Help - Nottingham yeast not working properly(?)

[iandiggs]

Hello. I added nottingham yeast to my summer ale wort 2 days ago and have only had very thin frothing (krausen?) ..and now what little there was is dissipating; can i safely say that the fermentation with the nottingham yeast has failed? I have a spare packet of cooper's real ale kit yeast - can i add it to the wort at this stage without ruining it? Don't know anything about this so any advice would be gratefully received.Thanks

[trucker5774]

With the recent warm weather it may have done the greatest part of the fermentation without you even seeing it. The only way to be sure is with a hydrometer. Did you take a gravity reading at the start to compare to it's current gravity?

[iandiggs]

i'm such a fool - i didn't. Is there any other way of telling?

[trucker5774]

Have a taste. (usual sanitising rules apply) If it is very sweet it probably hasn't started. It's more likely that it will have had a rapid start and done 70 to 90% of the job already.
If you don't have a hydrometer (and a thermometer) .....get them. They are the cheapest drinking friends you will ever have

[iandiggs]

i tasted it and it did not taste sweet at all....but it didn't taste very nice either-a watery bitterness (i did cain it with the hops(amarillo/cascade) this time round). The danstar nottingham website states that heavy foaming is no indication of a more effective fermentation and that a hidden and more efficient fermentation may have occurred. There isn't any sweetness at all.....thanks a lot for your advice on this...

[MightyMouth]

Its done if its not sweet, Nottingham is a very bland yeast so you wont get much flavour from it. If you added a lot of hops it is bound to be bitter, it will tend to taste better after bottling and conditioning.

[iandiggs]

thanks mighty mouth and trucker. Think i'll just leave it then. Just panicked a bit as i spent so much time and effort in making it. I really hope it improves in the barrel as i thought it should resemble something drinkable even at this stage - but it doesn't. (it's definitely not sweet, though, so fermentation either took place while i wasn't watching in the hot weather or there isn't normally much evidence for it with this yeast...

[trucker5774]

Just follow the normal course after another 4 or 5 days.....there's nothing to lose now other that a little time

[iandiggs]

thanks for that. Will barrel it on saturday/sunday

[iandiggs]

Hello, i wonder if you could give me your views; my summer ale has been in a barrel since saturday. I tried a tiny bit of it tonight and it doesn't yet taste any good - although it smells wonderful and is drinkable. Am i just being too impatient? Do you think it could still morph into something very nice? I was also a bit concerned that there was not much of a head on it and there wasn't much pressure(i primed it with 176g of brewing sugar and used torrified wheat for head retention. The barrel is brand new (wilkos job) and as far as i am aware there is no air leak. However, the weather has not been that hot recently and i have just put it in a spare room away from any obvious warm spots; do you think it needs a warmer environment for secondary fermentation/conditioning?
It may just be early days. If not, i'm a bit peeved that my brewing keeps messing up.
Your advice is very much appreciated.

[iandiggs]

...it tastes watery....no sweetness there. A beautiful hop aroma, though. Just wondering if any sweetness will eventually come through and the wateriness will fade..

[mysterio]

You need to work on your recipe. I've brewed plenty of beers that were too watery. I'm guessing it was fairly low gravity and didn't have many malts which contribute to body.

Would you mind posting your recipe so we can look? If it's a lower gravity beer, i would recommend a heavy dose of Caramalt next time, or use Safale S04 instead.

[iandiggs]

...it's the one off this site(see below) - i used nottingham and it behaved like no other yeast i'd seen: i didn't perceive any initial frothy fermentation, like i have with s-04 or kit yeasts, although i took this to be a peculiarity of nottingham. Gravity just before i barrelled it was about 1011.

OG: 1.046
FG: 1.011
EBU's: 48.0
Batch Size: 21.00 L
Boil Time: 90 minutes


Grain Bill

94 % Pale Malt, Maris Otter
3% Crystal Malt
3% Torrified Wheat

Hops

40.00 g Amarillo 90 mins 8.9
24.00 g Amarillo 15 mins 8.9
23.00 g Amarillo 5 mins 8.9
33.00 g Cascade Flameout 5.9

Yeast

S-04 or Nottingham ????

[jimp2003]

I think thats the recipe I posted HERE isn't it?

In that thread you say its your first extract brew - is that right and if so could it have made a difference?. I brewing it from grain using BIAB and am trying a first sample bottle now having bottled it only 12 days ago so its still early days.

Mine fermented down to 1010 and at this early stage it tastes very hoppy from the amarillo and cascade, a small head which does not last very long and light maltiness giving way to moderate bitterness.

You should not get any sweetness as the grain bill was not chosen to give that. It should be a light, refreshing hoppy beer rather than something with body.

I had a slightly different experience with the nottingham as there was plenty of frothing going on before it settled down.

I hope that yours improves with a bit more time in the barrel.

Jim

[iandiggs]

Thank you Jim. Yes, it was that one. Maybe i should give it a chance to improve then. I'm a bit too impatient.