Hello all, Recently I purchased the Catalyst fermenter & have been very impressed with the trub trap at the bottom. With that being said, I noticed something last night after I did my second trub removal. After I reassembled everything, I noticed I was not able to get my airlock to bubble. Normally, if I push on the lid of the tank, it will force a bubble or two - last night; however, I was not getting anything (as well as this morning). Does this indicate that air is leaking somewhere? Please let me know, thank you all very much!
Also, to add - it’s been about 9 days since I pitched the yeast, so fermentation has significantly quieted down. With that being said though, I haven’t seen any bubbles at all since last night (which makes me also hesitant of a leak). The OG was around 1.065ish and last night it was about 1.030-1.035ish (making an IPA). Thanks!
Well its really hard to say if your fermentation has stopped or not we would need some more details as in what kind and how much yeast did you pitch? did you make a starter? what temp did you pitch the yeast? what was your fermentation temperature? how did you aerate the wort? mash temp and time? By looking as your gravity right now your beer has not finished attenuating, but by providing us some more details we can help you a little better. As for the air leak part its hard to say with out being in front of the fermenter. Cheers!
Your 1.030-1.035 reading is a bit high, so it's likely that fermentation should go a little further. What was the recipe's expected FG? You can try rousing the yeast by shaking the fermentor a bit, or if you are fermenting at a temp below 70, move the fermentor to a place around 70 or so to see if those little buggers will work a little more with a warmer climate. But like @TooHopToHandle wrote above, more info about your yeast type and pitch rate would also help identify if you have a problem.
@jdulb, you aren't by any chance measuring gravity with a refractometer, are you? Because your gravity reading sounds high for 9 days into fermentation of a beer with that original gravity. When you use a refractometer, once there is alcohol in solution you have to use a calculator to adjust your reading. This one seems pretty easy to use (my old favorite, Sean Terrill's, seems to have gone offline—hopefully that's temporary). So anyway I suspect your fermentation is done, your true FG is considerably lower than your refractometer is indicating (because you need to run the number through a calculator), and that's why you're not observing bubbles. But I could be wrong, in which case, sorry, I have no insight into your situation.
Should you really be removing the yeast cake from the beer before fermentation is done? Not an expert here but I don't think you really want to do that until you have hit your finished gravity.
@minderbender I am! That make sense! I have both (hydrometer, too), but have tended to use the refractometer due to ease of use. I will check the calculator & see, thanks for pointing that out! @Mothergoose03 the final OG on the recipe is 1.012 - 1.016. With what minderbender said, I’m going to recalculate and see if it’s a bit more reasonable. I’ll try giving it a shake though & see if that excites them at all. Maintaining temp has been tough :/ I have an apartment & ferment in my closet, where the wall is against the outside (making it colder). The adhesive thermometer is in “full color” for 72 & 68, and then 64 is partially lit. I’ve been turning on a heater here & there, but I think I will invest in temperature control for future brews. @TooHopTooHandle it was wyeast liquid yeast (American ale). I used one pack & it was around 75-80 I believe. I did not aerate, but want to in the future! Thank you all!
Well I've got some good news. Assuming your OG was 1.065, that corresponds to 15.9 Brix (according to this site). Assuming your refractometer is reading 1.033, that corresponds to 8.3 Brix (same site). Plugging those into the Northern Brewer calculator, your current gravity is 1.013, just about what you were expecting. Your fermentation is almost certainly done, no need to shake it or anything. In fact you're probably ready to bottle, though some would advise you to take another gravity reading in a couple of days to make sure. That said, @donspublic made a good point. I've never used a fermenter like that, but it seems to me you shouldn't be dumping yeast/trub so early in the process. You don't want your beer sitting on yeast for extended periods of time (unless that's part of the style, as with lambic), but in the short run (2-3 weeks) the yeast is still helpful because it is cleaning up fermentation by-products. And you certainly don't want to be dumping yeast before fermentation is complete. [Edited to add: Your pitch temperature was also a bit high. I would advise getting the wort down to fermentation temperature or a bit below before adding the yeast. This time of year, in Indiana, I would think your tap water is plenty cold to get the wort down to a reasonable temperature if you have a wort chiller. But, don't worry about it for this beer, just something to think about in the future.]
You could nail it down for sure and transfer it into a glass secondary fermenter. Then you could see for yourself. #longlivesecondaryfermentation
