Is this normal?
My Beer won't stop fermenting!
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maltymike
My Beer won't stop fermenting!
I made one of Paul at Barley Bottom's Bitter and Twisted three weeks ago. It is in a barrel with an air lock on and keeps plopping away about every 5 minutes. Measured the gravity yesterday and it was 1014. The starting gravity was 1042. I want to bottle this beer, I presume I should wait for it to stop fermenting before I do? The last lot I made had finished in 2 weeks and was in the bottle. The Yeast is S04.
Is this normal?
Is this normal?
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the_great_okapi
S04 usually gets down to FG within 1 week in my hands, maybe it wasn't in tip top shape during the fermentation.
I thought S04 has an attenuation of 70-75% so it should stop at 1012-1013 for the lower estimate of attenuation (42-(42*0.7)=12.6). It could in fact be higher, to 1011, if your wort is particularly fermentable. That would mean it was probably still going at 1014.
Maybe you could wait a few more days, keeping it around 20 C?
I thought S04 has an attenuation of 70-75% so it should stop at 1012-1013 for the lower estimate of attenuation (42-(42*0.7)=12.6). It could in fact be higher, to 1011, if your wort is particularly fermentable. That would mean it was probably still going at 1014.
Maybe you could wait a few more days, keeping it around 20 C?
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maltymike
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hoppingMad
I've started doing the Fast Ferment Test recently:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... rment_Test
This tells you, apart from a couple of other important things, where your beer will stop fermenting on the SG scale. Therefore allowing you to tell how much more CO2 will be produced.
Sounds nerdy but its really quite simple, has to be for me
I have performed the test from a sample taken when almost down to 1.020. Although you normally start with fresh wort at the same time as regular pitching. The test then indicated my beer would stop at 1.012, which it did.
You could do your test from your already well attenuated wort, in virtually one day, allowing you to know when to bottle before its finished attenuating with just the right carbonation.
Draw off enough beer to perform a gravity reading, usually 100 mls. Add yeast, any yeast, even bread yeast will do it ( you're not making beer, you are establishing the limit of attenuation for that beer) leave in a warm place, say 18-24 degrees C. It will finish in about a day ot two ( longer for a fresh wort ) Check the SG and bottle when the beer has between 1 and 3 gravity points left to go depending on the style.
The FF test is also a way of determining how well your yeast is attenuating and how your mash has effected the result, it can help with identifying poor yeast performance due to a number of variables, but the point is, you know your yeast was performing or it wasn't.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... rment_Test
This tells you, apart from a couple of other important things, where your beer will stop fermenting on the SG scale. Therefore allowing you to tell how much more CO2 will be produced.
Sounds nerdy but its really quite simple, has to be for me
I have performed the test from a sample taken when almost down to 1.020. Although you normally start with fresh wort at the same time as regular pitching. The test then indicated my beer would stop at 1.012, which it did.
You could do your test from your already well attenuated wort, in virtually one day, allowing you to know when to bottle before its finished attenuating with just the right carbonation.
Draw off enough beer to perform a gravity reading, usually 100 mls. Add yeast, any yeast, even bread yeast will do it ( you're not making beer, you are establishing the limit of attenuation for that beer) leave in a warm place, say 18-24 degrees C. It will finish in about a day ot two ( longer for a fresh wort ) Check the SG and bottle when the beer has between 1 and 3 gravity points left to go depending on the style.
The FF test is also a way of determining how well your yeast is attenuating and how your mash has effected the result, it can help with identifying poor yeast performance due to a number of variables, but the point is, you know your yeast was performing or it wasn't.
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macleanb
Are you guys sure this is not just dissolved CO2 slowly coming out of solution (Particularly in respect to the recent warm spell)
I had my Daabs ESB in a secondary with airlock for a couple of weeks and it consistently let rip the occaisional bubble every few minutes, but the SG didnt seem to change over this time (well if it did it was very small)
I had my Daabs ESB in a secondary with airlock for a couple of weeks and it consistently let rip the occaisional bubble every few minutes, but the SG didnt seem to change over this time (well if it did it was very small)