Pages: 1 2
1st time ?s
cmanley542 wrote:
then you will never know the alcohol content.
Who cares? Unless you like to tell your buddies how much alcohol there is it doesn't matter. Boil to your target OG ferment for enough time to reach FG under good temp control and bottle. Personnaly I wouldn't mess with it if you've got krausen forming. And Norcal's right, he said he had foam in the fermenter, don't be so critical if you're not reading the post inthe first place.
Well, yes his friends probably don't care, but if he wants even a slight clue as to the ABV, then knowing the gravity will help to some extent.
I did read the post manley. I said I misunderstood. Also, in his last message, he did in fact state he was referring to both the boil and ferment, so I was correct.
I did get an OG to what I was supposed to 1.040. And I do care about the ABV basically because since I am getting started this is one way I can gauge if I have done something right.
Then take your FG reading after 7-10 days and see if it's done, you'll also get a ABV reading that way as well. My point is, the more you mess with it during initial fermentation, the more likely you are to contaminate the batch. Some people like to take a hydrometer reading everyday until it's done. If you just wait until 7-10 days to take the reading you're running a much lower risk of contamination, and if you're controlling the temps there's really not much you can do to save a batch 4 days into fermentation.
It sounds like it's working, just slowly. I would not pitch more yeast at this point and just let it finish out. It's odd the airlock isn't bubbling, next tim ebuy your yeast (dry or liquid) from the fridge in the shop and make sure the date is good. Aerate as much as you can prior to pitching and make a starter if you can.
jtrage, in all likely hood your yeast are going a bit slowly, for whatever reason. What kind of temperatures are you fermenting at now? You seem to have followed the proper steps. If you still don't have any signs of airlock activity, and you really want to know what is going on, then I would probably do a quick gravity check. This should be lower than your original (obviously). If it is significantly lower, then you are probably in good shape, and I would just leave it for a while.
If the gravity hasn't moved much, then you need to consider your next steps. At this point, I don't imagine the yeast would ever do anything, so I would probably consider repitching. This has happened to me one time, and everything turned out ok. Just keep in mind your sanitation.
When you opened your fermenter, what kind of smell did you get? Did it more or less smell like beer? Also what type of beer are you making?
I have been fermeneting at about 72 degrees. I still have no noticible activity. When opened I got a good beer smell or what I would consider good. I am using a kit that was an american amber.
I didn't read all the posts, sounds like he didn't rehydrate his yeast which might explain why it's slow,
or, at least got a starter going before brewing this batch, just a guess.
Just an idea.
I'm still pretty new at it myself, I've always got a starter culture going the day before.
Hope it turns out for you.
I did rehydrate the yeast while boiling the wort and let it sit in warm water for 20 minutes or so before pitching.
I will from now on use a starter. That makes sense.
Does your bucket have evidence of a thick foam on the sides, up the wall of the bucket a bit (like an inch or two)? The foam should look different, maybe a bit more dense than when you were boiling or pouring the wort into your bucket.
It looks like there was foam on the sides up about an inch or so. How fast would that go down?
I've had a couple of beers pretty much ferment out in 3 - 4 days. When things start slowing down the krausen drops, and there is little left by the time you rack your beer, assuming you keep it in the primary for a proper amount of time.
It still sounds to me like you may have had some fermentation but had a leak that allowed the CO2 to escape from somewhere other than your airlock. If the foam that is left in your bucket definitely looks different than what you got when you were boiling/pouring your wort and it now smells like beer, not wort, then I would think some fermentation occured. The only way to know for sure now is to either sample the beer or take a gravity reading.
Pages: 1 2