Just a quick background on me: Brewed AG about once a month for several years back around the 2005-2009 time frame then stopped. Now I’m back at it and, as my tastes have changed, I’m doing my first stout.
My question is mainly for those of you that are familiar with stouts and porters. Back when i was brewing, I was into browns, hefe-wiesens, IPAs, etc. Now that i’m into the dark stuff, I selected the Irish Dry Stout AG kit for my initial dive back into the hobby.
Brew day had it’s share of n00b mistakes all of which were quickly overcome. The new shirron plate chiller worked like an absolute champ and racking/pitching went as smooth as ever. I dehydrated the safale-04, pitched at around 76degrees and had activity within a couple hours. Had a splendid, happy bubbly krausen formed within just a few more hours and it ran good and strong for about 25hrs.
During the time, i’d say the airlock was chirping along at about 3 or four “clicks” per second. Then, just as quick as it all started, it finished. So here’s the “is this normal?” [for stouts/porters] question.
I’m not into the worried or concerned stage at this point. Still well into the RDWHAHB stage. I’m just wondering what ‘normal’ is for heavies. I’m going off of a 10yr old memory here, but i seem to remember having a good strong fermentation head for several days with the light to medium brews so maybe this is standard fare? I just expected it to be longer. idk…
Greatly appreciate any feedback!