Bottling time

Airlock activity doesn't tell you too much. If you are at 1.030 on multiple readings and that was what you were shooting for, sounds like you are ready. What was the OG?

 

Air lock activity can mean a lot of things, some of which don't equal yeast activity. It could be expanding CO2 due to increasing summer temperatures. The best way to know if your yeast have reached their terminal gravity is through expected attenuation and through gravity samples over time. If you have reached your expected attenuation and your gravity hasn't changed over a week or two then you should be good to bottle.

 

If your beer has the same gravity reading a week apart? The yeast are done. Now hgopefully the beer will carbonate! Good luck.

 

kjyost made a comment of “Now hopefully the beer will carbonate!”

Since you made mention of “relatively high gravity stout” it might be a very good idea to add some yeast during the bottling process. I recently bottled a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that had an OG of 1,084. I added US-05 yeast during the bottling process to ensure that I had a sufficient amount of viable yeast to obtain carbonation. My BSDA carbonated just fine (with that addition).

Cheers!

 

Your airlock is wobbling because it is drunk, don't judge.
Sounds like you are OK to bottle.

 

Is that what that word sounds like when you hiccup? Apparently the air lock isn't the only thing drunk around here.

As other's have mentioned, don't worry about the air lock. I'd also like to know how old your beer is. With just about any high gravity beer, I'll repitch some extra yeast. I've bottled over 30 batches of beer and I've had 2 that did not prime. Let me tell you what a pain in the ass it is to pry 50 bottle caps off beer and individually repitch yeast into each of them.

Also for bottling day, grab a buddy and offer a 6er to him. You fill, he caps. It'll cut an hour off this process and your back will thank you.

 

I had a beer to broke up into 3 parts ferment down to 1.030 when I thought it would go lower. I used different yeasts for all 3 parts, after doing some research I found out my mash temp was probably too high so some of the sugars were just not ferment-able. Lucky for me it made for a big bodies pint of deliciousness every time.

Sometimes attenuation of a big beer can be because you didn't have enough yeast. If you can get a hold of a stir plate get one, especially if you are doing 1.110 beers... Either way though, you should be doing a starter. For a beer that big it would be even better to do a 2 step starter to build up the yeast count. It might be worth looking into an O2 stone as well. Oxygen helps in yeast replication, the stir plate helps keep the yeast in suspension and it aerates the wort a bit and doing a starter builds up your yeast count as well as "wakes up" the yeast to get them ready to go to work. So any of those steps with help improve the condition of your yeast, even if you get get a small starter going on brew day and swirl it around every hour.

When I added extra yeast at bottling I just dropped it in the bottling bucket and stirred up really good, just like my priming sugar mixture.

 

Yep. A flask, a growler, or an empty milk jug. Something really expensive like that. Seriously, the benfits of making starters outweigh the benefits (if any) of a secondary fermenter. (IMO.)

Edit: you don't have to be harvesting yeast in order to get the benefits of starters.

 

One benefit is cost saving, $8 a smack pack here.

1 smack pack is 100 billion cells, but if I use a stirplate I'm looking at having about 300 billion for bigger beers. I prefer not to spend $24 just on the yeast.

 

When you allow the yeast to "wake up" they perform better and create less off flavors. There are different camps but typically you have a yeast starter with a lower gravity. A lot of people just do 1.020 to 1.030 and dont do anything to match it to their wort gravity. Its like stepping in cooler water on the way to and ice bath. If you dump them in the wort without a starter it makes fine beer, starters are just another way to refine your process. The first starters I did were in 64 ounce growlers. I put aluminum foil on them and squirreled them when I saw them.

 

Jeff, are you using dry yeast or liquid yeast? The two types make a BIG difference in this discussion.

Cheers!

 

Ouch, but then again your brewing some big beers.

I think Jack has spotted it. For the price you must be using dry yeast, right? If so then a starter isn't needed. What you have been doing sounds the way to go. (I'm a newb as well so others may disagree). From my understanding with dry yeast a starter can actually be bad for the yeast as it depletes its cell reserves.

 

No, as boozecamel said, starter is not needed for dry yeast. Some people don't even rehydrate (though I do read that it is beneficial to do so).

However, when using liquid yeast (if you do change it up), you'd want a starter to make sure you are not under pitching which could lead to off flavors. Regardless you are making beer, but you can make better beer by pitching a suitable amount of yeast.