Hot answers tagged primary-fermentation
13
...and after pitching yeast (6 hours), noticed yellow clusters of what I
think was mold
Mold isn't going to grow within 6 hours of chilling down the wort. What you saw was clumps of yeast from your pitch stuck to the sides of the fermentor or floating on top. Did you rehydrate your yeast (if using dry)?
What I'm getting at is can mold cause ...
10
I don't know, but for the sake of peace of mind, I'd dump the batch if it was me.
The primary concern should be the ingestion of a heavy metal, not bacteria. Wort/beer is acidic, and a quick internet search reveals that lead may partially dissolve in carbonated water and other acids, and that contact with food should be avoided. The answer probably depends ...
9
Assuming that your 1.004 was a typo, and you meant 1.040, you've gotten around 75% apparent attenuation, so the yeast are probably finished, and you should be able to bottle.
Unfortunately, 26C is about 16C too warm for a lager, so you may have an odd tasting lager. It won't necessarily taste bad, but it won't match the style that you were attempting.
5
A healthy fermentation with a strong yeast will tend to produce a larger krausen. You're right about the strain of yeast being a big player, but the best thing you can do is increase your fermentor head space.
In this case, the obvious answer is best: either use a larger carboy or smaller volume of wort. You can also get a little help by fermenting cooler ...
4
Assuming you have a glass carboy for secondary, I recommend going to secondary right now. Since the primary fermentation is done and it's reached it's final gravity, there is no harm in starting secondary early, and you need to have some sort of airlock to prevent infection. Siphon into the carboy and you should be able to dig around through the yeast and ...
4
Welcome to the club! Almost every brewer I know has dropped something in the fermenter at some point. I say leave it there. It will cause no off flavors (if the rubber wasn't inert it wouldn't have been used on the fermenter). At this point you're more likely to cause problems by trying to remove it than if you just left it where it is.
3
Most extract-based lager kits are sold with an ale yeast. This is because most home-brewers don't have the equipment to ferment at a consistent low temperature. You could check the kit to make sure, but it's almost certainly the case that your kit makes a light ale, not a lager.
I've had good luck in the past with WYeast 2112 (California Lager, equivalent ...
3
We had this same thing happen during wort chilling. I believe that most food-grade thermometers do not contain lead or mercury. We confirmed by rigging up some magnets and fishing out all of the pellets (lead is not magnetic). We also made sure to very carefully filter on transfer to remove any remaining glass. The batch turned out great!
The ...
3
I never go past 3 weeks on the primary yeast cake. If left too long the yeast can start to consume some of the trub material and produce "off" flavors. A month probably will be fine and I'm sure there are those who leave it sitting on the trub longer but I like to take it off and play on the safe side.
3
The gravity reading pretty much indicates fermentation was done. Shaking the bucket just knocked the CO2 out of solution, like shaking up a can of soda.
The crud you were trying to get back into the "beverage" is called krausen. Its mostly yeast and other proteins from the malt.
Not knowing your recipe I don't know if you used hops or not as part of the ...
3
Assuming you followed sanitary practices, then I don't think you've wasted any money at all. sounds like a tasty mead...maybe a bit heavy on the ginger, but that's really down to personal preference.
When making mead, it's a good idea to add yeast nutrient with the honey so the yeast have something to propagate from, and remember to airate well, especially ...
2
You probably haven't spoiled your beer, but it sounds like you're not out of the woods yet. It might have a minimal effect on your beer, and if you already put the lid back on, you're probably fine.
First, if you sanitized your bucket properly, then the inside of the lid was all sanitized as well, and I would assume that would take care of the gasket. If ...
2
Sure, you can do an open ferment with the bucket lid partially open. Be certain to pitch plenty of yeast, and airate the wort - you want a short lag time before the yeast start fermenting, to ensure no other microbes take over the wort.
Once fermentation has started, the co2 produced will keep airbourne microbes out of the fermentor.
For a normal gravity ...
