Brewed an ESB began bubbling in blow off tube/ sanitized water in less than twelve hours. Sometime between 24-36 hours all signs stopped. Temp got to 64deg. Which is the low end for the safale- S04 that I'm using. I moved it to a warmer spot in the house it is up to 70deg with no signs of fermentation yet.
Will fermentation restart?
- Thread starter corn
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
flars
Well-Known Member
What type of fermentor are you using?
was the brew at a warmer temp beforehand, and temps fell to 64? if so, the cooling could have caused the yeast to flocc out. you want to keep temps steady, of slightly rising. cooling is a bad thing for yeast especially british strains.
have you tried rousing the yeast back into suspension, by gently swirling the carboy/bucket?
at 70-72 it could be done take a gravity reading and you will know for sure
all the best
S_M
I will do that. Thanks. This was my first fermentation using a blow off tube. Wasn't sure if the increases diameter( compared to airlock) allowed for a faster off gassing/fermentation? I ran out off air locks, first time I've had more than one batch in process at once.
yup, that will work, but before you do that:
excellent point. british yeast will go nuts at those higher temps. at peak of fermentation, the brew was likely several degrees above ambient.
nah, that won't make much of a difference. gas is very fuid. at the pressures we're dealing with, air lock diameter vs. blowoff diameter isn't significant. both are plenty to allow pressure to escape. a bigger issue is how much water the escaping CO2 has to push through at the end of the blowoff, vs. how much pressure is require to displace the water/cap of the air lock.
welcome to the obsession.
Another variable: This was the first batch that I made a yeast starter prior to pitching. (2 cups water and half cup DME). Could/would that allow batch to ferment significantly quicker than otherwise.
Just a thought- have you taken a SG to make sure it didn't just finish wicked fast?
No I haven't. I left town this morning for work and won't be back for a couple of days. I noticed the inactivity and low temp this morning before I left. I moved the beer to a warmer area, have been texting home to get updates. I have never had one finish that fast, so initially didn't consider that as a possibility.
Thanks, I do love it. I think I enjoy the process of creating the beer as much as I enjoy drinking it.
aside: that's a really small starter. anything less than a liter (about 4 cups) doesn't promote growth.
also, you used dried yeast (S-04). no need for starters with dried yeast, they have the numbers and resources required to ferment a batch. just rehydrate. by making a starter, they used up their reserves to ferment out that small amount of wort without there being enough there for them to replenish.
what was your OG ? I do a Mild that has an OG of 1.038 and I can go grain to glass in 5 days kegging
I do pitch a large of pitch US-05 and keep it at 65 degrees wort temp
it will finish with an FG of 1.010
all the best
S_M
Ok follow up. I got back home from North Carolina and checked my brew. The gravity now is 1.015. O.G. was 1.052. The safale S-04 achieves 73-75% attenuation. So right now I'm sitting at 73%. I'm gonna let it sit for a day or two more then transfer to a secondary. Thanks for all the insight. This was the first batch that I had seen this in. Learn something new with every batch.
Cheers.
Cheers.
