Fermented Out In 3 Days!

[David Sinclair]

I did a double batch of Drsmurto's golden ale (nice drop) OG 1050 FG 1009 in 3 days. I know hot temps ferment faster but although it started at 26C it fermented at around 20C. I hope it hasn't produced any fossel fuels, has anyone else found this?

Cheers Dave.

 

[muckey]

sometimes the yeasties just work fast. If your temp control is Ok then the brew should be OK

I wouldn't stress too much about it. matter of fact my current brew sitting in cold ( not a smurto GA this time) was pitched monday morning and reached its final (1010) by thursday nght.

I'd take another reading after 24 - 48 hours just to confirm that its finished :icon_cheers:

edit: PEBKAC

 

[Fermented]

Don't worry too much. Some ale yeasts will absolutely apesh*t and be done quickly, even at 20C.

I just had an S-05 (cup o' slurry method) do a 1050OG ale in around 60 hours at 22C. Should be OK.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[Bribie G]

What yeast did you use? Ale yeasts in particular can vary wildly. I have been using liquid yeasts and my first brew at 17 degrees with the West Yorkshire went so slowly I reckoned the yeasties were all on valium and didn't get into bottles for three weeks. Then I used the UK 1768 at 18 degrees which is going into secondary today after ten days. I'm getting a bit behind schedule so I'm going to pitch a brew today with Nottingham dried yeast, also 18 degrees - just off to do the starter if I can get away from this keyboard Then I'll put on my environmental suit and goggles, lock the garage door and inform the SES and State Rescue not to panic as any earth tremors from this street are just Notto doing its thing. I reckon it will be all over in four days, maybe five days max. :icon_cheers:

 

[David Sinclair]

I used dried yeast (hydrated) US-05 in the blue pkts or is it red ..? Anyhow it is hooking in and this is my first no chill, tastes allright but has a massive amount of floaties compared to when i chill. Guess i'll just keg and condition.

 

[Aaron]

I hope it hasn't produced any fossel fuels, has anyone else found this

If you could produce fossil fuels while making beer I think you would be very wealthy. Normally you have to wait a very long time for it to be formed in the ground.

Are you, perhaps thinking for fusel alcohol?

Oh and three to four days is a standard ferment time for a standard strength ale for me. Normally at 18-20c with Wyeast 1318.

 

[David Sinclair]

If you could produce fossil fuels while making beer I think you would be very wealthy. Normally you have to wait a very long time for it to be formed in the ground.

Are you, perhaps thinking for fusel alcohol?

Oh and thre to four days is a standard ferment time for a standard strength ale for me. Normally at 18-20c with Wyeast 1318.

Probably ...

Normally takes me a week with us-05.

 

[Bribie G]

Oh and thre to four days is a standard ferment time for a standard strength ale for me. Normally at 18-20c with Wyeast 1318.

gunna get me some :icon_cheers:

 

[jonocarroll]

Don't worry too much. Some ale yeasts will absolutely apesh*t and be done quickly, even at 20C.

I just had an S-05 (cup o' slurry method) do a 1050OG ale in around 60 hours at 22C. Should be OK.

Cheers - Fermented.

On Saturday I took 3 cups of US-05 slurry out of my primary (which was from a rehydrated dry pack, normal ferment), put 2 in PET bottles under cooled, boiled water and pitched 3/4 cup of the last into my Palmer's APA (OG 1.040ish IIRC). Airlock started bubbling decently within 3 hours. Checked again today - the krausen has reached the lid and pushed up through the airlock to leave some gunk on the roof of the fridge! Cleaned up the airlock and replaced it - it's now bubbling away at the rate of 2 bubbles per second.

The fridge runs via a TempMate and it's set to 17 +/- 1*C.

My question is related to the OP - is it okay to have such a fast ferment? In this case it's not due to heat, so I don't think (but may be wrong) that I'll get fusels. Did I just overpitch (probably) or should I guard the remaining yeast slurry as precious? If there's nothing wrong with this, I'll try to make sure to (only just) overpitch again, keeping little enough to not get any vegemite autolysis.

 

[buttersd70]

QB, having a look at mrmalty.com and given that 3/4cup is ~185mL, it may have been overpitched....but that all depends on the thickness of the slurry, anyway....his calculator isn't that clear on the thickness, it's a bit of a "judgement" thing. But using the default thickness, which to my understanding is where you just get a smooth pour, you would have needed more like 109ml (again subject to 'ish'). Maybe go with 1/2 a cup next time, but I wouldn't worry about it being overpitched in this case....its a bit too subjective. 200,250ml would be a different kettle of fish imo.

But there are other factors as well....if the yeast was fresh when first used, and it had a really good healthy ferment due to good fan, aeration, and temp control, then the slurry it left would have been nice and healthy as well. So this batch going nuts is probably a good indication that the initial batch fermented very well indeed.

