Should I Be Concerned?

[ShredMaster]

Hey,

So with my guitar-infused mashing technique completed, I boiled away and added the hops accordingly following Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe and it was smelling and tasting as it should - 60min mash between 64'c and 66'c roughly followed by 60-70min boil, chilled with immersion chiller to around 30'c.

Being quite inebriated at the time (and lazy), I just dumped it onto the fresh yeast cake from my previous brew which was just transferred to secondary, it was a k&k ipa with TONS of LDME added, US-05 and a clean ferment with no problems or tastes. Now during the last 10mins of the boil I added my 1/2 whirlfloc and a couple of old packets of yeast from the top of the cans as I have read about them being excellent yeast nutrient. I also managed to aerate the wort something fierce too.

The concern is that my ferment seems to have finished in THREE DAYS. I have never had this happen so quick before. I dumped onto the yeast at around 11pm Monday, Tues morning there was a nice foamy layer on top probably about 2cm thick, Tues evening was a good inch or so thick krausen, Wed evening there was krausen bubbling and popping as usual and last night seemed to be receding quickly down to about 1/2 cm of foam. This morning there was no foam whatsoever with the SG now being 1.010. Tbh, in all my brewing frenzy I forgot to take an exact OG reading at the end of the boil but unless I screwed up something completely it should have at least been 1.040 or higher. Fermenting temps were kept between 20'c and 23'c using ice.

The hydro samples taste kinda normal but smell a fair bit of sulphur. Nothing really seems out of the normal except that it seemed to ferment in about 1/3 of the time that the rest of my brews take. The only thing I can think of is that either it was due to a full fresh yeast cake being mostly awake and hungry and my fresh wort being fully aerated with nutrients and they all had a massive party, or my efficiency was woefully bad and will end up with 1/4 strength beer which fermented so quickly due to having bugger all sugars in there. I taste my brews as I cook them and it definately tasted like a strong flavoured sugary wort. DAMN ME FOR NOT TAKING A READING!!

Any explanations for this apart from what I was playing on the guitar while mashing? What are the consequences of fermenting this quickly? While I can't detect an infection, could this be an explanation?


Cheers,
Shred.

 

[twizt1d]

i wouldnt be worried, i rushed my last batch through and it went from grain to glass in 7 days
fermented out in 4 days CC'd for 3

that was sprinkling a pack of US-05 on top of the wort too..

 

[manticle]

Look up overpitching. Both underpitching and overpitching can have an impact on flavour.

 

[ShredMaster]

Look up overpitching. Both underpitching and overpitching can have an impact on flavour.

Thanx mate! I guess that's basically what I was wondering...

 

[manticle]

From memory the yeast won't go through as much of the anaerobic growth cycle so less esters will be produced. I believe overpitching can stress the yeast and lessen its viability too.

See how you fare. Theoretical impact and actual impact are (often) different things.

 

[Yob]

hay Shred, here is a handy link to Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator have a play with this. It has an option for repitching from slurry.

Note that the Viability Date is from the end of fermentation activity, this can often be before it is harvested. I was screwing this up for a while before it dawned on me.

Yob

 

[kelbygreen]

If you have a hydrometer and refractometer you can use the refractometer calculater in reverse to find your OG

 

[ShredMaster]

If you have a hydrometer and refractometer you can use the refractometer calculater in reverse to find your OG

Oooh I'm keen to know more about which you speak! I do have both a hydro and refracto.

 

[tallie]

So with my guitar-infused mashing technique completed, I boiled away and added the hops accordingly following Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe and it was smelling and tasting as it should - 60min mash between 64'c and 66'c roughly followed by 60-70min boil, chilled with immersion chiller to around 30'c.

Is that the temperature you actually pitched at? That, combined with overpitching, would give you a very fast ferment!

Cheers,
tallie

 

[ShredMaster]

Is that the temperature you actually pitched at? That, combined with overpitching, would give you a very fast ferment!

Cheers,
tallie

Well that would be a rather logical explanation, cheers Tallie!

Usually it chills to around 30-ish and I pitch a few hours later after it has been sitting with ice for a bit, so mostly around 23-28'c. Yeh this time it would have been a fair bit warmer and just dumped on the old cake.

Now a similarly related question, well not even closely related actually: a few brews back my US-05 went NUTS and had krausen pushing at my glad-wrap lid and bulging it outwards a little (prolly 7inches or so above the surface of the wort), no problems at all and was a nice tasty brew (k&k amber if i recall, loads of LDME again, fresh us-05 and I probably rehydrated). What causes the odd brew to have a psycho krausen and other similar brews (same style/yeast/temps etc) have just a timid and polite krausen where I can detect nothing unusual in the end results?


Cheers,
Shred.

 

[iralosavic]

While all the above advice sounds logical, I believe the correct explanation is actually linked to your guitar mashing technique. Too many arpeggios shredded together will accelerate yeast metabolism at an alarming rate. You should seriously consider sticking to blues; if it could keep the enslaved mellow, yet productive, think what it can do to yeast.

 

[kelbygreen]

Oooh I'm keen to know more about which you speak! I do have both a hydro and refracto.

Well shred get the calculator and then use it in reverse this is a bit of a pain but if you know your OG roughly it will work. So you put in your expected OG and then the refractometer reading into the calculator and then keep adjusting the OG measurment until the FG matches your hydrometer. Then that is your OG

 

[argon]

Well shred get the calculator and then use it in reverse this is a bit of a pain but if you know your OG roughly it will work. So you put in your expected OG and then the refractometer reading into the calculator and then keep adjusting the OG measurment until the FG matches your hydrometer. Then that is your OG

the way i do it... take a refrac sample and note it down. Then take a hydro sample and note it down. Compared the 2 using the graph found in this article

Piece of piss

 

[Yob]

the same yeast can react differently, Im a US-05'er and Ive seen many different krausens from it, like you say from explosive, damn near escaping to very little visible..

no rhyme, no reason, some just behave differently... like the bubble from an airlock, it means little.

Ive been re-using a psycho US-05 for a while now, Ive also been re-using a 'normal' one... both ferment in the anticipated time frames, neither much faster or slower than the other.

bigger krausen just means there is more cleaning of the FV to do

Yob

 

[felten]

the way i do it... take a refrac sample and note it down. Then take a hydro sample and note it down. Compared the 2 using the graph found in this article

Piece of piss

if you have beersmith it has a calc for this as well.