Hello HBT,
This past Saturday I decided to brew a 10 gallon batch of Da Yooper's House Pale Ale. I found her all grain recipe posted in one of her threads and converted it to a partial mash
Credits to Yooper:
5 pounds pale malt (I used marris otter)
3 pounds vienna malt
2 pounds Munich malt
1/2 pound crystal 20L
1/2 pound crystal 60L
1 ounce Cascade 60 minutes
.75 ounce cascade 30 minutes
1 ounce Cascade 10 minutes
1/2 ounce cascade 5 minutes
1/2 ounce cascade flameout
1 ounce cascade (dryhop)
In place of the 5 lbs pale malt she uses in All Grain I used 6 lbs Marris Otter pale LME during my boil.
At the suggestion of the fella at the LHBS, I decided to split them into 5 gallon batches and ferment one with Wyeast 1056 American Ale and the other with Wyeast 1272 American II. I smacked both smack packs on brew day, they both seemed to swell pretty well (one admittedly better than the other, but now I cannot remember which).
The brew process went well, I pitched my yeast, and put it on the shelf for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to Sunday morning, I looked in on my two little projects and both were bubbling away, nice big Krausens on both. The American Ale had a slightly darker brown Krausen, with the American II having a whiter/creamier looking Krausen. It was about 74 degrees in the house so I decided to move them to the garage and place them in swamp coolers. The water in the swamp coolers was about 45 degrees. After a few minutes the bubbling slowed down on both, and I then lifted them out of the coolers and put them in a temperature controlled chest freezer at 62 degrees. During all the jostling of moving them (I did my best to be easy with them) both of their Krausens collapsed.
I walked away from the chest freezer for a little while and returned to check on them. The 1056 American Ale Krausen had re-formed and was back to an airlock popping vigorous fermentation. The 1272 American II however had only partially re-formed its Krausen and had little to no airlock activity. I jostled the airlock and it started popping some, so I figured that I may have caused a blockage in the airlock and was satisfied to leave them alone for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to today. The 1056 American Ale has retained its Krausen and was popping away on the airlock just about the same as I remember it doing yesterday. But the 1272 American II ...
The Krausen has pretty much fallen, and has little airlock activity or any noticeable signs of fermentation when you looking at the top of it. I know airlock activity isn't a good indicator of fermentation, but it's discouraging when the other 5 gallons using American Ale is just popping away.
Could I have caused a slowed or stuck fermentation from moving my carboys around during the very initial fermentation or temperature shock from the swamp cooler? I did the same thing to both carboys but the American Ale is working like a champ and the American II is stagnant by comparison. Is this typical of this strain of yeast maybe?
Any thoughts?
Pat
This past Saturday I decided to brew a 10 gallon batch of Da Yooper's House Pale Ale. I found her all grain recipe posted in one of her threads and converted it to a partial mash
Credits to Yooper:
5 pounds pale malt (I used marris otter)
3 pounds vienna malt
2 pounds Munich malt
1/2 pound crystal 20L
1/2 pound crystal 60L
1 ounce Cascade 60 minutes
.75 ounce cascade 30 minutes
1 ounce Cascade 10 minutes
1/2 ounce cascade 5 minutes
1/2 ounce cascade flameout
1 ounce cascade (dryhop)
In place of the 5 lbs pale malt she uses in All Grain I used 6 lbs Marris Otter pale LME during my boil.
At the suggestion of the fella at the LHBS, I decided to split them into 5 gallon batches and ferment one with Wyeast 1056 American Ale and the other with Wyeast 1272 American II. I smacked both smack packs on brew day, they both seemed to swell pretty well (one admittedly better than the other, but now I cannot remember which).
The brew process went well, I pitched my yeast, and put it on the shelf for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to Sunday morning, I looked in on my two little projects and both were bubbling away, nice big Krausens on both. The American Ale had a slightly darker brown Krausen, with the American II having a whiter/creamier looking Krausen. It was about 74 degrees in the house so I decided to move them to the garage and place them in swamp coolers. The water in the swamp coolers was about 45 degrees. After a few minutes the bubbling slowed down on both, and I then lifted them out of the coolers and put them in a temperature controlled chest freezer at 62 degrees. During all the jostling of moving them (I did my best to be easy with them) both of their Krausens collapsed.
I walked away from the chest freezer for a little while and returned to check on them. The 1056 American Ale Krausen had re-formed and was back to an airlock popping vigorous fermentation. The 1272 American II however had only partially re-formed its Krausen and had little to no airlock activity. I jostled the airlock and it started popping some, so I figured that I may have caused a blockage in the airlock and was satisfied to leave them alone for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to today. The 1056 American Ale has retained its Krausen and was popping away on the airlock just about the same as I remember it doing yesterday. But the 1272 American II ...
The Krausen has pretty much fallen, and has little airlock activity or any noticeable signs of fermentation when you looking at the top of it. I know airlock activity isn't a good indicator of fermentation, but it's discouraging when the other 5 gallons using American Ale is just popping away.
Could I have caused a slowed or stuck fermentation from moving my carboys around during the very initial fermentation or temperature shock from the swamp cooler? I did the same thing to both carboys but the American Ale is working like a champ and the American II is stagnant by comparison. Is this typical of this strain of yeast maybe?
Any thoughts?
Pat
