Stalled? fouled?... nope just no Grabbity.

[Werner]

So I attempted my first all grain kit brew on Sunday.

Ontario Beer Kits 3 gallon Belgian Table beer (https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Belgian_Table_Beer_p/3galgrain-belgian-table-beer.htm)

My airlock hasn't been seeing any real activity and no bubbles in the airlock starsan solution, so I checked the wort today by lifting my airlock, there are signs there was a very thin krausen that's gone, and a little bit of yeast bloom on the top of the wort, but nothing like what I'd see with the liquid extract kits in yee 'coopers kit' plastic pail brewing I did a few years ago.

I aerated pretty heartily, pitched at 22'C. It's in a steel fermenter in a temperature stable space. The recipe calls for a 21 day primary ferment so I'm wondering if I'm just 'rushing' but everything I've read says I should have more of a krausen and some vigorousness to the yeasties.

Do I wait? Do I get more yeast (t-58) and repitch?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

So you're using T-58 and not WLP530, right? T-58 is usually super-vigorous, it may well have been and gone. What's the current gravity at?

Incidentally, the point of aeration is to allow yeast to make the sterols they need for multiplication. Dry yeast come with reserves of sterols to carry them through 2-3 generations, so they don't really need much aeration.

Also - what was your starting gravity, you did get sugar out of your mash, right? It's kinda normal to not get huge efficiency from your first all-grain brew though.

 

[WBB]

What was your OG? What was the date on the yeast? What’s 22* Celsius in Fahrenheit? Like 70?

I take it t58 was the yeast included?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

What’s 22* Celsius in Fahrenheit? Like 70?

It's literally quicker to Google that than to type what you've just written. 71.6F if you must know.

 

[Werner]

OG on my hand me down bobber was ~1038 (3.5G vol) (was testing in my kettle that liquid level post boil was JUST deeper than the reading point so pretty sure that's off and it was balancing on the bottom, seems I lost my graduated cylinder but Amazon has another on the way), Preboil was ~1020 (4.25G vol), doing BIAB. Did 3.5 Gallon full mash at 151'F then warm rinsed/sparged bags with 160'F to get boil vol and pull a bit more sugars. Color and flavor pre-pitch was where I expected to compare to extracts I've done (but it's been years). I planned to 'come up short' a little on my gravity as I am sure a flubbed something, including readings on my hydrometer because it's ancient/hard to read and I didn't have great test setup.

Safbrew T-58 yeast was what was included, keeping it simple/proven sourced recipes to start.

I'll have to wait till tomorrow to do a proper reading on it, Amazon says my cylinder been delivered so it's probably waiting at my office for me tomorrow.

 

[kh54s10]

With that low of an OG, it could easily have fermented out. And there is not much there so a small krausen could be normal. You will know more when you get the good hydrometer reading.

 

[WBB]

It's literally quicker to Google that than to type what you've just written. 71.6F if you must know.

Wow I was that close with a guess!

 

[Werner]

So,

The graduated cylinder in hand I pulled a sample from the bottom of my fermenter, 1008, no 'is it touching the bottom' nonsense. So I've burned up ~30 points of OG, in 3 days?

Took a taste of the sample its almost beer, but really weak, still has a live yeast flavour and there's yeast visibly in suspension in the wort but at 3 days fermented I'm already 2 points under target FG...

I suspect:

1. my OG was off
2. my mash job was rather "underperforming".
3. yeasties have done the vast majority of the work on what they had...

SOoo, thoughts on what to do? I'm suspecting of I should attempt to save it, I would need to give the yeast more food to get anything other than barley water I have now, if so with what (white sugar, corn syrup I have on hand, do a supplemental mash of oat+rice?, or pick up some DME)?

 

[RM-MN]

This is a "table beer" so it isn't supposed to have a lot of alcohol in it. The kit estimates 4.3%. you have 3.8% now at day 3 and that will probably still go up a little before the yeast completes the ferment. The only things you need to do to this beer is give the yeast conditions so they get all the sugars turned to alcohol that they can and give them the time they need to complete, settle out for clarity, and then bottle it so it carbonates. It will be way different after 2 to 3 weeks in the bottle.

