My first IPA Fermentis s-04

Time to introduce myself after lurking these forums for a while. Biab brewer from Sweden and not to many brews under my belt. With that said, i hope you’ll understand my poor english. To the point: i’m brewing my first ipa, kind of english style i think. I’m using Fermentis s-04 for this one and almost 2 weeks into fermentation it’s still bubbling away. I’ve used this yeast before with good results, but this time i’m concerned. For the first week i had it around 15 degrees celcius, and since then it’s been at roomtemp. Still it’s bubbling away, and i would have thougt it’d be done by now. What have i Done wrong?
This is the best and most friendly forum i’ve ever come across, so i’ll keep lurking​:+1:t2::wink:

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2 weeks is not very long so I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong. Give it some time and do some gravity checks. If it goes way below calculated terminal gravity then you might have an issue. Patience friend! :sunglasses:

RDWAHAHB

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Cheers. Normally i don’t do any gravity checks. Haven’t had any reason to do it, Beer has come out good anyway. I use brewersfriend to calculate where i’m going, but i’ve never checked where i’m at🤫

Bubbling isn’t a very reliable indicator of fermentation. Especially once fermentation has begun to wind down. The bubbling could be from offgassing due to a change in barometric pressure or temperature.

At two weeks you could very well be finished. Only a couple of successive gravity tests can tell you if it’s done.

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This is why i Came to N.B forum. Lot’s of knowledge to be had, even though my english is way off👍🏻 The f***ing iPhone doesn’t make it any easier…

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I still check my specific gravity with a hydrometer every brew. I’m pretty darn sure usually that the yeast are winding down but its just good practice. Also useful to record for notes to review how different yeast perform, how favorite recipes worked out in the past, for troubleshooting subsequent batches, etc. Never upgraded to a fancy refractometer as I don’t brew small batches and never felt worried about the small amount of beer it requires for the testing column.

Yeast can and will stall, and a hydrometer/refractometer is a good way to make sure you can safely package.

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Your english is fine!

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I just don’t like to open the lid of the fermentor. I’ll just let it sit for another week, and then go to secondary. Fingers crossed, it’ll be fine!

Thank’s Danny👍🏻 As i plan to stay here, you’d better get used to some swenglish😉 It’s a great forum!

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I just let my sit for 4 weeks in primary and then bottle. I take a final gravity reading for my notes but it has always been finished and cleared up enough in that time.

Welcome to the forum! If you don’t have a hydrometer get one. It’s one of the most important pieces of equipment you can have.

True you can let the beer sit for 3-4 weeks and feel fairly confident that it’s finished but what if it got stuck? More importantly what if it was ready in 14 days and you could have been drinking it two weeks sooner?

The yeast is always in control. Only way to accurately monitor their progress is gravity readings.

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First, welcome to the forum.

Second, 15 celcius (59F) is awful low for US-04, which is likely causing the slower fermentation. I recognize the temps have been raised but you also have to allow time for the yeast to replicate. Please understand that the first week those yeast were really sluggish.

Again, welcome to the forum and don’t worry about the language barrier. We’ll figure it out! And thank you for the kind words. Please feel free to ask questions and share any knowledge that you have!

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welcome! @Chefen69

I never used S-04 for an IPA before. Interesting. It’s usually my go to yeast for dark beers. Anyway, it could be that you have more fermentable sugars in this beer compared to your other beers IPA’s tend to require more grain for a stronger non-fermentable sugar backbone to balance out the bitterness, but if your mash temperature was on the low side, you get more fermentable sugars. Did you measure the OG at least? What was your mash temperature? I agree with loopie_beer that your fermentation temperature is fairly cold for this yeast. So if you mashed on the low temperature side of the range like 64 degrees C and fermented cold, that could more than explain your brew still bubbling. If your finished beer tastes thin and heavy on the bitter side, I’d raise your mash temperature to 66 or 67 on your next IPA.

Loopie has the answer… Rather cool … BUT all that means is a slower, cleaner ferment… You can open the lid while it’s slowly fermenting… CO2 is just a bit heavier than the air we breathe so you should have a nice “cap” in the bucket, on top of yer brew… But do this quietly… Don’t need to stir up the air! What temp is yer fermenter at now? 70 F is a good temp to let it finish at… Welcome to the forum! We are all ears and ideas!! :sunglasses: Sneezles61

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Hej, välkommen till forumet!

Let’s see how close google translate got me. :joy: Welcome to the forum @Chefen69 although it sounds like you’ve been lurking for a while, so this was a great introduction. :innocent: As you see we have tons of helpful opinionated people here always willing to offer suggestions. I personally tend to run fermentations in the 18 to 20 C range (thank you windows converter as I’m too stupid to manually convert from F to C :joy:) for the first week and a bit and then stop regularly checking my ice water bottles in my swamp cooler in the summer months. In the winter, I typically have to put the carboy on a heating pad to keep it in that range as I ferment in my basement.

:beers:
Rad

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