Fermenting question

[leviathan7883]

Greetings,

I am new here, and new to home brewing. I found out about the OVHA from the Brew ha ha, and was very inspired to do a home brew of my own. I bought the recommended book, and did a lot of research on the subject and dove head first into my first batch.

I started this past Saturday, and the fermenter was bubbling away just fine yesterday, however it got really cold in my house last night and everything seemed to slow way down. I turned the heat on in the house and made sure it was set to 68 and went to work. I came home to a surprise. I'm not seeing the air lock bubble any more, and there is very little movement in the beer compared to yesterday.

Is my batch ruined and will I need to start over? Should I just wait another day with the heat situation resolved and see if it starts back up? Do I pitch new yeast?

I'm sorry for asking the newbie questions, I'm just hoping to borrow on some of your wisdom.

Thank you for your time

Andrew

[Don]

Welcome to the board.

IF you beer get cold it will slow down the fermentation but it will not ruin it.
I ferment most of my beers (ales) around 64 to 67 degs.

If this is a small beer and you had plenty of yeast, it could be almost finished and since it is still bubbling slowly I would just wait it out a couple more days.

I have found if I set my carboy on a concrete floor it is several degs. cooler then the room temp.
You can also try to roust the yeast by gently rocking the carboy (or bucket) a couple of times, but 68 is a good temp for most beers.

In a couple of days, if there is still no activity you may have to re pitch some more yeast but I would take a gravity reading first to see if it's not close to being completed.

There are a lot of helpful brewers that visit this site so anytime you have a question just post it and someone, or more than likely several someones, will give you a reply.
It is always helpful if you give us as much info. as you can so we get you the right answers.
Type of beer, OG, type of yeast, type of equipment, all grain/ extract, yours girlfriends email address etc.....

Good luck and happy brewing.
(Our next meeting is October 28, at Germania Mannerchor try to attend and get some live help, and a lot of free samples)

Don

[Dwayne_Delaney]

Your beer may just be done fermenting. I also brewed Saturday and my beer is almost done fermenting; just a bubble every couple of minutes. I used Fermentis SO4 which is known to be a fast fermenter. You can use a hydrometer to check your gravity or you can just taste a sample to see how it is progressing.(make sure to observe good sanitation)
A lot of the ale yeasts have no real problems at lower temperatures other than slowing down some. Good Luck.

[leviathan7883]

You are right, I should have been more specific.

I brewed all-grain Brown Porter BYO. I used BeerSmith to find what I needed to cut the recipe in half, so I would end up with 2.5 Gal. in a 3 Gal. Better Bottle. I asked for English Ale at the Co-Op but the package was not very descriptive. Maybe it was labeled on the shelf? You could be right about it being finished already, as I didn't split the yeast packet in half (not sure why I didn't). I think the OG was 1.055, but could be wrong as the temperature may have been incorrect when I tested it. What would be the best way to draw a sample to test it? Auto siphon?

The Bottle was sitting on a shelf in the closet which has hvac and water heater. It got down close to, if not below, 60* last night, and when I got home was about 71*.

I will try to make it to the next meeting. I was unable to last month due to some spare time issues. I really want to make this work, as I take pride in the things I do and like to know I did it myself. That is kind of the reason why I started with All-Grain instead of extract. Maybe I am too ambitious for my own good.

Thanks again!

[john mills]

Andrew,
Welcome to the OVHA board. Way to go starting with all grain. That's how I started also.

Like it was already mentioned, your beer may be near the end of it's active fermentation. You put enough yeast in, but that's not to say things aren't still happening. They are. Just not at the level of the naked eye. And the lower temp just slowed the whole process a bit. A member fermented a cider all winter in his basement at 52 degrees. Now that was a slow fermentation.

A basic rule of thumb for new brewers is 1-2-3.
1 week in primary fermentation
2 weeks in secondary fermentation
3 weeks in bottle
(My favorite: 4 days to drink it all away)
There is much debate that secondary fermentation is not needed, just leave in primary for the duration of 1 and 2 will be fine.

But to be sure where your at in the process take a hydrometer reading before adding your yeast and at 3 days then again at 6 days. If no change from 3 days to 6 days then it's done fermenting. If it's dropped, wait another 3 days and take another hydrometer reading. Continue until you have 2 readings that are the same.

Enjoy your newest addiction!

[leviathan7883]

Ok, still no more activity. I took a reading tonight, and the beer is sitting at about 1.019 or 1.020. Beer smith estimated a final gravity of 1.013. Did I shock the yeast in some manor that they went dormant or died, maybe improperly rehydrated? Should I pitch some more yeast? I appreciate all the help and advice you are giving me

[Don]

I would wait a day or two and see if it's the same before doing anything.
You might also try to raise the temp to @ 70 degs.

[sirgiovanni]

You can try some dry wine yeast to see if it will bring it down. Next time read up on yeast starters a bit before you pitch and it will help you ferment out better. It's not ruined. It will just be a bit sweeter than you were shooting for or you could try the wine yeast. If you have questions about the yeast starter after you read up on it, just ask.

[Dwayne_Delaney]

It got down close to, if not below, 60* last night,

I really don't think that your temperature fluctuations had anything to do with your final gravity finishing higher than calculated.
I have fermented quite a few beers with dry ale yeast at or below 60°. The beer that I won the ribbon this year at the State Fair was a Schwarzbier (a lager) that I fermented at 55° with Nottingham dry ale yeast. Also, due to the thermal mass of the beer, it would take quite a while at that air temperature to affect the temperature of the beer in the fermenter very much.

If your actual OG was higher than what you measured (without compensating for sample temperature), this could cause the discrepancy between your calculated FG and actual FG. If your actual efficiency was higher than what was used by Beersmith to figure the OG and FG, this could also cause things to be skewed.......just my 2¢.