uber fast ferment?

[n87]

Hi guys.

Short question:
WTF?

Medium question:
Did my first AG friday night, no chilled in the fermenter over night.
rehydrated yeast in the morning and pitched at ~12 midday yesterday (Saturday) @22C
by 2 it was bubbling about 1 small bubble per second (i know the airlock cant be trusted etc, but it is an observation)
by 6, there was foam forming on top and bubbling 1 big bubble per second
by 9 a ~2L krousen had formed and the airlock was going wild
the airlock was getting more and more intense until about 3 this afternoon (Sunday) when it started to slow down
now about 5, the krousen has dropped off and the airlock is doing a bubble every couple of secs.
WTF?


details:
5KG ale malt
200g munich
200g Wheat DME
mashed @ ~67 for an hour
pulled bag out as temp passed 76-78C
beersmith tells me the efficiency was 92% :blink:

Nelson hops at 40, 20, flame out (10mins), and overnight in the fermenter

OG; 1.060

Yeast:
this is the odd part. i picked up my bag of bits from Mark at MHB. he didnt have the US-05 asked for, so he gave me 3 blank white packets of 'Dried Brewing Yeast'
the only other markings on it are '5G 8196'
i pitched 2 of the packets.


so... WTF?
has my main fermentation happened over night?
i havnt checked the gravity of the situation yet... might do tomorrow arvo or tonight if i get home early enough to see how much of what happened.
and im not panicking... just making sure i dont end up with a dud brew through lack of action.

 

[Spiesy]

What is the gravity now?

 

[n87]

What is the gravity now?

just checked the gravity... 1.020

is a drop of 40 points in a bit over a day normal?

 

[slcmorro]

What yeast did you use and what ferment temp are you at?

 

[n87]

unfortunately, im not exactly sure what yeast it is. Mark form MHB (seems to be well respected in the Newcastle region) was out of US-05 and geve me 3 plain white sachets that said 'Dried Brewing Yeast 5G 8196'

The fermenter is in my laundry sink full of water with an aquarium heater, keeping the outside water at 21C, so i would think inside would be around the 22-23 mark.

 

[verysupple]

That's a quick ferment so far, but not unreasonable. It might take a day or so for the last little bit to ferment out (I'd expect a FG a fair bit lower than 1.020). Two or three days to hit FG sounds about right for most of my ales.

 

[micblair]

Notto and S-04 will get the job done within 3 days, so don't be too alarmed

 

[storeboughtcheeseburgers]

It may be the hops that sent it bananas at the get - go, i know hop additions always send the airlock off rapidly. Don't rely on the airlock, it does not represent fermentation accurately. I think It'll be ok and slow down towards the end.

Good luck

 

[paulmclaren11]

If it doesn't drop further check your thermometer. You said you mashed at around 67 - if it's out you could have mashed higher meaning less fermentable wort. I had a dodgy thermo once and my brew didn't ferment out as desired.

Rehydrated yeast will take off a lot faster than non as well.

 

[carniebrew]

Did you taste the 1020 gravity sample? If so, does it taste pretty normal for uncarbed warm beer?

 

[n87]

It may be the hops that sent it bananas at the get - go, i know hop additions always send the airlock off rapidly. Don't rely on the airlock, it does not represent fermentation accurately. I think It'll be ok and slow down towards the end.

Good luck

i know the airlock isnt to be trusted etc. it just alarmed me the time it took for it to take off, and a full krausen form, and of course, the psycho airlock

Did you taste the 1020 gravity sample? If so, does it taste pretty normal for uncarbed warm beer?

the sample still had way too much crap in suspension (couldnt see any light through the test tube) and this is meant to finish realy pale in colour i believe.
it also tasted... not like 'good' beer. i think i was tasting too much of the hops in suspension.

took a sample tonight, tasted much different, and closer to beer. it was still cloudy, but not green cloudy like yesterday. it was also at 1.020... so im thinking the suspended stuff may be messing slightly with the reading aswell.
it is predicted to finish (beersmith) at 1.012. but that will depend alot on this mystery yeast me thinks.

either way, i wont be bottling it for a while. it has alot of clearing to do.

thanks for the reasurance all, it was the biggest surprise since the 4-5L krausen that formed on my Belgian a couple of months back.

