Forgot to aerate my wort, now it seems dead, HELP!

[Kanemadly]

I did my 2nd AG brew on Saturday based on DaaBs Mini-Mash teqnique. All was well, it began to ferment well by Sunday morning with a nice thick head on it, all was looking well. I pitched with a Safale - s04 yeast.

I took a peak this morning, and it was completely dead. The head on it has totally dissapeared, and there seemed to be very few bubbles rising to the surface. There was some yeast still floating on top, but it looked very thin and pathetic. I am pretty new to brewing, but even I could tell something was wrong. Then it occured to me that I had forgotten to arerate the wort before pitching the yeast.

Not only do I now feel stupid for forgetting to do it, but I fear that my brew could be a right-off.

As it has now been in the fermemter for nearly 48hours, I am guessing it is too late to aerate at this point.

I will Oxidise my beer and make it taste off if I arerate now right?

Is there anything I can do to make the fermentation pick up? Am I worrying over nothing as a realive newbee?

I have read all the posts on stuck fermentation, so please dont flame me. I just wasnt sure if this classes as stuck fermentation or just plain stupidity.

Hopefully;
Andy

[Kanemadly]

thanks for the quick reply, and also for the reassurance. I guess the panic is just a result of inexperience, and spending about 8hours on Sat making the brew

I will have a check with the hydrometer when I get home, I will be truely amazed if it has fermented out in 48 hours, but I guess yeast is a hungry little organism.

I will post the results of how I got on.

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Same thing happened to me once, maybe twice, I put it down to a bad mash, not got enough fermentable sugars from mash, I put it down to crap malt from a market stall....DAMP??????

John

[Mike B]

Hi Kanemadly
I recently experienced the same problem as you've described,at first I couldn't work out what had gone wrong.
It all started so well just like yours then really eased off.
I did aerate my wort so not that,then I took a hydrometer reading,and it certainly hadn't finished.
I thought that I may not have cleaned or rinsed the equipment properly and killed off the yeast.
Finally I took a temperature reading and found the wort was a tad on the cool side, for some reason the heater belt wasn't functioning properly,I aquired a heat pad sat the fermenter on it, and made an insulated jacket from an old down sleeping bag.Hey presto it came back to life and finished 3 days later!!.
We're drinking the last of it now and I thought it was a gonner,with the fluctuations in temperature we've been experiencing lately and based on My account I'd say check the temp!!.
Mike B...

[Kanemadly]

I took a gravity reading just now and it is at 1.010, so I am pretty much bang on my target to be honest. I think it has finished rather rapidly for some reason, it has managed to drop 34 points in 48 hours. Now, if that is good for the flavour is a different matter, normally the best things take time It has been in my brew cupboard at about 20-21c, so the temperature was pretty good I think.

I had a taste of the sample I took, and it did still seem to have some residual sweetness in it. I think I will leave it for a few more days, and see how it gets on. Judging by the taste it may still have a few points left in it to drop, and it is still producing some CO2 bubbles, all be it very slowly.

Put this one down to inexperience I guess, as all my other brews so far (all kits bar 1) have take a good week/ 10 days to hit their target gravity.

Appreciate all the advice, always good to have another opinion on things when they turn out different from expected.

Cheers;
Andy