Hey everyone,
I’m totally new to brewing. I mean, I bought a Mr. Beer kit a little over a year ago, but I wouldn’t consider that “brewing”.
Anyway, brewed up a batch of Irish Red Ale using the Deluxe Starter kit on Sunday (March 3rd). My fiancé and I moved the beer to the first carboy and stashed it in a closet. Yesterday, everything seemed to be going well, tan foam on top, bubbles coming out of the plug. But today, (March 5th) the foam has gone away and the bubbles have stopped.
My worry is that we activated the yeast too early before putting it into the wort. We put it in a small bowl of water about a half hour before dumping it in the carboy because the pack said that we should do that (my fiancé’s words, not mine).
Should we go ahead and move the beer to secondary fermentation or pitch it because the yeast has been messed up? Any help is appreciated. Cheers!
I’m newer to brewing, but I just brewed this beer awhile back. I only had a day or two or real active fermentation, it was around a week and a half before the gravity readings really stabilized (indicating primary fermentation was complete)
You don’t have to see signs of active fermentation for it to be fermenting. Most likely the yeast burned through most of the fermentables quickly and are working on what’s left.
Did you measure the original gravity prior to fermentation? You can tell when fermentation is complete once the gravity readings have stabilized.
That being said…the short answer is “You’re Fine”
If you measured the OG wait until the readings have stabilized before moving to secondary, otherwise give it a full two weeks in primary to be sure its done what it’s needed to do.
We did not measure the gravity readings beforehand, but we’ll be sure to check them ASAP. Thank you for the advice. Gotta admit, when I read, “You’re fine” I think I started breathing again.
It’s all about temperature. What is the temperature in your closet? Most beers should ferment at 65 to 68 F. If the temperature is 70 F or higher, fermentation can go really fast, in a matter of a couple of days. It will also generate more off-flavors at higher temperatures. If you have a cooler basement or cool corner in your home somewhere, I would encourage you to use that for your fermentations to slow down the fermentation and avoid off-flavors.
For a beginning brewer, I would encourage you to read How To Brew by John Palmer. I believe it is available free online, or you can purchase it in hardcopy. I am also a huge fan of Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. Lots of good knowledge out there to be had.
Best of luck to you. :cheers:
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
If you take a gravity reading soon and find it’s “done”, I encourage you to leave the beer alone for 2 weeks. There are byproducts the yeast make during fermentation that they later “clean up”.
See my signature line for ways to keep the fermentation temps down.
- 1 to “You’ll be fine”, take readings and reading Palmer’s book (or Papazian’s book). I typically use a starter; which you can read about in either book above or various web sites. I’ll usually get active fermentation and air lock activity in 6 - 15 hrs or so.
But, fermentation can be a funny thing. I’ve been brewing 16 years and thought I’d seen it all…until this last batch - which I fermented in a bucket versus a glass carboy. I pitched my yeast Sunday afternoon, came back about bed time and checked the air lock…nuthin’. Thought, well, OK and went to bed. Next morning…nuthin’ again. Concerned, but not terribly worried. That night and again the next day…you guessed it…nuthin’. Hit the LHBS on the way home after work and bought more yeast. Came home and pulled the lid off the bucket and the kreuzen was at the top and must have been ready to go through the air lock. Not sure why I didn’t see any activity in the air lock. It wasn’t blocked or anything.
So, take those hydrometer readings and see if the gravity changes. That’s the only true way to tell when you’re done. I’m sure the kit gave you a target finished gravity, so you’ll know when you’re close. Good lucka nd keep with it.
[quote=“joe-ada”]+ 1 to “You’ll be fine”, take readings and reading Palmer’s book (or Papazian’s book). I typically use a starter; which you can read about in either book above or various web sites. I’ll usually get active fermentation and air lock activity in 6 - 15 hrs or so.
But, fermentation can be a funny thing. I’ve been brewing 16 years and thought I’d seen it all…until this last batch - which I fermented in a bucket versus a glass carboy. I pitched my yeast Sunday afternoon, came back about bed time and checked the air lock…nuthin’. Thought, well, OK and went to bed. Next morning…nuthin’ again. Concerned, but not terribly worried. That night and again the next day…you guessed it…nuthin’. Hit the LHBS on the way home after work and bought more yeast. Came home and pulled the lid off the bucket and the kreuzen was at the top and must have been ready to go through the air lock. Not sure why I didn’t see any activity in the air lock. It wasn’t blocked or anything.
So, take those hydrometer readings and see if the gravity changes. That’s the only true way to tell when you’re done. I’m sure the kit gave you a target finished gravity, so you’ll know when you’re close. Good lucka nd keep with it.[/quote]
I had the same thing. The CO2 is escaping around the lid.
Wow, a very timely thread. I, too, am a first-timer and brewed the Irish Red last weekend. Had only a 12h lag time on fermentation start and had very rapid development of krausen and blowoff (temp in that closet got a little too warm at 70 and fermometer showed 74). I moved the fermenter to a cooler closet at 67 on the second day, where it’s been stable at 67 since. Bubbling has been slow (have blowoff hose now installed into a bucket of StarSan) but continuing.
I’ll check the gravity tomorrow and keep an eye on it. I was worried about having a stalled fermentation but the above posts give me hope. Hopefully there will not be too many off flavors from the rapid fermentation earlier.
Cheers,
Doug
