah, I gently swirled for a week with no results. Thus the repitch.
 
Fermentation should start within 24 hours. There's no growth stage, so it's just a matter of the yeast adjusting to the alcohol content. You probably won't see a krausen.
 
extract or all grain? grain bill? mash temps? a brown ale's gonna have a lot of non-fermentables in there, and if you mashed high then 10 points isn't hard to imagine. how long was the boil? caramelization could do it to.
 
Extract with specialty grains. Steeped grains at 155 for 30 min. Boil was 60 min. Here's a list of fermentables that went in.

8 oz Victory
8 oz Crystal 40
2 oz Chocolate
8 oz Corn Sugar
1 lb Dark Brown Sugar
5 lbs Amber Dry

OG = 1.054. FG is supposed to be 1.016. I used 1 capsule Yeast Nutrients at the end of the boil. Pitched Wyeast 1338 smack pack, shook carboy to aerate. Fermentation temps have been 67-70 consistently. After 14 days checked gravity and it's only at 1.026. I roused the yeast daily for another 7 days and checked the gravity again and it was only 1.024.

I repitched nottingham dry yeast yesterday afternoon, and this morning there are not signs it's doing anything. I'll wait till later to day and see if it starts doing something.
 
hal simmons said:
Extract with specialty grains. Steeped grains at 155 for 30 min. Boil was 60 min. Here's a list of fermentables that went in.

8 oz Victory
8 oz Crystal 40
2 oz Chocolate
8 oz Corn Sugar
1 lb Dark Brown Sugar
5 lbs Amber Dry

OG = 1.054. FG is supposed to be 1.016. I used 1 capsule Yeast Nutrients at the end of the boil. Pitched Wyeast 1338 smack pack, shook carboy to aerate. Fermentation temps have been 67-70 consistently. After 14 days checked gravity and it's only at 1.026. I roused the yeast daily for another 7 days and checked the gravity again and it was only 1.024.

I repitched nottingham dry yeast yesterday afternoon, and this morning there are not signs it's doing anything. I'll wait till later to day and see if it starts doing something.

In the future, try using lighter extract. The darker it gets, the less fermentable it can be...
 
sorry to come back so late. soulive is spot on. i wouldn't use extracts other than pale/pils unless you're making an all extract beer. let the grains from steeping create your flavors and colors and use pale extract as your base. with that list of fermentables i wouldn't be too surprised if you've gotten as low as you're gonna get.
 
As for visual signs, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw nothing at all - I did a repitch, and visually it was as if I'd done nothing. A week later gravity had dropped twenty points. So the hydrometer's the only way to check. Though in this instance, I also wonder whether your beer has already got as low as it's going to go.
 
Well, good new is I am seeing airlock activity, so it's doing something. Airlock was dead for a week, repitched nottingham 5 days ago, after on day I was getting a bubble every 90 seconds, after two days every 60 sec., after 3 days 30 sec. and yesterday 13 sec.

So...it appears the dry yeast is doing the trick and i'm dropping points. I still have no other visible signs other than airlock activity. I'll wait till the burps subside, then do a SG check to see where i'm at.
 
I appears I spoke too soon. I just checked the carboy again, and overnight a half inch of krausen formed, and i'm now getting a burp every 9 seconds. Before I pitched, the SG was 1.024, and I was hoping to end up around 1.013-16. It might just make it after all
 
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