New brewer w old question

[leedspointbrew]

Good morning from Leeds Point NJ. I've been brewing for just under a year - two successful extract batches (Block Party Amber, Peace 2nd Crack Coffee Stout) and several (6) all-grain brews of various success levels, mainly due to temperature control, which I think that I recently got under control with a keg cooler and some frozen 1 liters.
Latest brew is a 3-gl Schwarzbier w Mangrove Jack's M-54 yeast. Mashed at 152, boiled w Perle at 60 minutes, pitched yeast at 65 degrees, and started fermentation at same temp. Normal airlock activity after two days, then completely stopped. No krausen, very little trub. As far as I could tell, everything was very properly sanitized. Does this sound like a yeast issue? Does anyone have experience with this particular yeast?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Welcome to HomebrewTalk.

 

[Sammy86]

Good morning from Leeds Point NJ. I've been brewing for just under a year - two successful extract batches (Block Party Amber, Peace 2nd Crack Coffee Stout) and several (6) all-grain brews of various success levels, mainly due to temperature control, which I think that I recently got under control with a keg cooler and some frozen 1 liters.
Latest brew is a 3-gl Schwarzbier w Mangrove Jack's M-54 yeast. Mashed at 152, boiled w Perle at 60 minutes, pitched yeast at 65 degrees, and started fermentation at same temp. Normal airlock activity after two days, then completely stopped. No krausen, very little trub. As far as I could tell, everything was very properly sanitized. Does this sound like a yeast issue? Does anyone have experience with this particular yeast?

Sounds like you missed it...check the gravity and see where you are at. Remember yeasts are living organisms and are going to do what they want, when they want and how they see fit.

Edit: Welcome to HBT from CT!

 

[Sunfire96]

Have you taken a gravity reading? Did your recipe have a lot of specialty grains or adjuncts? I've brewed a Czech Dark lager with that same yeast, fermented in the mid 60s, and had about 90% base malts. It finished out primary fermentation in 8 days

 

[leedspointbrew]

Just took a reading of 1.02. That seems about right, since it's not done fermenting yet, but fast.

 

[Sunfire96]

Two days does seem fast for the krausen to drop, but it is a lager yeast so sometimes there's just not as much krausen as an ale yeast

Definitely let it keep going, it potentially will take 7 or more days to hit FG. You could try warming it up a few degrees to make sure the yeast have some extra energy. If it comes out too sweet you could always add cocoa or coconut and make a flavored dark lager

 

[Sunfire96]

I'm also curious about your grain bill, if you wouldn't mind posting it

 

[leedspointbrew]

 

[Golddiggie]

How long from yeast pitch until it went active? How long has it been active?

For reference, I brewer on Saturday, yeast went ballistic overnight (looks like was going at less than 6 hours from pitch) and is still going ape. Most of my batches are done fermenting in about 3-4 days from yeast going active. They might creep down another SG point, or two, but that's about all. Either way, I give all my ales at least a week to do additional 'cleanup' post fermentation before I start the additional steps (chill to harvest yeast, etc.).

Something else you'll learn over the years, airlocks are NOT how you judge fermentation activity. Unless you have a fermenter that is 100% sealed, CO2 can leak out at other locations. I'm using conical fermenters (rated to 15psi working pressure) that ARE completely sealed. A spunding valve is how I make sure I maintain the desired fermenting pressure level for the batch/recipe. I'm also using Tilt Pro units in each of my conical fermenters (along with the repeaters to connect to the Tilt Pi a few feet away). This means I can actually look and see when things went active (initial SG dropping) and how long it's been at the current SG (for when it finishes). It's a good tool to use for tracking the process. I'm finding, however, that some recipes it doesn't read as accurately for the OG as the digital hydrometer I have (after letting the sample settle).

Either way, give the yeast the time it needs to finish it's job. IMO/IME, eventually you SHOULD learn to relax and just leave them along.

 

[leedspointbrew]

To update this post : I racked the black ale to secondary a week after my initial post, and then botttled the next weekend. The beer, despite my apprehensions, turned out pretty well (probably a little too much Carafa, but that's a completely different story). Thanks for the input. I'll just have to learn to be more patient and not worry so much about visible cues and keep taking those readings.