Beer Forum

Hi,
So I probably made a noob mistake and mixed yeast in while wort was still hot. Although I wanted to try something different for a first brew.
Fermentation started early (I had wort @ 36C (97F)) and produced a lot of fruity smell ( I guess from those heavier esters) I cooled it down to 14-16C in about an hour or two. For the next 12 hours fermentation was vigorous and now not even 24 hours after it slowed down to about 2 minutes per bubble.
Is something is wrong ?

If you have a hydrometer, I'd recommend taking a reading to see where you are at. With a hotter start, the yeast can be VERY active, and it is possible to finish the majority of fermentation in a matter of days. So if you take a reading and you are near your projected FG, it's probably done. As you've mentioned, there is a good possibility of some off flavors resulting from a hot ferment.

The other possibility is that rapid cooling (dropping 20C in an hour) can shock yeast into going dormant, but since you said you had a vigorous ferment for 12 hours after that, I'd guess your yeast rode the temperature change ok. If you take your hydro reading and it's still high, but you have no activity, this could be the cause.

So if the gravity too high I should add more yeast? Should I put it into secondary?

If the gravity is still higher than your expected final gravity (FG), give it more time on the yeast in primary.

A common mistake (I know I did it more than once before I knew better thanks to the BN), is to take the beer off the yeast too early and end up with an under-attenuated beer. If it stalls a bit, you can try warming it up a bit to 68degF (20degC). An under-attenuated beer and poor sanitation can lead to over-carbonation if your sanitation is good, or gushers and bottle bombs if you haven't mastered your sanitation yet.

Have some patience and the yeast will probably finish eating everything they're supposed to eat.

So after about 38 hours I decided to open up fermenter to check my brew. I sterilized everything. My gravity went down to 1.040 @ 18C from 1.061 @ 36C ( so the actual change is probably bigger). My temps are kinda low for ale yeast but I'm trying something completely different. I also tasted brew and it was barely sweet with a little bitterness, but had a clean taste. I can see yeast fermenting so I figured it's not done yet. I closed the lid and wrap it in towels. Now it's bubbling again (minute apart)

madchemist83 wrote: My temps are kinda low for ale yeast but I'm trying something completely different.

Yeah, 36 to 14 to 18 sure is different!

Now that I'm thinking about it I'm pretty sure it was more then 14. Probably not lower then 18.

So it's almost 7 days in. So far my lowest gravity in the primary was 1.038. So I siphoned into secondary and added more yeast and amylase enzymes. Wrapped it into towels. It's bubbling away now. About bubble in 10 sec. I'm looking for FG of 1.000. Probably will have to add more sugar and ferment it some more. And then bottle and lager for a month.