Bulk Priming Gone Bad - Yeast Has Restarted

[GuyQLD]

Hey guys,

Just when you think you're getting on top of things and you finally have some clue of what you're doing this hobby slaps you in the face with a sack of door nobs and tells you to GTFO.

Long story short. Was brewing again today because a mate shouted the grain bill and since my other fermenter had been going for 2 weeks I figured it would be fine. So we mashed in and then went to bottle.

That's where things got messy. My US-05 was quite happily having a pool party and floccing out was not on the agenda. Yeast friggin everywhere, yeast rafts all over the place and still a happy little micro krausen.

Figuring that since FG was about where we wanted it, and the fermentis site itself says that US 05 sometimes sticks around we thought nothing of it, syphon went below the top and away we went.

I'd already boiled my priming sugar and it was in the secondary before we realised we were sucking huge yeast rafts into the syphon.

Not wanting to bottle it while it was still this messy, I wacked an airlock on it and put it away. A couple of hours later its firing away on all cylinders...

Now for the multiple choice questionnaire.

Is it;
a) Fcked.
B) Better than ever
c) Good for the garden.
d) Other - Please explain.

 

[Wolfy]

My vote is for d) Other:

The priming yeast in the secondary will produce some fermentation (it's how the CO2 gets in the bottles) so it could be that.
However, it's also likely that due to the agitation as the wort was transferred to the secondary and possibly a temperature change, the CO2 is degassing without additional fermentation.
In addition unless the FG was the same 3 days running, it's also possible the yeast had/has not yet completed fermenting, and after being roused as transferred it has been woken up and wants to finish its job.

 

[GuyQLD]

Hey Wolfy,

I was fairly sure it had finished. FG was stable and it had been in the primary almost 14 days. US-05 and I seem to have a hate hate relationship and every time I use it it behaves differently. Obviously now it's started up again (since the priming sugar was in there) I figure I'll just ride it out and hope that it calms down in a couple of days.

Pretty happy with my sanitising regime so fingers crossed nothing bad happens and in a week or two I'll try again.

 

[mwd]

Bit strange that it should fire up so soon after transferring to bottling bucket/secondary. I would be inclined to leave it be until the fermentation stops then try again. The only problem I have with 05 is it takes its time to clear bright.

 

[katzke]

I vote for escaping CO2.

US-05 is my favorite yeast. It works the same every time I use it. Behaves the same for a wild IPA or a nice American Wheat. Do not recall ever having trouble with it not clearing up. Yes I do get more scunge in the bottom of the keg then other yeast. I could fix that by CCing in the fermentor if it really bothered me.

I remember reading way back some places were repackaging it from bulk. You getting original Fermentis packets, or some other bag? If original, check the date.

 

[Wolfy]

Pretty happy with my sanitising regime so fingers crossed nothing bad happens and in a week or two I'll try again.

I'd be tempted to check it tomorrow, you've likely only added a small amount of priming-sugar and if it is just CO2 degassing it will be all-quiet again tomorrow - and if so it's another example of not trusting airlock activity to be indicative of fermentation activity.

 

[GuyQLD]

Morning all,

Was monitoring it late yesterday afternoon and this morning and it's definitely going back to fermenting like crazy, has a totally new half inch krausen on it. I'm actually starting to wonder if my hydrometer is calibrated correctly (SWMBO broke my last one and the replacement one is... different).

Here's a picture, yesterday we had "mostly" clear beer ready for bottles except a heap of yeast rafts that snuck in. Today we have this.



*And my Airlock is a stubborn bastard who had never really put on much of a show - so I've never paid all that much attention to him.

 

[MHB]

D: - I suspect your fermentation temperature may not be as stable as you would want, and that the yeast has gone dormant before it really finished and you have by adding a bit of fermentable and moving it around woken it back up.
If you dont have a controlled fermentation temperature (like an old fridge with a controller) at this time of year where there can be big swings between day and night you really are asking for trouble.
After hygiene I would put temperature control as the second most important part of the brewing process.

