rmw1822
New Member
Hi Everyone,
I brewed 4 beers 2 summers ago with a buddy of mine so I have a little bit of experience brewing but I just started again and trying to relearn some things after not doing it for 2 years. I also am new to a blow off tube, only used stopper and airlock before. But below is some background and the question...
I brewed an American Wheat Beer (extract kit) on Monday and everything went well on brew day. I nailed the OG right on at 1.054. The yeast I used was WLP300 HEFEWEIZEN ALE YEAST as per the guy at the homebrew shop's recommendation that the dry yeast in the kit doesn't usually work as well. I set up a blow off tube because I found a crack in the side of my airlock, but was able to hook the tube and make it work. I have the tube going into a gallon milk jug filled about halfway with sanitized water. It's been about 3 days now since I put it into the fermenter and I haven't seen too much activity, in fact maybe not any as of this morning. Yesterday I was able to see/hear a bubble in the milk jug maybe about every 20-30 seconds. I know from reading some other posts that the CO2 bubbles don't really tell you anything and you need to take the gravity reading to really tell how your fermentation is going. The ambient temperature around the fermentation bucket seems to be around 74-76 degrees F. I know that's on the high side... is it too high? After 3 days of fermenting, will putting it in a cold water bath (or swamp cooler) increase my chances of getting a good result? Is it too late? I just didn't know if trying to cool the temperature after a few days would be a good thing. Any advice would be appreciated.
I brewed 4 beers 2 summers ago with a buddy of mine so I have a little bit of experience brewing but I just started again and trying to relearn some things after not doing it for 2 years. I also am new to a blow off tube, only used stopper and airlock before. But below is some background and the question...
I brewed an American Wheat Beer (extract kit) on Monday and everything went well on brew day. I nailed the OG right on at 1.054. The yeast I used was WLP300 HEFEWEIZEN ALE YEAST as per the guy at the homebrew shop's recommendation that the dry yeast in the kit doesn't usually work as well. I set up a blow off tube because I found a crack in the side of my airlock, but was able to hook the tube and make it work. I have the tube going into a gallon milk jug filled about halfway with sanitized water. It's been about 3 days now since I put it into the fermenter and I haven't seen too much activity, in fact maybe not any as of this morning. Yesterday I was able to see/hear a bubble in the milk jug maybe about every 20-30 seconds. I know from reading some other posts that the CO2 bubbles don't really tell you anything and you need to take the gravity reading to really tell how your fermentation is going. The ambient temperature around the fermentation bucket seems to be around 74-76 degrees F. I know that's on the high side... is it too high? After 3 days of fermenting, will putting it in a cold water bath (or swamp cooler) increase my chances of getting a good result? Is it too late? I just didn't know if trying to cool the temperature after a few days would be a good thing. Any advice would be appreciated.