Still Fermenting I Think

[butters73]

G'day, I make pretty simple ale brews, I dont worry about checking the gravity before or after I just leave to ferment and bottle after a week, this time I made more effort to keep the temperature at 22 degrees(Its a morgans queenslander gold with 500g of be2) After 9 days there is still a thin skin of foam on the brew and the airlock is still bubbling about once a minute. does brewing at this temp increase the brewing time this much? I used to brew at 26 as per instructions but am now aware this dodgy info. The smell coming from the airlock is not suss, it;s actually the best I've smelt from an airlock. what do you'se think,leave it go longer or bottle before nasties get to it. Cheers Kingo.

 

[SDJ]

Let it go champ, The most common mistake in homebrew is being to hasty, dont rush good beer.

I brew with different yeasts and some of them do take longer the cooler the temp, I have a Bavarian Pilsner on at the moment and its brewing at 12C has been for 12 days and is still producing the odd bubble.

i dont worry about nasties getting in, if your fermenter is sealed up and you have a bubbler on top with water in it nothing can get in and the inside is filled with CO2 which not much likes or will grow.

A gravity check at start and finish is worth it, theres nothing worse than bottling a brew to soon and have all 28 of them turn into geysers!! puts your mates of homebrew for years this is quite common.

hope this helps
Steve

 

[sponge]

Hey mate. Nice to see you know to throw away the kit instructions. 22'C definitely a good start, but if you can, try for 20'C... As you already know, 26'C is just social suicide And yes, brewing at lower temps does increase the fermenting time

As you will hear a lot on this site... the only way to check if its right to bottle is with a hydrometer


If you have one. Use it. If not, get one. If ths gravity reading is the same over 2-3 consecutive days... bottle it!


Life is much calmer with a hydrometer. You cant always trust the bubbles in an airlock....


:icon_cheers: Sponge

 

[Lobsta]

if you REALLY had something against hydrometers (like, i dunno, if u were abused by one as a child or your religion is against them or something), then another good indication i have found when my beer is definitely ready to bottle is that it appears to get darker when looked at from the top.

i wrap my fermenter with a towel, so im not sure if this works sans towel, but when the yeast have stopped churning up the beer, there will be nothing keeping them evenly in suspension throughout the beer, so they settle down to the bottom. this makes the beer look darker from the top because the light has to travel through more liquid before it reflects off something then bounces back up to reach your eye. same theory as to why deep water looks darker than shallow water. this will occur a few days after your beer stops fermenting, but it has seemed to help the clarity of my brews.

but overall, you cant go wrong with a hydrometer.

Lobby

 

[EK]

G'day, I make pretty simple ale brews, I dont worry about checking the gravity before or after I just leave to ferment and bottle after a week, this time I made more effort to keep the temperature at 22 degrees(Its a morgans queenslander gold with 500g of be2) After 9 days there is still a thin skin of foam on the brew and the airlock is still bubbling about once a minute. does brewing at this temp increase the brewing time this much? I used to brew at 26 as per instructions but am now aware this dodgy info. The smell coming from the airlock is not suss, it;s actually the best I've smelt from an airlock. what do you'se think,leave it go longer or bottle before nasties get to it. Cheers Kingo.

Kingo,

Let it go, I usually leave mine to ferment for up to two weeks (or however long it needs, I use the hydrometer to make sure if I am in doubt). The lower temperatures can slow the yeast, but will produce better flavour.

The hydrometer is your friend, use it. If you were to keep records of what you brewed, including the Original and Final Gravity readings, it could help diagnose problems that you may have. Also, it can help with the prevention of bottle bombs, which can cause a LOT of damage, especially if there is a person around when it detonates.

:icon_cheers:
EK.

 

[butters73]

Thanks guys it's a couple of days later and it's still ticking over (just) I'l let it go. next one I'll get down to 20 degrees and use a hodrometer. Cheers Kingo.

 

[rh1an5]

my most recent brew has been sitting for approx 13 days in primary, was bubbling for around 11 days and has just sort of dropped off now, this was at 22 deg. im moving it tomorrow into secondary, think i will leave for another week their (need to collect more bottles, lol)

 

[pint of lager]

Like the others said, do not rely on the airlock.

It will gloomp due to temperature changes and changes in air pressure.

Also, when your beer ferments, it generates carbon dioxide. Most comes straight out the airlock, but plenty stays dissolved in solution. You can see this when you tap off a hydrometer sample, the wort goes frothy. This dissolved gas will slowly come out of solution over months, so the airlock movemnet may be due to this, or it may be fermenting. If you have an infection, it can slowly keep on fermenting.

If you have used one of the dry beers where an extra enzyme is added. these brews will keep slowly working too.

Good beer takes time and patience.

 

[EK]

As an example of why you shouldn't rely on an airlock, this happened to the brew I currently have on:

Sunday Afternoon: Made the kit and kilo wort, pitched yeast.
Monday Morning: bubbling away very slowly
Monday Night: bubbling every 13 seconds
Tuesday Morning and Night: bubbling every 5 seconds
Wednesday Morning: bubbling appeared stopped. I figured it got a bit cold, so I let it warm back up a few degrees.
Wednesday Evening: still no bubbling, I tightened the lit quite a bit and bubbling resumed.