If the ferment is running fast due to excellent viability and good brewing practice (as opposed to massive overpitching and a bloody hot brew), it should be fine. If you think of it in terms of yeast stress, it's not being forced into working fast in this case, it's doing it happily of it's own accord. The main issue as I see it (which caught me out once) is with the temperature of the beer itself compared to it's surrounds. I normally allow about 1-2C difference between the fridge temp and what the beer will be, but I had one race off (repitched 1469) so fast that the beer spiked at 5C over....I thought my stick on strip was wrong, so I sanatised my thermometer and took an actual reading of the beer, and it was at 25 even though the fridge was at 20. With a fridgemate, you could get around that issue by having the probe strapped to the outside of the fermenter, instead of just inside the fridge itself.

 

[jonocarroll]

If the ferment is running fast due to excellent viability and good brewing practice (as opposed to massive overpitching and a bloody hot brew), it should be fine.

Good to hear. I'll try to dial back the pitching volume slightly next time. The slurry wasn't terribly thick, but given what's settled out of the other two saved bottles, I'd say there's a decent amount of yeast.

With a fridgemate, you could get around that issue by having the probe strapped to the outside of the fermenter, instead of just inside the fridge itself.

This is what I do for my TempMate (strapped with styrofoam). I also have another dual thermometer measuring the fridge ambient temperature and external ambient temperature, so I really know what's going on, and yes - the fridge itself has a temperature that can be different by several degrees from the fermenter (of course, it needs to in order to cool the large mass of the full fermenter).

Many thanks for the help.

 

[br33zy]

Hi All,

Interesting topic.

Do you think that its worth fighting the heat generated by a healthy fermenting yeast, rather than just controlling the ambient temperature?

Cheers

Breezy

 

[muckey]

controlling the ambient temperature will fight the heat generated by the yeast and some healthy strains of yeast can really generate some heat. Having the probe strapped to the fermenter (or in the wort if you're that brave) just gives you a more accurate reading of the temperature of the wort itself. I use a simple timer on my brew fridge so I just measure ambient in the fridge, I just know the fermenter will probably be 2-3 degress higher. If the ferment is going hard then I set the timer to run more often. Its not set and forget like a fridgemate.

Due to the fridgemate measuring the temp I feel it is more beneficial to measure the fermenter than the ambient and controll to that. If your fridgemate probe just measures ambient if will still work quite Ok but you'll need to be mindfull of the temp varience between ambient and the wort itself.

 

[jonocarroll]

If your fridgemate probe just measures ambient if will still work quite Ok but you'll need to be mindfull of the temp varience between ambient and the wort itself.

Which as buttersd70 has pointed out, and I have noticed, can be in excess of 5*C. In particular when the wort is first placed in the fridge (at around 20*C) my fridge needs to drop to about 12*C or so to balance out and reduce the temp of the wort (with the probe strapped to it).

Controlling by ambient wouldn't get the wort cooled until it started warming up the entire fridge.

 

[Tony M]

I recently pitched an ale onto a full measure of slurry (I usually just pull out 1/2 a litre or so) and the fermentation was done and dusted in 48 hours even though I never let the wort go over 18C. The resultant brew smelt and tasted like dirty sandshoes so I left it there at 18C and after about 10 days the brew cleaned up perfectly. The moral of the story is that its going to take a couple of weeks to make an acceptable brew whatever you do.

 

[muckey]

Which as buttersd70 has pointed out, and I have noticed, can be in excess of 5*C. In particular when the wort is first placed in the fridge (at around 20*C) my fridge needs to drop to about 12*C or so to balance out and reduce the temp of the wort (with the probe strapped to it).

Not arguing. I think with the tempmate strapping th probe to the fermenter or even having a probe in the wort will give you the best and easiest control method. I dont do it that way because I dont have a tempmate or fridgemate at the moment

the fridge has to change the thermal mass of the wort and the bigger the differential the harder it is to move. having the probe strapped to the fermenter means that you'll get a smaller rise in the wort before the fridge kicks in to bring it back down = more stable temp control.

 

[SJW]

Maybe because I run a computer fan in my fermentation fridge, but even with the big wheat beers and the like, I only have to set my fridgemate 1 deg C low than fermentation temp. I must say since I put the fan in it cools the wort down in half the time from about 30 odd deg C to pitch temps. Just a few hours.

Steve

 

[buttersd70]

QB, Muckey and I brew together, so he was familiar with the fine details of the specific batch I was referring to, which was not to do with a warm pitch needing to drop to fermentation temp, but rather was to do with a runaway. The wort itself, and the fridge, was already stabalised at about 2C below required ferment temp when the yeast was pitched. It should not have needed any shift of the main thermal mass...that had already been done pre pitching. it should have risen about 2c with the yeast activity, and stabalised....but it didn't, it kept rising. Stability in temperature came in with a 5C differential between them....once this was noticed, the fridge went on for an extended time to drop the mass back down to the required temperature, and for the remainder of the brew, I had to keep the fridge at 14C to hold the fermenter at 20C....it just kept wanting to rise. End result, FG achived in 34 hours.