Fermentation Question.

[tarawa]

Yesterday a friend came over and we started brewing my first ever homebrew. He has three batches under his belt. My choice is a Scottish Wee Heavy. The crew at BXBeer Depot in Lake Worth Florida got me started with everything I needed. Everything seemed to go right. We held the temperatures correctly while making the wort. Everything chilled down to around 70 degrees before adding yeast in the fermenter. We added yeast and sealed the bucket around 4PM yesterday. Right now my teperature is at 75 - 76 degrees F. It has been over 24 hours and I am just starting to see movement of the airlock. Not bubbling yet, just some movement. Is this normal. I used a liquid "slap pack" yeast if it means anything.
Thanks in advance.
geo

 

[duboman]

Search swamp cooler and get your temps down to the mid 60's would be my advice. Not that the beer won't ferment but it will throw off some esters at warm temps and give off a fruity profile that you may or may not care for

 

[Lopsy]

^^^

Yup fermentation temperature control is one of the major things people overlook when they begin, but one of the biggest influences in your beer. Start controlling those temps and you'll enjoy your beer much more. Other than that, welcome and enjoy the ride!

Whatever size equipment you are considering to upgrade to, double it and then buy it all in stainless.

 

[BigFloyd]

The reason for the delay in visible activity is very likely that you way underpitched your yeast. Wee heavies typically have an OG around 1.080. Without making a yeast starter, you should have pitched 4 smack packs to get the correct number of cells. In the future, until you get set up to make yeast starters, it's better to use dry yeast. One pack of that for an ale is good up to 5 gallons of 1.060 wort.

Also, assuming that you're measuring your temp on the fermenter vessel, you're about 10*F too warm. If it's your air temp, you're high by about 15*F. At those temps, I'm afraid that you're going to get off-flavors and maybe some fusel alcohol (the kind that gives you a headache).

 

[cms2bit]

Ok... So I'm new to this amazing world of making one's own alcohol... My first wine is ready for racking to bottles on the 4th yay holiday!! But I have a question... I and making gallon batches if cider as well and am reading and learning as much as I can in multiple forums. I keep seeing people prime their yeast. So far I just pitch strait into my primary... So the question I have is... What does priming the yeast do for the fermentation process?

 

[Lopsy]

For dry yeast, you can and should "rehydrate" it by:


1) Boiling about 1/2 cup of water
2) let it cool to about 105F
3) be sure everything is sanitized
4) Pour the dry yeast into the water and give it a gentle swirl
5) let it do it's thing for about 30 minutes before pitching it into your chilled wort.

This enables the yeast to build up their cell walls because they are rather fragile in a dried state. Someone can give you a more scientific background to this if you wish or pick up "Yeast" by Chris White and Jamil.

For liquid yeast people make a "starter". I won't outline the steps here, you can find that on here very easily. A starter is mainly for proper pitching rate and also for proper yeast health. Proper pitching rate ensures proper attenuation and ester production (good and/or bad flavors).

Certain beers like a saison and hefeweizen could benefit from under pitching because it forced the yeast to multiply more. During multiplication is when they produce esters. And these ester flavors are signatures of the styles.

Don't worry about pitching rate as much as temp control on your fermentation.

 

[cms2bit]

Does the same hold for wine and cider as well?

 

[tarawa]

I ended up re-yeasting on Tuesday. I used a packaged yeast that I sprinkled into the wort and gently mixed. It immediately started to work. My temperatures were still high at 76 degrees. I am finally swamp cooling and the temperature has dropped a couple degrees. I picked up a commercial countertop Pepsi cooler and ordered a digital temp control on Amazon. I hope it isnt too little too late, but the bulk of the fermentation will be in the fridge hopefully. I will swamp cool until everything is set up. Since I have no idea what to expect taste wise, I wont know what off tastes developed during the warm fermentation. I am sure my second batch will be better. As for now I have my brew fermenting in the master bedroom...swamp cooled...and a Pepsi cooler in my dining room.

