I’m brewing the AK47 extract kit using the NeoBrittania Wyeast. I ran into a problem when I read somewhere to activate the smack pack 3 days before brew day. I later realized that the instructions I read were for if you were making a yeast starter, which I’m not. The yeast sat out for 3ish days and got warmer than I intended (>90F) I didn’t realize this until after I pitched it and didn’t see any activity after 36 hours. Yesterday I was prepared to pick up some more yeast from LHBS but my airlock was bubbling away before I went into work. When I got home, it was hardly going at all.
My suspicion is that a large portion of the yeast was cooked and died thus the long lag time for the still living yeast cells to multiply and start fermentation. What I can’t explain is the sudden stop. Should I just take a gravity reading and see where it’s at? Should I assume that there’s no way stressed yeast could ferment the entire batch in 10 hours and pitch more yeast?
If the yeast sitting out got up to 90 degrees, what temp did the beer ferment at? The yeast were probably ok…if the beer was allowed to ferment too warm then it probably finished in a day or two because it is a fairly low gravity beer if I recall?
Fermentation likely started before you saw airlock activity
Take a gravity reading to find out where you stand. If you are somewhere around 1.009-1.012 then that beer is most likely finished give it another week and a half and bottle it. What are you fermenting in a bucket? If so sometimes they dont seal very well so you wont see allot of activity in the airlock.
[quote=“560sdl”]If the yeast sitting out got up to 90 degrees, what temp did the beer ferment at? The yeast were probably ok…if the beer was allowed to ferment too warm then it probably finished in a day or two because it is a fairly low gravity beer if I recall?
Fermentation likely started before you saw airlock activity[/quote]
The worts was 68 degrees when I pitched the yeast. It hasn’t varied 2 degrees on either side.
Yeah, it’s a 6 gallon bucket. I suspected a poor seal as well so I peeked and there wasn’t any krausen. The next morning though was when I saw airlock activity.
