Fermenting Question--oatmeal stout

Don't just go off of the airlock to try and determine if the beer is done fermenting. What kind of yeast did you pitch??

 

The short answer is that if you had a healthy fermentation going (which seems to be the case), then the most likely explanation is that the yeast are simply done fermenting the beer, and nothing bad has happened. For a low-gravity beer, it's not uncommon for fermentation to wrap up pretty quickly.

My one word of caution is that the temperature may have been on the high side, which would explain why the fermentation was so vigorous and so brief. But that's just a guess based on what you have told us, it could easily be wrong. At this point do not cool down the beer, you want it to be warm so the yeast can clean up any fermentation byproducts (this particular yeast is known for generating some diacetyl).

Either way, give the yeast some time to clean things up and enjoy!

 

I second @minderbender. Just give the yeast time to clean up and you'll be good to go. I see the kit called for 4-6 days of primary and then goes straight to bottling, but has the "secondary option" to the right of it. I would just leave it in the primary for a minimum of 3-4 weeks and then bottle. I know we can get a little impatient, but patience is a virtue in brewing!! Cheers!

 

Transferring from one vessel to another exposes the wort for possible infection and oxygen. If you don't have the additional vessel, then leave it in longer in the primary then move to the bottling bucket when ready.

 

Also, if you haven't already done so, I would pick up a copy of "How to Brew" by John Palmer. It's filled with a lot of information that will guide you. I picked it up 4 months ago when I first got into brewing.