 

[BigFloyd]

I ended up re-yeasting on Tuesday. I used a packaged yeast that I sprinkled into the wort and gently mixed. It immediately started to work. My temperatures were still high at 76 degrees. I am finally swamp cooling and the temperature has dropped a couple degrees. I picked up a commercial countertop Pepsi cooler and ordered a digital temp control on Amazon. I hope it isnt too little too late, but the bulk of the fermentation will be in the fridge hopefully. I will swamp cool until everything is set up. Since I have no idea what to expect taste wise, I wont know what off tastes developed during the warm fermentation. I am sure my second batch will be better. As for now I have my brew fermenting in the master bedroom...swamp cooled...and a Pepsi cooler in my dining room.

No worries. If this batch isn't to your liking due to flavors produced by the warm fermentation, you can be confident that the next one using active temp control will be really good. With the kind of temps you've been hitting during the most crucial time, it may end up kind of funky-tasting. Extended conditioning will hopefully help it out. You'll never know until you taste it.

 

[tarawa]

After a somewhat slow start with re-yeastng and such, my ale is in the carboy with the temperature at 65 degrees. It has been a week today. The ale (Scottish Wee Heavy recipe) smelled good to me an is a nice color brown. There is no foam on top now and an occasional bubble forms in the bubbler. Is this normal? I guess I will find out in a few weeks. Thanks for the great advice.

 

[Kiichi]

After a somewhat slow start with re-yeastng and such, my ale is in the carboy with the temperature at 65 degrees. It has been a week today. The ale (Scottish Wee Heavy recipe) smelled good to me an is a nice color brown. There is no foam on top now and an occasional bubble forms in the bubbler. Is this normal? I guess I will find out in a few weeks. Thanks for the great advice.

Sounds normal so far. Let is sit at least one more week and start taking gravity readings maybe within that week if you can.
Give the yeast time to clean of some of the off flavours. And make sure fermentation is done before you bottle (only way to be sure is doing said gravity readings).

I think the brew will be enjoyable enough, even if you got some extra esters and fruitry off flavours. Depending on the yeast those can be interresting too.
Also you just know that the next one will be even better =)

 

[ngunsch]

Just a quick note about the eventual taste of your beer. Wee Heavies take months of conditioning to get all the flavors right. My suggestion, once you bottle, is to stick them in the basement and forget about them until Thanksgiving. Obviously you'll want to taste one prior to that, but just be aware that it most likely will not be done yet. This is one style that REALLY improves w age.

Cheers!

 

[BigFloyd]

Just a quick note about the eventual taste of your beer. Wee Heavies take months of conditioning to get all the flavors right. My suggestion, once you bottle, is to stick them in the basement and forget about them until Thanksgiving. Obviously you'll want to taste one prior to that, but just be aware that it most likely will not be done yet. This is one style that REALLY improves w age.

Cheers!

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.

Brew a wee heavy or a chocolate sweet/milk stout now for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.

 

[tarawa]

I finally bottled my Scottish ale today. I only yielded 24 22oz bottles. i got to admit, it smelled great. I ended up with a a reading of 4.1% alc /vol. A little low but not too bad. I have it back in the co,oler for a while at 64 degrrees. I will try one in a few weeks.

 

[BigFloyd]

I finally bottled my Scottish ale today. I only yielded 24 22oz bottles. i got to admit, it smelled great. I ended up with a a reading of 4.1% alc /vol. A little low but not too bad. I have it back in the co,oler for a while at 64 degrrees. I will try one in a few weeks.

It's actually better to do the bottle conditioning around 70-75*F.

 

[tarawa]

It's actually better to do the bottle conditioning around 70-75*F.

I will raise the temperature! Thanks!

 

[tarawa]

Will the alcohol content come up with bottle conditioning or is it pretty much set?

 

[BigFloyd]

Will the alcohol content come up with bottle conditioning or is it pretty much set?

Whatever it was when you finished fermenting is your ABV.

Bottle carbing/conditioning has a very minimal effect on alcohol content.