I had not fiddled with the lid since pitching yeast, the fermenter was still in the same position. What most likely happened is that there was lots of CO2 being made on Tuesday and it had slowed down a bit on Wednesday, but there was a very small leak in the seal and CO2 found it easier to get out through this little gap. Even though the fermenter appeared sealed, there was still a tiny leak.

You could also look at the amount of trub at the bottom of the fermenter in order to determine if the yeast has taken off, I am not sure how useful this method would be after two weeks of active fermentation.

Take hydrometer readings and compare the difference, this is the best way to tell, though you do loose a bit of beer each time.

EK

 

[butters73]

Thanks for the advice guys, I bottled it yesterday and I couldn't believe how good it tasted, it must have been the co2 bubbling out and as you guys said the yeast must have had plenty of time to settle cause the day after I bottled it the tallies were crystal clear, no floaties, no haze and I reckon there will be buggar all sediment after secondary does it's work. I will definately let my brews sit 4 or 5 days longer to settle out.(If the beers wasn't flat I would of drank the lot.)Thanks again for the advice. If you get sick of me asking questions tell me cause you guys are allright.

 

[pint of lager]

Letting your wort quietly sit for a week or so after it has finished fermenting is a great step in brewing. You don't have to rush off and bottle it has soon as it is finished. Make sure it is at the correct temperature for your yeast to work at. The yeast are no longer working on making alcohol, but they are still working on cleaning up by products from fermenation.

Then, as you have noticed, they flocculate, or drop out of suspension. At this stage, some brewers help the brew along by chilling it and or racking to a fermenter with zero headspace.

Your brew will still carbonate up ok, there are still plenty of yeast left, even though the wort appears clear. If it sat in a fridge for a week, it will take a bit longer to carbonate in the bottles.

You will still end up with a thin layer of yeast in the bottles, but not the huge sludge that most beginner brewers have.

If you need the fermenter to do another brew to get stocks up and want to rush the beer along, it is time to buy another fermenter.

 

[Mantis]

I remembered this thread and have a similar thing happening. Day 10 of a Coopers sparkling with the suggested malts and dex and US-05 yeast is still popping at the airlock every minute or so. SG two days ago was 1016 and today 1015. A tasting of the SG sample is very good but tastes almost carbonated. Not much froth in the SG tube either. Krausen has fallen away but still covers the surface of the brew.
Oh it has been fermenting at about 18 - 20 deg.
Q. Is this a long time for this brew to take or am I just being nervous

Mantis *off to get another brew*

 

[butters73]

G'day Mantis, I had the same thing - Krausen had fallen away to a thin layer and bubbled along every minute or so, I didn't end bottling until the 12th or 13th day but I am glad I waited. Checked the bottles today and crystal exept for a slight haze of 1cm depth on the bottom where the secondary is working. Cheers. Kingo

 

[Mantis]

G'day Mantis, I had the same thing - Krausen had fallen away to a thin layer and bubbled along every minute or so, I didn't end bottling until the 12th or 13th day but I am glad I waited. Checked the bottles today and crystal exept for a slight haze of 1cm depth on the bottom where the secondary is working. Cheers. Kingo

Day 12 now and SG is 1015 still, but still getting bubbling in airlock. Brew smells and tastes good so I will leave it till Monday and bottle it.

 

[Jaeger]

Day 12 now and SG is 1015 still, but still getting bubbling in airlock. Brew smells and tastes good so I will leave it till Monday and bottle it.

I put on a Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit with 1kg of LDME a few weeks ago. When I thought that primary fermentation was mostly complete, I dry-hopped it (25g Cascade) and let it sit for a week, then racked it into a secondary. It's still bubbling - slowly, but enough that I won't risk bottling it yet. It looks, smells and tastes fine, so I'll leave it be until the bubbling stops.

I was feeling lazy, so put a Real Ale + BE2 in the primary on top of the APA's yeast cake and hops; it's now bottled. Go figure... I guess the extra malt in the APA brew gave the yeast more to chew on.

 

[pint of lager]

Like the others said, do not rely on the airlock.

It will gloomp due to temperature changes and changes in air pressure.

Also, when your beer ferments, it generates carbon dioxide. Most comes straight out the airlock, but plenty stays dissolved in solution. You can see this when you tap off a hydrometer sample, the wort goes frothy. This dissolved gas will slowly come out of solution over months, so the airlock movemnet may be due to this, or it may be fermenting. If you have an infection, it can slowly keep on fermenting.

If you have used one of the dry beers where an extra enzyme is added. these brews will keep slowly working too.

Do not rely on the airlock. It will slowly bubble for months. Use the hydrometer. If you have an infection, it will continue to bubble, which will show as a very slow decrease in sg over weeks. If you use a dry enzyme, it will also slowly decrease in sg over an extra week or so.

I will say it again, do not rely on the airlock.

 

[mfdes]

The best things you get by leaving it be a little longer is tons less crud in the bottles and a much cleaner, tastier beer. Especially if you fermented a bit warm, the yeast gets a chance to convert some of those fusel alcohols (rough and give you a hangover) into esters (fruity, can be overwhelming, but much better than fusels).

MFS.