Stalled fermentation - NB Nut Brown Ale

Good evening ladies and gents!

Brewed my first BIAB this past Saturday, NB’s Nut Brown Ale. Brew day seemed to go smoothly, however I ended up with a ton of sediment at the bottom of my fermenter (almost 1.5 gallons worth).

Fermentation kicked off with 24 hours, but died down and the krausen fell back into the beer within another day or so. Not used to fermentation dying off do quickly with the extract kits I’ve brewed over the years.

Thoughts? Should I let it go? Re-pitch? I haven’t taken a gravity reading yet because I hate popping the lid off before I’m ready to transfer.

Feedback appreciated.

Assume you used US-04 for yeast? What temp did you ferment at? Did you have a very vigorous fermentation (abnormal compared to what you are used to)? I would definitely let it sit for another week or so myself, but if it was a warm ferment, it’s possible that it’s done already.

:beers:
Rad

Sanitize your hydrometer and quietly drop it in there… ssssshhhhhh…
Sneezles61

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That trub doesnt look settled at all to me. Give it some time. I’ve been using kviek yeast this summer and can go from wort to glass in about 3 weeks now with kegging. If its warm where you are, I would highly recommend it

That photo was actually taken immediately after racking into the primary fermenter. I’ve never had that much sediment on brew day, so I don’t know if that’s normal in all grain brewing or not? My assumption is no.

Yes, US-04 is what I used. Pitched it dry. It’s been fermenting in my basement, which maintains temperature at about 70 degrees during the summer. I wouldn’t say fermentation was overly rigorous, but it definitely started sooner than it usually does for me.

I leave for vacation Friday night, so I decided to open her up and measure FG. To my surprise, I hit my expected FG dead on at 1.011. Since I already had it open, I decided to sanitize my secondary fermenter and rack into that to get it off the .5 gallon layer of trub I had. I wasn’t planning on transferring from primary to secondary with this brew, but I figured sincere I already opened it I might as well.

Fingers crossed it comes out well in the end. Like I said, this is my first All Grain / BIAB and the first time I’m brewing on propane as opposed to electric stove top, so it’s a learning process for me.

Looks normal to me. When freshly put into the fermenter all the proteins and trub are expanded and as the yeast kicks in activity the proteins and light trub will start swirling around. Everything you see there will eventually compact into a very thin layer at the bottom and truly become trub. Every recipe looks different at this stage

Yes. The way to go. Kveik. Me at the moment as well. 3 weeks. From grain to keg. Ok back to posting. Only way to check your brew ready. Like what rad says. Hydrometer. Sample test. Over. Couple days. Grav the same. Ready to keg or bottle

Looks great. But only way to know for sure. Several. Gravity. Test. Over several days. See if you did reach your. Fg

Yes, my brew day sediment did eventually settle into a thick trub in my primary. I had just never seen that much sediment on brew day in any of my extract brews, so I was concerned. Good to know this isn’t abnormal.

Sláinte! :beers:

I only took one gravity test because I’m heading to the beach tomorrow, but I did hit my expected FG of 1.011. Now she’ll sit in secondary for another week to let the yeast finish cleaning up after itself.

I think it’s evident now that you had a warm vigorous fermentation. The downside to that is you may have some off flavors produced by this. In subsequent brews look into ways of keeping your beer cooler during the first few days fermentation…The first few days are critical in controlling temperature after that not so much.

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Yeah, controlling temp is not something I’ve mastered yet. Will look into some temperature control equipment.

Sláinte! :beers:

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Swamp cooler…
Sneezles61

Easy way to control. A swamp cooler. Water. Few ice bottles. Keeps the temp undercontrol. The first. 5 to 8 days. Of primary. Fermetation. Or move to a heat tolerance. Kind of yeast strain

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