after transport beer stopped fermenting

[GatorWayne]

My son and I brewed up a batch of Pink Elephant on Saturday. Everything went great and by Sunday morning the airlock was pumping away. He lives 2 hours away and took the beer home with him in the afternoon. He put it in the tub and added tap water. There was a little bit of activity with the airlock. Today he said there was none. He has kept the bucket sealed except for a quick peek through the grommet hole. Ambient temperature at his place is in the low 70s.

My advice so far has been to drain the tub and wait. If nothing happens in the next day or two, buy another yeast pack (wyeast), pop the nutrient sack, let it expand on top of the bucket so the temps are the same, add it, close up the bucket, and swirl to mix.

Any other ideas he might try? I told him I’m going to post and he will check later for the discussion.

 

[RM-MN]

Tell him to relax, the beer is fine, the yeast know what to do and they are doing it. Here's what's going on in the fermenter. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[Rhumbline]

You've gotten good advice. It's entirely normal for fermentation to be vigorous for a few days at the beginning and then settle down into a slow second phase.

Check the yeast you used, what are the target fermentation temps? You want to be within the recommended range.

 

[h4ckluserr]

The son here. After several days of no activity, I picked up a hydrometer from a brew store here. Ended up still sitting at 1.05 as of Wednesday night. 72 hours (four days) into fermenting. Gatorwayne and I talked about it, and decided that re-pitching would be helpful. The recipe indicates that the end gravity should be 1.007. Far from where it sits right now.

Fingers crossed!