Curious Fermentation

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BrewHouse

Curious Fermentation

Post by BrewHouse » Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:17 pm

Time being short recently I have just done a couple of kits to supplement supplies until the next AG brew day. Bulldog's Pennine Peak Bitter and Festival's Father Hook Bitter.
Both were short brewed to 19L instead of 23 and both had an OG of 1062.
Wort was well aerated and I used the yeast that came with the kit.
Starting temp was 21C
I did not have space for these in the brew fridge and so they were in an outbuilding that stays 18-22 ambient at this time of year.

After 24 hours they were both going like a rocket. I have never seen fermentation like it. It was almost a continual stream through the airlock and the temp sensor strapped to one of the FVs showed 24C.
As I was rushing out of the house this morning I had a quick peak and the Father Hook's Bitter has completely stopped. This was only 2 days after pitching yeast and 36 hours after fermentation started. I didn't have time to take a gravity reading and won't be able to do so until I am back on Friday. The FV temp was 21C. The Pennine Peak had calmed down and was bubbling away as I would normally expect.
I don't want to start another thread on stuck fermentation at 1020, rousing etc etc as this has been done to death on the forum. However, I have never done this kit before and have no idea what the yeast strain is. My question is - Is it in any possible for a yeast to ferment out from 1062 in just 36 hours? I certainly have never known it, but I have also never seen one take off as ferociously. Even if it is stuck at 1020, which I am now desperate to find out, 1062 to 1020 in 36 hours? Is that possible at these temps?

AFewTooMany

Re: Curious Fermentation

Post by AFewTooMany » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:24 pm

What was pitching temp? Did you hydrate the yeast? Definitely possible but you might get a bit of funk occurring from the higher temp

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AFewTooMany

Re: Curious Fermentation

Post by AFewTooMany » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:26 pm

Sorry just spotted it started at 21. That's pretty high to begin with so definitely possible they are almost done

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yourbrew

Re: Curious Fermentation

Post by yourbrew » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:53 pm

It is very unlikely that the fermentation goes 1062 to 1010 or 1020 in just 36 hours. I once had a similar experience, it turned out the blowoff tube (if that's your case, although it also applies to airlock) was a little loose and so the CO2 was releasing through there. Usually fermentation is done, in my case, at about 5 days.

Fil
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Re: Curious Fermentation

Post by Fil » Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:46 am

while unlikely its possible imho. but your edging towards the far end of the bell curve..
with a brewfridge set to optimal conditions and a slightly higher pitching temp completion of primary under 4 days is frequent. tho ive never had one quite so fast. i would be checking my hydrometer still reads 1.000 or thereabouts in cool tap water ;)
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

chefgage
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Re: Curious Fermentation

Post by chefgage » Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:22 am

yourbrew wrote:
Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:53 pm
It is very unlikely that the fermentation goes 1062 to 1010 or 1020 in just 36 hours. I once had a similar experience, it turned out the blowoff tube (if that's your case, although it also applies to airlock) was a little loose and so the CO2 was releasing through there. Usually fermentation is done, in my case, at about 5 days.
I have had the exact same happen a few days ago. The airlock was going crazy for about a day and then the water levelled out. Now i know an airlock is just an indicator, to see what is going on you need to take gravity readings but to ferment out in a day i dont think my beer had done that. My fermenter has a big screw lid with the airlock bung in the middle. A quick sniff around the big screw lid and i could smell fermenting beer/hops. So i tightned up the lid a bit more and the airlock started bubbling again. About 12 hours later the water levelled out again so i tightned up the lid as much as i could and the airlock started bubbling again for a few hours. So in conclusion the screw lid on the fermenter leaks like a sieve, in that when there is high fermentation there is too much pressure to be released through the leaky lid so some goes through the airlock. When the pressure in the fv drops after a bit the co2 just goes the easy path through the leaky lid.

Best way is to take gravity readings to see whats happening which i will be doing tonight :)

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