 

[Soulshine2]

It's literally quicker to Google that than to type what you've just written. 71.6F if you must know.

sidebar- If you guys own a modern smart phone go to your calculator . If you play with it you'll find a scale conversion ... theres one for inch to metric ,pounds and ounces to KG and yes, one for F to C ...youre welcome

 

[Soulshine2]

So,

The graduated cylinder in hand I pulled a sample from the bottom of my fermenter, 1008, no 'is it touching the bottom' nonsense. So I've burned up ~30 points of OG, in 3 days?

Took a taste of the sample its almost beer, but really weak, still has a live yeast flavour and there's yeast visibly in suspension in the wort but at 3 days fermented I'm already 2 points under target FG...

I suspect:

1. my OG was off
2. my mash job was rather "underperforming".
3. yeasties have done the vast majority of the work on what they had...

SOoo, thoughts on what to do? I'm suspecting of I should attempt to save it, I would need to give the yeast more food to get anything other than barley water I have now, if so with what (white sugar, corn syrup I have on hand, do a supplemental mash of oat+rice?, or pick up some DME)?

you have 1.010 there. looks about done. Looks a little cloudy still, I'd let it go another couple days to clean up , might get another point or 2 out of it .

 

[kh54s10]

So,

The graduated cylinder in hand I pulled a sample from the bottom of my fermenter, 1008, no 'is it touching the bottom' nonsense. So I've burned up ~30 points of OG, in 3 days?

Took a taste of the sample its almost beer, but really weak, still has a live yeast flavour and there's yeast visibly in suspension in the wort but at 3 days fermented I'm already 2 points under target FG...

I suspect:

1. my OG was off
2. my mash job was rather "underperforming".
3. yeasties have done the vast majority of the work on what they had...

SOoo, thoughts on what to do? I'm suspecting of I should attempt to save it, I would need to give the yeast more food to get anything other than barley water I have now, if so with what (white sugar, corn syrup I have on hand, do a supplemental mash of oat+rice?, or pick up some DME)?

This is a "table beer" so it isn't supposed to have a lot of alcohol in it. It will be way different after 2 to 3 weeks in the bottle.

*30 points in 3 days is pretty normal.
*The yeast has not flocculated. That is why it tastes yeasty. A lot will drop out when it is finished.
*2 points under target. You don't have an accurate OG so target FG is?? Also it is a target. The yeast will consume sugars until they are gone. It is a target based on equations where factors are not constant so the sum is not 100% accurate.
*OG could have been off.
*Mash could have been "underperforming" leading to OG being off.
*Yeasties will have done the majority of the work by day 3, but might not be finished for several more days.
*It seems like your results are close to what the recipe called for. If you want a fuller more alcoholic beer, do not use sugar. Oats or rice need to be mashed with base grains if you went with that. DME would be the best route. But you will change the beer and without hops you could throw the balance off quite a bit.

I would let it finish, if you don't like it try a different kit for the next. Your processes should improve giving you better results in the future.

 

[Werner]

Thanks for the helpful info.

Learning as I go, its been a few years and am now trying to look into actual process and progress of how things actually work.

I'd done a Belgian table as one of my last extract kits years ago and from the vagaries of memory it seemed 'about right' pre-pitch, just had a lot bigger krausen and fermenter airlock was burping away like it was a contest for the first ~4 days so I got worried I'd complete screwed something up with this ag batch being less of a show off.

I'll recheck my gravity Friday and Sunday, if its stable I'll bottle and see what its like after 2 weeks of conditioning. Worst case I've got 'near beer' to make bread with.

 

[Werner]

Well everything has been stable for gravity and yeast settled out nicely, primed with white corn syrup soution, and bottled... Just about 34 bottles... Now more waiting and we'll see if this ends up beer, floor foam or bread starter.

Thanks all for the info thus far!