Help! Fermentation stopped after 3 days

[Bazz]

As per the title, I had a good O.G. I made a yeast starter and the yeast was pretty lively, pitched and fermentation started but has now stopped. Is it worth trying to get it going again or is it time to ditch it and start again?

Thanks.

[Fuggley Duckling]

Check the temperature of your wort, is it possible it has dropped too low for your chosen strain of yeast? Give the fermenter a gentle swirl to rouse some of the yeast back into suspension. Also it's worth remembering that just because the vigorous stage of fermentation has passed doesn't mean your yeast has stopped doing its job, they will still be chomping their way through sugars even when there is no longer any airlock movement and the krausen has settled back down. Take a gravity reading, then again in a few days to see if it has actually stopped or if it's just slowing down.

[Bazz]

Thanks for the tip, the temp thing is what I was thinking, i don't have a warming belt for my fv and whilst our house isn't freezing we do like it cooler than some.

Btw what is the krausen? Is that the frothy yeasty top?

[bob3000]

It might have done it's job and finished. What's the FG?

[Dave-Leeds]

Wrap a quit around it if yiu struggle with tenps. You should buy a heat belt or immersion heater for future and now its cold they would be ideal. I have 2 immersion heaters and think their spot on.

as for your brew i would keep it warm best you can and leave it for 2 weeks just because you see no activity dosnt mean its finished as said in other post

[Fuggley Duckling]

Thanks for the tip, the temp thing is what I was thinking, i don't have a warming belt for my fv and whilst our house isn't freezing we do like it cooler than some.

Btw what is the krausen? Is that the frothy yeasty top?

Yep, krausen is the frothy yeasty top

During winter months I put my fermenter in a big 50L bucket of water with an aquarium heater, works a treat and both bucket and heater only cost NZ$35 (£17ish).

[rpt]

The only way to know how the fermentation is progressing is by taking a gravity reading. Lack of airlock activity or krausen mean nothing.

[Bazz]

Right then, after forgetting my local home brew shop was shut until next week i finally acquired a trial jar and have taken a gravity reading at 1.012. So fermentation has happened to some degree, OG was 1.058 will hopefully be ready to put into the barrel on Sunday.

Couple more questions,

There appear to be some bits of something in suspension in the brew not sinking or rising, will this result in a bitty end product?

How much sugar should i put into tthe barrel when i put it in (there is 15 litres of beer in the FV)?

Thanks.

[spanspoon]

Right then, after forgetting my local home brew shop was shut until next week i finally acquired a trial jar and have taken a gravity reading at 1.012. So fermentation has happened to some degree, OG was 1.058 will hopefully be ready to put into the barrel on Sunday.

Couple more questions,

There appear to be some bits of something in suspension in the brew not sinking or rising, will this result in a bitty end product?

How much sugar should i put into tthe barrel when i put it in (there is 15 litres of beer in the FV)?

Thanks.

if you have a shed or garage then stick the fv in there for a few days to crash cool it, any proteins will sink which result in a cleaner end product. if you can't do this i wouldn't worry as any larger bits are not likely to be drawn through when bottling and even if it did it'd just taste of beer.