The brew will probably be fine if you let it finish, its a good idea to look at your apparent attenuation before bottling and make sure its where you expect it to be for the yeast you are using.
Mark

 

[GuyQLD]

Thanks Mark,

I was at 1.011 with US-05 which was pretty much spot on and It's been in a closed icebox at 18'C for two weeks (been cycling a hot water bottle in there to keep it there) so temp control was probably the best I've ever had.

I'm just going to relax and assume time will heal all wounds. But seriously freaked me out.

Edit - And in other heart breaking news. Apparently it just wasn't my weekend to brew.

My new batch (the one that started all of this) has over night gotten infected and when I went to pitch the yeast a second ago.. I had a lovely amount of sour smelling scum all over it.

With any luck I've managed to **** up two brews this weekend.

 

[JDW81]

Thanks Mark,

I was at 1.011 with US-05 which was pretty much spot on and It's been in a closed icebox at 18'C for two weeks (been cycling a hot water bottle in there to keep it there) so temp control was probably the best I've ever had.

I'm just going to relax and assume time will heal all wounds. But seriously freaked me out.

Edit - And in other heart breaking news. Apparently it just wasn't my weekend to brew.

My new batch (the one that started all of this) has over night gotten infected and when I went to pitch the yeast a second ago.. I had a lovely amount of sour smelling scum all over it.

With any luck I've managed to **** up two brews this weekend.

Chin up mate, it happens to the best of us. Won't doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and more importantly a better brewer.

I've learn't more from stuff ups than any book/website/article/forum.

 

[GuyQLD]

Chin up mate, it happens to the best of us. Won't doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and more importantly a better brewer.

I've learn't more from stuff ups than any book/website/article/forum.

Cheers Mate,

Been wracking my brains trying to work out what I did wrong/different and I'll have another crack next weekend. The speed it went bad was really quite amazing so I'm thinking I must have missed a step in my prep somewhere, wouldn't have thought something airborne would take root so fast.

I really need to get myself a wort chiller I think; this overnight / waterbath gig has burnt me once now and I'm not sure I want to risk it again

 

[jyo]

Cheers Mate,

Been wracking my brains trying to work out what I did wrong/different and I'll have another crack next weekend. The speed it went bad was really quite amazing so I'm thinking I must have missed a step in my prep somewhere, wouldn't have thought something airborne would take root so fast.

I really need to get myself a wort chiller I think; this overnight / waterbath gig has burnt me once now and I'm not sure I want to risk it again

Sucks to hear about the infection, mate.

Whilst I have successfully chilled in the kettle over night heaps of times, cubing your wort dramatically decreases your chances of infections.

Get on it.

 

[pk.sax]

Secondary can start off really quickly, no surprise there. I can't comment on the 'weirdness' or not of the rest of it but I've added to a cider more juice to prime in the carboy and it had started fermenting again by the time I gave all the bottles a spray of starsan. Healthy yeast are really active.

 

[GuyQLD]

Secondary can start off really quickly, no surprise there. I can't comment on the 'weirdness' or not of the rest of it but I've added to a cider more juice to prime in the carboy and it had started fermenting again by the time I gave all the bottles a spray of starsan. Healthy yeast are really active.

I'd say that's what happened. Not enough time for it to floc out and a bit of dessert was just too tempting for it to wait to get started.

As to the infection issue - I think I've narrowed it down to 3 things that I probably didn't do as well as I would normally.

1- Didn't pasteurise the headspace of the kettle
2- Possible that the spoon I used to whirlpool wasn't sanitary (had been boiled but had been out of the liquid for a bit - I washed it pretty thoroughly but who knows...)
3- (Most likely) I forgot to take the bloody bung off the fermenter when I was cleaning it - normally I take them off and pull them apart and give them a good rinse in sanitiser. I forgot this time and I think it came back to bite me.

Lesson learnt.