Hello everyone, I am a new brewer and started my fist batch (pale ale) last Saturday. (July first around 8pm.) I noticed that after I pitched the yeast it was fermenting with in an hour and at a very fast rate. The bubbler was still going very fast around 9am the next morning. On Wednesday I noticed it had slowed to a bubble every 2 to 5 minutes. Now one week later the bubbling has stopped. Is my brew ruined? Some notes from brew day: Yeast pitching temp was 70° The fermenter is sitting at 70-72° The gravity reading (if I did this right) was 1.060 I used 1 pack of dry ale yeast that I sprinkled into the fermenter. Any tips would be great for future brews. Thanks y'all.
There is nothing in your description that would make me think your beer is necessarily compromised. I think it likely that the bulk of your fermentation is finished, but there is no reason to rush things. Take another gravity reading. Taste the sample. How is it? Wait a few days and repeat. If the gravity has stopped dropping and the sample tastes good, feel free to package.
Are you saying this was your final gravity(FG) reading? It looks a lot like an original gravity(OG) reading for a pale ale. If it was your FG, what was the OG?
Sorry, I just noticed that 1.060 was from brew day. So, that's your OG. I'll be curious to see what your FG is. For the most accurate reading, be sure to cool down your next gravity sample to the temperature at which your hydrometer is calibrated; typically 60F. Although I understand some hydrometers are calibrated at 68F - I don't own one of those. It should say somewhere on your hydrometer what it is calibrated for.
I agree with @pweis909 that your beer is probably close to being ready for packaging. Fermentation can be finicky depending on yeast variety, its health, adequate pitch rate, and fermentation conditions. And you can have it start quickly like you experienced or it could take a couple days to get going. It has never bubbled evenly throughout the fermentation process for me, so don't expect that kind of action. It usually starts slowly and then reaches a peak with rapid bubbling shortly after that, then a slow decline. It can take up to two weeks for many beers, or even longer for some beers, especially high gravity beers. Take two gravity readings when you think it is done, and if there is no difference between those readings, your beer is done fermenting. However, it's always advisable to wait a few days after that to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves if they produced any off-flavors while doing their work.
SOunds like your beer happened. Next step is get the gravity and if it's where the instructions say it should be at this point in PRIMARY. Give the yeast another week or two to finish up what they need to do, and bottle it.
I think pitching temp. was a bit high, if room temp was 70-72 then temperature inside fermentor at high krausen could have been 74-76 , it is a bit high fermentation temp.I hope your beer has not fusel alcohols, anyways if this is the case you will need to age this beer a bit longer. Next time try to pitch at around 64-66 . As others have said take a sample and a gravity read , do not get mad if you find it a bit ´hot´ in regards alcohol taste , it will diminish with time. Good luck !!
Hey y'all. Thanks for the tips. I do know that the temp of the wort when I took the OG reading was high. Newbe mistake. It also may be to warm to pitch yeast. We are gonna do a gravity reading soon and see if we should put it into the bottles. This time we won't make the same mistake we did with the OG. thank you for your help Another thing I'm wondering is it won't hurt it to age it in the primary fermenter would it?
I would age it in primary for up to a couple months, but if you want to age longer than that I'd go ahead and put it in a keg to get out off the yeast and keep it away from oxygen.
