First off, this is my first brew. Hope and King Scottish Ale. I did everything the kit instructions said to do, and feel everything went very well. I got done at 10pm Saturday and by 8am Sunday, boom off to the races. The head was to the top of the carboy and bubbling like crazy.
2 hours later it was foaming out of the airlock pretty good, so I went ahead and did a blow off with the tube into a bucket of sanitized water. Monday comes, foam fell all the way back into beer, so I re-sanitized bung and airlock and installed again. Tuesday, bubbles about 1 every 30 sec, and today about every 40 sec.
Just want to know if anyone else has made this brew, the yeast was wyeast 1098 British. I did leave it upstairs the night I brewed it and it was about 76 in the next morning. I put it in the basement when I did blow off where it has been since. The temp is now about 66F, but it took awhile to get there. The instructions says 64-75F, is a little warmer better? Could this be the primary reason for the slowing of action?
I still have a week and a half before I am supposed to rack to secondary, just thinking at this pace, it will be a few minutes between bubbles. Thoughts?
I know it’s hard but wait two weeks from pitching yeast and take a gravity reading. Just because nothing looks like it’s happening doesn’t mean there isn’t something going on. You’ll be fine.
Leave it in the fermenter for a minimum of 2 weeks, maybe 3 because of the warm temp, to let the yeast “clean up” after themselves. Then bottle. No need to secondary. It’s just another opportunity to get an infection in the beer.
When you do bottle, fill one soda bottle. Squeeze the air out and screw the cap on. When CO2 is formed the bottle will expand. No wondering what is happening in the glass bottles.
Warmer is not better. In the future, get it right to the low to mid 60’s and keep it there if at all possible. Not catastrophic, but you don’t want your beer in the 70’s for any period of time if possible (at least most beers, anyway).
+1. The higher ferm temp is why it fermented so vigorously and quickly. If the ferm temp was in the mid to low 60’s, you would have most likely seen a slower and longer fermentation. Not the end of the world, but you definitely want to control those ferm temps better. And like others stated, you want the ambient temp to be about 5 degrees lower than where you want the beer to ferment at. With that yeast (1098) I would have chilled the wort down to 60F and set my fridge for the same temp and pitched the yeast. Knowing it would warm up a few degrees during active fermentation.
Proper pitching rates and temperature control during fermentation are the 2 most important factors in making a good beer, IMO (of course that’s after proper sanitation).
So, will this have an effect on the over all gravity? I just talked to a friend today, and he said the first couple batches he did came out 3.2% I looked this beer up in Beeradvocate and the actual brewer gets 6%.
So bottom line, get it down to the basement right away next time. Need to make a note of that. Thanks guys for helping the noob!
It may have a small effect, but nothing crazy. A warmer fermentation may help the yeast ferment a little more for a higher attenuation, but the major factors that influence attenuation are the yeast strain, mash temps and the amount of unfermentable sugars in the wort. Brewers will often raise the temp of their fermenting beer a little bit after the first few days to help the yeast finish up and ferment more fully.
Your friends first few batches that came in at 3.2% would have a lot more to do with the recipes and his brewing technique then fermentation temps.
