Extremely fast fermentation.

[MikeG]

I had a brew day on Friday the 9th of August and finished by pitching the yeast at just before 3pm. I use Safale S-04 and I pitched it at 23ºC. (the water in the chiller was over 21ºC so that 23ºC was when I got too bored to go on)

At about midnight Friday/Saturday I found that the FV tap was leaking so I transferred it all into another sterilised FV.

On Saturday morning I repaired the leaky FV and transferred it all back into it. As this was at about midday I didn't need to give the wort the usual brisk stir 12 hours after yeast pitching.

On Sunday midday I had a peek and found no Krausen so I measured the SG and found that fermentation was complete (1046-1006) ...and it had no sweetness to the taste.

This was just about 45 hours after yeast pitching.

What on earth was going on?

[LeeH]

Sounds like you had a very healthy fermentation!


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[Meatymc]

I've had similar recently when I found I'd pitched much higher than normal - around the 23C mark like you rather than my usual 18C. Doesn't seemed to have harmed although I let it sit for a few days before dry hopping.

[MikeG]

Yes, when I tasted it to see if it was sweet I noticed that it was, obviously raw, but surprisingly nice.

I did wonder if the two transfers got the yeast more mixed up than usual and, therefore, more in contact with sugar. Hey-ho!

[Kev888]

You won't have over-oxygenated the wort with air, just done a decent job of it (though possibly if the fermentation was extremely quick then some may have occurred rather later than desirable). I'd guess that the pitching rate was quite high and/or also the temperature; at that rate the heat generated can be greater so internal temperature can climb more than normal.

It was a bit too fast for my preference, but S-04 is fairly quick by nature and doesn't react too badly to a warmish fermentations (within reason), so hopefully nothing too bad will transpire. I know of a local micro where they aim for fermentations not much longer than that, by pitching decent amounts of yeast and fermenting at about 24c or so; of course the scale means things aren't directly comparable but it doesn't seem to result in anything particularly nasty in the beer.

[Robwalkeragain]

Yea I’d say oxygen. Accidental double dropping!

[LeeH]

That’s some sort of old process isn’t it?


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[Robwalkeragain]

That’s some sort of old process isn’t it?


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Yea, breweries would decant the beer into a tank below from height so it interacted with lots of oxygen during the fermentation. Healthy yeast for cropping, fast clean ferment. Marstons i think?

[Hanglow]

Brakspear did it in the past

Some yeasts need it/rousing/direct o2 as they have higher o2 requirements , some don't at all like us05/chico which have relatively low requirements

[LeeH]

Think I had a beer called double drop.


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[LeeH]

Yes, it was Marston’s and it was turd.

Double Drop Marston's Brewery on Untappd http://untp.beer/m0Kmv


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[Kev888]

I can't say I've tried that particular beer, but FWIW the dropping system itself is pretty effective. It is just that having two vessels to deal with is less efficient than one, so commercially other methods supplanted it. But they pretty much still aim to achieve the same thing of removing the gunk from the wort and introducing oxygen.

[Rookie]

I just did a bitter with Lallemand London ESB yeast that went from 1.040 to 1.012 in about 40 hours.

[Hanglow]

yeah its quick and it drops quick too. Bottle it within a week easy

[Kev888]

I just did a bitter with Lallemand London ESB yeast that went from 1.040 to 1.012 in about 40 hours.

That's probably not excessive (the attenuation isn't huge so it shouldn't take too long, assuming all is well), though I wouldn't wish it any faster. Obviously, a lot depends on the recipe and the brewing, but hopefully it won't drop too much more before FG.