2
Yes, this is perfectly normal.
Given your gravity is 1.003, I'm not sure if fermentation actually started, or you just caused some of the CO2 to come out of solution - in both cases you'll get bubbles in the airlock. Ah, 4 days you say, that's quite a long time. It could be that you got "stratification" - bands of higher concentrated sugars at the bottom. ...
2
Nope, you're looking good. Normal, healthy fermentation for most beers completes in about 3-10 days, depending on the yeast and beer in question. Is the first gravity reading you've taken? Wait a couple of days and take another. If it hasn't changed, then fermentation is complete.
At this point your beer has achieved 85% attenuation, which is a little on ...
2
I wouldn't leave it more than 3 weeks in primary. I expect it will be done in 2 weeks max, so you could bottle any time from 2-3 weeks from start of fermentation.
Many will say 4 weeks is fine, but you're definitely in the area of picking up a yeast bite. I've left beers in primary for 4 weeks at 18C and they've been undrinkable.
2
Try starting in the mash or specialty grain to add your coffee flavor. Add some roasted barley to impart that coffee flavor right away. This has given me a good coffee base on many of my brews.
Next, cold extract your coffee using the following technique from Radical Brewing:
This is a way of getting very smooth coffee flavor to add to your
beer. Add ...
1
The best way to tell for sure is to wait. You can't fix the problem if you have one. You just finished primary fermentation: it's not uncommon to have left over yeast all over the place; you haven't cleared your wine yet, whether with time or chemicals.
You can also see many images of others' infections via Google images. If the flowers are just starting to ...
1
Well I for one would never bottle before a week is through. I leave my brews in primary for 3 weeks. Not because it needs to ferment longer but because the beer needs to condition on the yeast.
While your beer may be (and most likely will be) done fermenting after 4-6 days, to round out the flavor I would let it sit at least two weeks.
Kit instructions ...
1
A month is nothing to worry about, and in fact common for many brewers. I leave brews in the primary for 4-6 weeks quite often. The concern the others are referring to is called autolysis. It's very unlikely to happen in a month.
Here's a clip from Palmer for more information about it. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-3.html
1
You will get fruity flavours (particularly green apple), from a warm ferment (source: brewing in Australia in summer without temp control).
I would start to test the gravity, if the SG is within the expected attenuation for the yeast (if you are not sure what that is for the yeast you used, 1.005 - 1.015 is the ballpark) and does not move for a couple of ...
1
Going against the recent dogma. I always rack to secondary for the very useful clarifying effect which is caused by a second round of yeast sedimentation. In primary you are usually good to rack to secondary after the krausen, the yeasty bubbly head, subsides which usually happens simultaneously with reduced activity of bubbling in the airlock. After that I ...
1
For an IPA you typically want to finish in the 1.010 to 1.018 range, so let it go for at least a couple more days and take another gravity. If you want to rack it into secondary at that point go for it, but most of the time an average IPA (especially a beginner's kit) is good to bottle/keg straight from primary. Depending on the type of airlock you are using ...
1
If the specific gravity has gone up, the beer has not fermented. I recommend taking a sanitized spoon, getting a bit of the wort, and tasting it. If it tastes sour or bad, throw it out. If it tastes sweet, put a new packet of yeast in it and try again. If all goes well, the wort should start bubbling about a day after you add the yeast, and bubble vigorously ...
1
There is a product out there called Fermcap-S. You drop a drop or two into the boil or primary and it prevents foam buildup. The ingredients are insoluble and don't seem to affect the flavor or head-retention of the finished product. The ingredients settle out during fermentation. From my experience it works great. I don't even have to watch the boil ...
1
I'd suggest using a pail for a primary instead of a carboy. There seems to be a bit of a Canada/US cultural difference here. I think most Canadian homebrewers would consider the term "primary fermenter" to refer to a large food-grade bucket. The ones we commonly use here are about 40 litres, giving plenty of head-space for a 23-litre batch.
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