a little worried...

[somethingoriginal]

I used a liquid pitchable yeast, I left it out all day and vigorously shook it before pitching, BUT I noticed it was pretty chunky still as I pitched it... did it not reach the level of suspension necessary for proper fermentation? I checked the next day and the airlock was bubbling nicely, but I'm now three days into fermentation and the bubbling has slowed down significantly (a bubble every 12 or so seconds)... is my batch ruined?

 

[Gduck]

Some strains of yeast clump like cottage cheese or wet clay, others are really powdery. Just properties of the floculation of the yeast. So don't worry, plenty of yeast went to work on your beer.

As for slowing down after three days there is nothing unusual about that. A bubbling airlock isn't an accurate indication of fermentation activity. All it really shows is gases escaping solution. Sit back, relax, give the yeast the time to do their business and your beer is going to be just fine.

 

[Briz34]

agree with gduck! perfectly normal

 

[somethingoriginal]

thanks a **** ton! I can rest easy now

 

[Cyclman]

If they are healthy, and the beer is well oxygenated, the yeast will find the sugar, no worries.

Welcome to the group, from CO.

Worry is the typical state of the homebrewer, then they get a dozen batches under their belt and realize with good process, it is fairly difficult to screw up beer. You can always get better, but a good brewer doesn't often make bad beers.

 

[kh54s10]

Probably normal. Two things come to mind which you can address on your next brew. With liquid yeast you should make a starter. You can find information at mrmalty,com and yeastcalc.com. And you need to control the fermentation temperature of the wort. You can do this with a "swamp cooler". This would be a container to hold water, the fermenter and ice bottles, rotated as necessary to keep the temperature.