Newbie fermentation question / Experiment proposal

[Brauman]

Fellow Homebrewers!

On Monday I ventured into the realms of 1 gallon brewing, starting this quest with a Caribou Slobber from the Norther Brewers. A one gallon batch, pitching -as directed - half the package of Windsor Ale Yeast. I installed the airlock, suspecting it would blow off, which it did at some point in the night from mon to tue, so installed a blowoff hose, etc. As I left for work the beer was bubbling away like mad, much to my pleasure, but once I returned home ~ 9hrs later, there was nothing happening. nada. no bubbling, no frothing, nihl. No foam no krausen. Maybe the sporadic bubble every now and so often, but that's it. temp is ~68-70 so i don't think it's an enviromental probelm. Did I perhaps suffocate the yeast, when I installed the blowoff tube?
So what I am thinking is, I'll keep it in the fermentor for 10 days or so, then I'll rack it, add some DME/fermaid to it and pitch another round of yeast.
Has anyone done this before?
Any idea why the fermentation stopped so rapidly?

I'm doing the 1 gallon so I can get creative, so I welcome creative suggestions.


:rockin:

 

[broadbill]

Sounds normal to me....especially at the elevated temps you have going on there.

You also added alot of yeast. If one packet is good for 5 gallon, and you added 1/2 packet, you added enough for 2.5 gallons into a 1 gallon batch.

 

[hogwash]

I'm with broadbill. The yeast tore through that one gallon in no time. I've never used Windsor but I've heard it's a beast, as in a fast worker. I wouldn't add anything to it but I'd let it sit a week or so before bottling.

 

[Brauman]

Thanks gentlemen. I guess I'll leave it be. Dammed yeast is volatile like my lady.
Say I would rake the beer into a secondary fermentor and add more sweets and yeast to it. What should I expect?

 

[meridianomrebel]

Thanks gentlemen. I guess I'll leave it be. Dammed yeast is volatile like my lady.
Say I would rake the beer into a secondary fermentor and add more sweets and yeast to it. What should I expect?

The problem with moving the beer into secondary and adding more fermentables is that it'll negate the idea behind moving it into secondary (unless you're just wanting to get it off of the yeast cake in the primary and creating another in your secondary). Normally you would only add non-fermentables in your secondary (such as hops, additional flavorings, etc..).

I'd highly suggest reading the How To Brew by John Palmer (free read) at his site - http://www.howtobrew.com/. It helped me out greatly on learning the "why's" and "what's going on".

Good luck!

 

[ACbrewer]

take a hydrometer reading or if you don't want to do that (usually about 3 to 4 oz in most test vessels) then take a 1/2 oz - enough for a taste, that will tell you if it has fermented.

 

[hogwash]

Thanks gentlemen. I guess I'll leave it be. Dammed yeast is volatile like my lady.
Say I would rake the beer into a secondary fermentor and add more sweets and yeast to it. What should I expect?

You risk oxidizing the beer and infection by adding more fermentables. If you choose to do so, you can expect a higher gravity and maltier beer with lower IBUs than your existing beer. You probably won't need to add more yeast.

Again, I would leave it alone and let it sit for a few days then bottle it.