Yeast Fermentation question

[Beer_Bear]

Brewed my first all grain the other day, a clone of the edmund fitzgerald, OG was 1056, recipe called for 1057. Put it in the primary, took a bit to get started (yeast was expired GRRR) but it rapidly fermented for about 24 hours, then quit bubbling. I waited two days to check the gravity and got 1022 (or somewhere in there, the recipe calls for 1012. Should i repitch some yeast to lower the gravity before racking to the glass secondary, or will the gravity lower even more? Just confused on what to do, quick response would be appreciated!

Thanks all,

Beer_Bear

 

[davekippen]

Welcome from mid Michigan! Let it set for at least another week, then see what the reading is. Just because you cant see the fermentation does not mean that it is not still fermenting. You will drop points even after the "active" ferm is over. Patients young grashoppa

 

[atreid]

Soooo.... 3-4 days? ;-)

Wait at least 7-10 days before you even think about checking gravity... It's really not worth it before that.

Getting to 1.022 after 3-4 days is actually pretty good.

 

[Beer_Bear]

Nah I put it in the primary Tuesday morning at 2 am, so I checked it Sunday as all bubbling had stopped to see where it was at, I was just worried because it only bubbled for 24 hours and the yeast was 4 months expired.. So I'm worrying about nothing? Give it more time?

 

[atreid]

What's the yeast and room temperature?

4 months old is definitely not great... Probably only around 10% viability.... You massively underpitched which might leave you with off flavors. Consider doing starters in the future. Check out YeastCalc and MrMalty pitching calculators. All you need is some kind of fairly big bottle (4 to 10 liters / 1-2 gallons), some DME or LME, and Aluminum foil (and sanitizers of course...)

 

[BigFloyd]

Nah I put it in the primary Tuesday morning at 2 am, so I checked it Sunday as all bubbling had stopped to see where it was at, I was just worried because it only bubbled for 24 hours and the yeast was 4 months expired.. So I'm worrying about nothing? Give it more time?

Yep. Give it preferably two more weeks.

 

[Beer_Bear]

The yeas was a liquid white labs English ale yeast, with a pretty consistent 68 degrees. I didn't realize it was expired until I was ready to pitch it, the store sold me it very expired which ticked me off

 

[atreid]

The yeas was a liquid white labs English ale yeast, with a pretty consistent 68 degrees. I didn't realize it was expired until I was ready to pitch it, the store sold me it very expired which ticked me off

Wow selling expired yeast LAME... I always check the date when I buy. My nearest store had only an expired vial of the yeast I wanted once and the owner just gave it to me for free.

I only asked about temp because cold temps can render the yeast dormant after active fermentation sometimes. In these cases I always recommend ramping up temps 1-2 degrees and once temps are actually higher in the beer, give the fermenter a gentle swirl to put back the yeast in suspension. This tends to wakeup the yeast.

In your case temperature looks fine...

p. s. there are several white labs English strains all different from one another...

 

[Beer_Bear]

I understand that, I just misplaced the vile for now but the temps were good. Would repitching any help at all. It was my first bath with the liquid yeast so I didn't dawn on me that it would p been expired

 

[BigFloyd]

4 months old is definitely not great... Probably only around 10% viability.... You massively underpitched which might leave you with off flavors. Consider doing starters in the future. Check out YeastCalc and MrMalty pitching calculators.

+1. You'll need to do this even with non-expired liquid yeast.

Until you're ready to do starters, you'll have to pitch multiple packs of liquid (expensive) or stick with dry yeast (rehydrated, of course). With rehydrated dry yeast you'll be nearly certain to get a sufficient cell count on any 5-gallon batch below 1.060 OG. Nothing wrong with using dry yeast.

 

[Beer_Bear]

So wait or repitch? I've got both sets of answers here?

 

[PeteNMA]

Wait. You haven't given it nearly long enough yet

 

[Beer_Bear]

Thank you all for your replies! I'm still learning! Much appreciated

 

[atreid]

No no at this point, wait. The off flavors I was talking about come from the massive growth yeast cells were forced to do at first. You don't want them to waste resources (sugars) for propagation in the wort. In propagation phase they release lots of undesired metabolic byproducts (That's why a properly aerated starter is undrinkable). You pitch the proper amount of cells to make sure they are already in the right number to switch to alcoholic fermentation as soon as possible.

By now they have already propagated. Wait and see how well they finish the job before you consider adding more yeasts. I'm sure the taste will still be fine, just not "as fine" as it should. You'll learn from this for your next batch.

 

[LovesIPA]

Until you're ready to do starters, you'll have to pitch multiple packs of liquid (expensive) or stick with dry yeast ...

Can you explain this a little more? The smack packs and the vials both say they are adequate to ferment a 5-gallon batch, subject to a limit on the OG.

 

[atreid]

The general consensus on this forum is that proper procedure is to follow indications from pitching calculators such as YeastCalc and MrMalty. Those are based on studies and generally sound science. The claim about 1 vial for any 5 gallons batch regardless of starting gravity is fairly ridiculous and mostly a marketing claim. Of course it works, but do you want good beer or great beer? Same thing could be said about consistency and reliability...

Apart from the possible tasting differences that you may or may not be able to detect, underpitching will result in other more "palpable" symtoms such as: extended lag phase or tendency for the yeast to "quit" before reaching final gravity.

 

[Beer_Bear]

Alright I was worried for nothing, looked at my fg and it was dead on for the recipe! Which makes me excited, I nailed both fg and og and it smells delicious! Thanks for the help

 

[BackAlley]

That's impossible. Haven't you read here you HAVE to use a starter????

Congrats on the batch!

 

[Beer_Bear]

Lol I think that's a good example that there are infinite ways that the beer can act and still be fine

 

[atreid]

There are other aspects than simple FG. Just because you can't taste the difference doesn't mean other people can't.

I know my taste has developed immensely since I started brewing. I'd probably spit out my first extract homebrew which at the time I thought was perfectly fine... ;-)

There's also the definite possibility that your beer is actually really perfectly fine.