Man, this yeast doesn’t get crazy out of the gate, but just keeps chugging along until it’s job is complete. 12 days after pitching, still getting bubbles out of the airlock every couple seconds. It’s nuts.
On an unrelated note, anyone know if there is a dry version of Wyeast 1272?
us-05 is usually very vigorous in my experience. you probably have a fairly low fermentation temperature if you didn’t see a ton of activity (which is a good thing). what was your fermentation temp?
anyways, airlock bubbles is not an accurate judge of fermentation. it will continue to bubble after fementing because it’s degassing co2
I use US-05 almost exclusively and the only time I ever see it ferment slow and steady is when I hold the temp to less that 60 degrees. Otherwise, it is about a 3-5 day vigorous fermentation.
Interesting. Fermentation was held between 64 and 66, so not super chilly. Fermentation was definitely more vigorous in the first couple days (krausen up to the airlock, but no blowoff needed), but it’s been looking steady since. It started bubbling a couple hours after pitched.
I know monitoring the airlock isn’t a great way to check fermentation, but explain to me how, if held at a constant temperature, the airlock continues to bubble without continued fermentation. What is causing the pressure inside the carboy to increase (causing airlock activity) if it is not CO2 being produced from fermentation? Moreover, I can see particles rising and falling in the wort… pretty certain this is still fermenting.
This US-05 was harvested from a previous batch, and the previous batch was much the same… pretty slow and steady, and finished at 1.010 after about 2 weeks.
Update: So, I checked the gravity a few minutes ago, which is two weeks since pitching. Current gravity is 1.026.
I will check it again in another few days just to make sure it doesn’t get stuck, but as I said before, still bubbling away… so I guess it’s doing it’s job. Just wish it would pick up the pace a bit!
Not sure why my experience with US-05 is so different than others, but it is still the tortoise in my brewhouse! Let’s hope if finishes just like the story, better than the hare!
That seems very slow for US-05. My experience has always been that it is a fairly quick yeast, and ferments out very easily.
Wonder if there were any other issues involved here. Did you rehydrate the yeast by chance? IMO not a vital step, but it could indicate if there was something wrong with this particular package.
If you use it again, I would probably expect a different experience.
[quote=“Brew Meister Smith”]That seems very slow for US-05. My experience has always been that it is a fairly quick yeast, and ferments out very easily.
Wonder if there were any other issues involved here. Did you rehydrate the yeast by chance? IMO not a vital step, but it could indicate if there was something wrong with this particular package.
If you use it again, I would probably expect a different experience.[/quote]
It was actually harvested from a previous batch. I rehydrated the first batch and pitched. After that batch finished, I harvested, made a starter, and pitched the starter at high krausen. Fermentation started immediately.
The first batch was a pretty slow fermentation too… just about 2 weeks to finish.
I mean, I don’t really have a problem with how it worked. Both batches finished completely and taste damn good. Just perplexed given the testimonials of others’ experience using this strain.
my guess is that it fermented lower temperature than you thought. Maybe a fermometer or thermometer was off - or maybe the temp dropped at night.
How do you maintain fermentation temperature? Is your fermentor on a concrete or basement floor? (sometimes a basement floor will be much cooler than the ambient temp in the room).