Dry Irish Stout Extract Kit

Brewed this kit a few days ago and was very surprised to see active fermentation (airlock bubbling) for only around a day and a half. Is that normal for this kit? What should the FG on this brew be? Thanks!

I just brewed this yesterday. I’m probably wrong on this, but i think it has to do with the yeast strand that you used. What did you use for yeast?

Used the liquid yeast that came with the kit. I made a yeast starter that was kept covered in the frig for about a week and a half. Decanted and let the yeast warm up to room temp while swirling a few times. Brewed my normal which includes adding yeast nutrient at the 50 min mark.

This is not a huge beer and with a starter you had plenty of yeast. Let it go another week though, there is metabolism going on that will produce cleaner beer. What temp did you ferment at? You usually want to keep ales under 70F and the heat of fermentation will raise the beer temp almost 5F over ambient. Warmer temps mean faster ferments, and more fruity esters or even fusels that give a solvent character.

Does anyone know what the final alcohol content typically is for this beer?

[quote=“mppatriots”]Does anyone know what the final alcohol content typically is for this beer?[/quote]My guess would be ~4% ABV.

LCTitan, my dry irish is closing in on two days and it appears that the vigor of the fermentation is starting to slow as well. I suspect that is the nature of this kit.

The fermentation temps were kept down on the low side of the yeast spec as I normally do. It’s been about a week now so the plan is to take the fermentor out of the water bath and let the temps come up to room temp which in that area of the house is 65-68. I usually let by primary rest peacefully for 28 days for each batch. The only time I use a secondary is to dry hop or add fruit. My guess is with this kit and the yeast starter I made, the yeast cells took care of business at a rapid pace.

same thing happened to me with this kit,
I used the dry, S-04.
short fast fermentation, maybe 2 days of active.

OG 1.042, and then slowly to 1.020 to 1.016 finally after 3.5 weeks primary.
then about a week secondary (I don’t know why I did that!)

and it turned out great!!!
I’m not a big fan of stouts, like porters better,
but my friends sure liked it.

it will be fine.

Curious how this turns out for all of you. I have high hopes but was pretty discouraged when I started in on the steeping grains. The liquid smelled like a tall glass of wet cigrarette ashes. Really nasty. Once I got the hops going things mellowed out a bit - more of a coffee-like aroma. I’m wondering if my kit was too old. I order a couple at a time to save on shipping. Got this one in October and brewed end of January. Is it possible the grains went “bad”? Or maybe it was supposed to smell like that.

My fermentation lasted about 4 days. Made a starter with a second pack of Wyeast 1084 (since the first pack also had an October production date) and needed a blowoff tube. I’m at one week in the Primary and was planning on keeping it there for four weeks, then straight to the bottle. Did this for the first time with a recent batch - rather than transferring to a Secondary - and it came out well. (And my Secondary is currently in use.) I’m reading more and more about how a transfer to a Secondary is not necessary - unless your adding more to the flavor (e.g. dry hopping) in Secondary.

I did that extract kit a while back. The grains smelled a little like a fireplace when I started steeping (it is roasted barley, after all), but it mellowed to a strong coffee flavor. I left it on the cake for about two weeks. I used Wyeast and always make a starter, so it was near FG within three days. Definitely don’t judge this one until it’s carbonated, as it will taste very weak and thin while flat. If I hadn’t been looking directly at the hydrometer while tasting the sample, I would have assumed I had done something terribly wrong. The finished result is far, far better.

I just moved mine to a secondary last weekend. It started at 1038, and was to 1012 at the time of secondary. It was in primary for 2 weeks. This was all grain though. The fermentation can take 4-5 days. I remember it bubbling well into the second week. I ferment at the bottom of the spectrum though.