I just got back into brewing after a 20 year hiatus. For my 5th batch, I made an all grain Hop Head Red clone recipe I got off BeerSmith: http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/91392/hop-head-red
I prepared a yeast starter the day before using the White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast and everything went great on brew date. I ended up with approximately 6 gallons of wort with an OG of 1.065 instead of the recipe's OG of 1.073. I pitched the yeast at 9 p.m. and by 7 a.m. the next morning, it was fermenting like crazy. I have a 7 gallon stainless steel conical fermenter and have never had to use a blow off hose instead of an airlock until this batch. Unfortunately, the temperature in my garage was hotter than usual and the internal temperature during the peak of fermentation was 75 degrees. After one week, the activity and temperature dropped down to 70 degrees. At that point the SG was 1.017 just like the recipe said it should be, so I assumed it had reached Final Gravity. I drank some of the sample I took to measure the SG and it tasted and looked like mud. I opened the bottom valve on days 5 and 7 to drain trub and yeast off. On other batches, it drains out slowly like toothpaste. However, on this batch, it came out like real watery mud. It's now been 2 1/2 weeks and the SG has continued to drop. It is now at 1.013. It still looks and tastes like mud. In addition, every 3-5 days, i opened the bottom valve a little bit to see if the consistency of what's on the bottom has thickened up; it hasn't. I don't think I've ever had a beer ferment for this long or had so little yeast settle to the bottom. Is there something wrong? Did the fermentation temperature of 75 degrees do something? I am trying to be patient and just wait it out, but am curious of my experience with this batch is unusual. Thanks in advance.
I prepared a yeast starter the day before using the White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast and everything went great on brew date. I ended up with approximately 6 gallons of wort with an OG of 1.065 instead of the recipe's OG of 1.073. I pitched the yeast at 9 p.m. and by 7 a.m. the next morning, it was fermenting like crazy. I have a 7 gallon stainless steel conical fermenter and have never had to use a blow off hose instead of an airlock until this batch. Unfortunately, the temperature in my garage was hotter than usual and the internal temperature during the peak of fermentation was 75 degrees. After one week, the activity and temperature dropped down to 70 degrees. At that point the SG was 1.017 just like the recipe said it should be, so I assumed it had reached Final Gravity. I drank some of the sample I took to measure the SG and it tasted and looked like mud. I opened the bottom valve on days 5 and 7 to drain trub and yeast off. On other batches, it drains out slowly like toothpaste. However, on this batch, it came out like real watery mud. It's now been 2 1/2 weeks and the SG has continued to drop. It is now at 1.013. It still looks and tastes like mud. In addition, every 3-5 days, i opened the bottom valve a little bit to see if the consistency of what's on the bottom has thickened up; it hasn't. I don't think I've ever had a beer ferment for this long or had so little yeast settle to the bottom. Is there something wrong? Did the fermentation temperature of 75 degrees do something? I am trying to be patient and just wait it out, but am curious of my experience with this batch is unusual. Thanks in advance.