 

[n87]

So, just checked my thermometer:

at a rolling boil, it says 96C
in very iced water, it reads 0C

so that sugests that it is 4% under reading (4.1 something to be exact).
which means that i mashed at just over 69C im guessing thats why its slowed to a crawl at 1.020.

i knew my first AG went too smoothly

 

[n87]

This has turned from the fastest ferment to the slowest ferment.

17/05 1.060 Pitched kept at ~22C
took off like a rocket
19/05 1.019 krausen dropped. clear surface
28/05 1.019 racked into secondary, trub was overtaking the tap kept at ambient ~17C
30/05 1.018 small krausen started forming again
05/06 1.016 small krausen still hanging round. raised temp to keep at ~21C

smelling pretty awesome... with a CO2 kicker. starting to taste much more like a beer. still a touch of grass.

This brew is just oh so very confusing... i think i will call it 'Mrs Nelsons Summer Ale'

 

[verysupple]

Hmmm, that's a strange one. I've never used that yeast but it seems wierd for a "typical" sort of ale yeast to ferment really hard (usually a sign of god yeast health/vigour) and then chug along really slowly (usually a sign of not so great yeast health).

The variation in temperature probably isn't helping much. It sort of seems like the temp dropped around 19/5 so the yeast went dormant, and then it might have warmed up around 30/5 so it sparked up again - hence the new krausen. Do you have temp records inbetween what you've already posted?

Anyways, as long as it turns out alright it doesn't really matter what happened along the way. Unless you're a control freak like me and want your yeast to behave.

Let us know how it turns out after it's packaged and ready to drink. :icon_cheers:

 

[unionrdr]

What you saw was initial fermentation finishing up. It'll then slowly,uneventfully creep down to a stable FG. When you racked to secondary,it can kick up fermentation again visually to finish up. But here's an interesting point. My ESB got rehydrated S-04 yeast that I pitched at high krausen & within 10 degrees of wort temp. It finished & started clearing in 10 days! So it can happen when all conditions are favorable.

 

[n87]

Hmmm, that's a strange one. I've never used that yeast but it seems wierd for a "typical" sort of ale yeast to ferment really hard (usually a sign of god yeast health/vigour) and then chug along really slowly (usually a sign of not so great yeast health).

The variation in temperature probably isn't helping much. It sort of seems like the temp dropped around 19/5 so the yeast went dormant, and then it might have warmed up around 30/5 so it sparked up again - hence the new krausen. Do you have temp records inbetween what you've already posted?

Anyways, as long as it turns out alright it doesn't really matter what happened along the way. Unless you're a control freak like me and want your yeast to behave.

Let us know how it turns out after it's packaged and ready to drink. :icon_cheers:

NFI what is happening. i do hope that it turns out... being my first AG and all...
the temp was stable at 21-23 between 17-28/5. it was in my laundry sink with an aquarium heater keeping the peace.
i then chucked it into the secondary, and left it out, at ambient. between 16 and 18. this is when it started again...

either way. it seems to be turning out at this point... but i really want it to finish so i can bottle it so i can test it i guess it cant be too far off, yesterdays reading was 1.016-15, so i dont think with my high mash temp it would attenuate much further...

 

[n87]

What you saw was initial fermentation finishing up. It'll then slowly,uneventfully creep down to a stable FG. When you racked to secondary,it can kick up fermentation again visually to finish up. But here's an interesting point. My ESB got rehydrated S-04 yeast that I pitched at high krausen & within 10 degrees of wort temp. It finished & started clearing in 10 days! So it can happen when all conditions are favorable.

the odd thing is (and the reason for starting this thread) is that the (primary) fermentation (had appeared to) start, and comple in 2 days flat!

anyway, back to waiting... while my stocks slowly dwindle.

 

[mr_wibble]

You did pitch 2x packs of yeast.
So assuming they're the usual ~12 gram that's quite a lot of yeast too.

And you're fermenting on the warm side (~22°C) during fermentation.
All fermentation will produce some warmth too, I guess a more active one produces more.

All sounds like a pretty typical ferment to me.

 

[TimT]

Yeah it sounds normal. I've had one yeast build up a gigantic mountain of solid krausen on top of a plum mead within hours of pitching before exploding out of the airlock into the study where I was fermenting (while I watched and chortled heartily); I have another that's been twiddling its thumbs for five days before getting some reasonable fermentation happening. All part of the fun.

 

[Eagleburger]

So, just checked my thermometer:

at a rolling boil, it says 96C
in very iced water, it reads 0C

96-98degC is about right. At sea level the water has boiled off at 100degC.