First time brewer. Brewing the White House Honey Ale. Rehydrated and pitched dry Danstar Windsor yeast at around 6pm. At 3pm the next day had vigorous bubbling in the airlock (about 2 bubbles per second) - room temp was around 69f and fermenter was 74f. That sounded a little high so I cooled the room a bit and by 6pm had the room temp at 62, but fermenter was still 74, though bubbling had slowed quite a bit. By 9pm the fermenter dropped to around 72f and bubbling had stopped. The next day (today) at 9am the fermenter was at 67f (room at 64f) and no bubbles.
Also, had the OG measuring at 1.073, which sounded a little high, but it may have been that I just got a sample before the additional water mixed in thoroughly.
Just wondering if this is normal? Maybe I didn’t aerate the wort enough - only poured it back and forth from the kettle to the fermenter three times perhaps. Or is bubbling not a good indicator of fermentation progress?
Did the beer have much of a krausen on top? Bubbles aren’t always a good indicator of fermentation, especially when fermentation slows down after a day or 2. I’d leave it alone for a few days and check a gravity just to make sure good progress is being made. I’d leave it in the primary for at least a month, though.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’m fermenting in a 5-gallon bucket. I just pulled the airlock out to take a look, and there is some gunk on the bottom of the airlock (not blocking it) - hard to see into the bucket because of this, but I imagine that means there is a good amount of krausen? I suppose this is why people use carboys as primary fermenters - easier to see what is going on.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’m fermenting in a 5-gallon bucket. I just pulled the airlock out to take a look, and there is some gunk on the bottom of the airlock (not blocking it) - hard to see into the bucket because of this, but I imagine that means there is a good amount of krausen? I suppose this is why people use carboys as primary fermenters - easier to see what is going on.[/quote]
There’s no reason you can’t lift the bucket lid and take a peek. The yeast is the dominant organism in there now so contamination is less of a risk now. Just don’t sneeze into it or anything
Looks like a majority of the primary fermentation is complete. You fermented quite a bit warmer than what is ideal for an ale so this leads to a much quicker fermentation. You may experience some off flavors in your beer because of this (fusels and esters).
Next time I would suggest using a swamp cooler or just submerse the entire bucket in a larger bucket of water to maintain temps. Changing your room’s temps (as you saw) is not a good way to control fermentation temps. You really want to keep internal temps in the low to mid 60’s
Yeah, that Windsor yeast is already super fruity. With the temp you fermented, it’s going to be uber fruity. Probably will need some prolonged conditioning to cool it down. But maybe you like fruity British yeast? Not me…
Ha - I’m good with things that taste strange - as long as it doesn’t taste bad. Thanks for the advice about the swamp cooler - will have that ready for the next one.
So I assume I should probably rack to the secondary this coming weekend (I assume no need to do that earlier) and then leave in the secondary for a couple of weeks before bottling and conditioning for a long time. No need to adjust that process to correct the hot fermentation other than extending the bottle conditioning time correct?
[quote=“m19r4nt”]Ha - I’m good with things that taste strange - as long as it doesn’t taste bad. Thanks for the advice about the swamp cooler - will have that ready for the next one.
So I assume I should probably rack to the secondary this coming weekend (I assume no need to do that earlier) and then leave in the secondary for a couple of weeks before bottling and conditioning for a long time. No need to adjust that process to correct the hot fermentation other than extending the bottle conditioning time correct?[/quote]
Unless you plan on harvesting the yeast to repitch or need to free up the fermenter for another batch, there’s really no reason to even move to secondary. If it were me, I would leave it in primary for 3 weeks then bottle.
