Safale s 05 problems

[bulgarianbrewmaster]

I'm making a dark orange ale and after I cooled my wort down to 72 I pitched 8.5 grams of yeast into my 2.8 gallons of wort and the 1st day it would only bubble once every 28 seconds and now it's 6 days later and it's only doing one bubble every 31 seconds. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I even put a brew belt on it to keep it at 70 f so idk what's wrong

 

[bleme]

70F is a little higher than I prefer to keep US-05 but it sounds like your only real problem is watching the airlock.

Cool your wort. Sanitize. Aerate. Let the yeast do their thing. Worrying will just give you ulcers.

 

[bulgarianbrewmaster]

Sounds good thanks man

 

[ZombieBrew83]

Shoot, I don't think I've ever had airlock activity after 6 days with S-05. You're just done with active fermentation. As bleme said, try keeping it a little cooler the next time. I like to stay around 65 with S-05.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

ICan someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

First thing I see is that you're counting airlock bubbles to gauge fermentation. Not a good plan. Second, an ambient of 70 is a bit warm for that (or most any) ale yeast. Probably want to bring ambient down to around 65 or so.

 

[Toga]

There is nothing wrong. You are just near the end of the fermentation process. Airlock activity is not an accurate way to gauge if fermentation is complete as the others have stated. It is simply a good indicator. If it has been only 6 days there is likely to be some activity still happening. Let it roll for another week or three then bottle or keg.

BTW you can ferment s-05 as high as 75 with no issues or off flavors. Be sure to keep the ambient temp much lower of course as heat generated by fermentation will bring the temp up by 5-8 degrees on the average.

 

[DoctorDuvel]

RDW (unless your ferm. temp. is too high) HAHB

 

[Yankeepride15]

If you're watching that airlock I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but S-5 ain't one.