I am a new beer brewer. I started last night and I may have an issue. I tried making "Dixie Cup Boardwalk Belgian Quadrupel" (http://byo.com/hops/item/1775-dixie-cup-boardwalk-belgian-quadrupel). I doubled the recipe to 10 gallons, a questionable decision at best. I had many issues, most notably the temperature control on the mash both over and under temperature at several points. However, I somehow managed to end up with about 7 gallons of pre-boil wort at OG 1.060 (before sugars were added) and a post-boil OG of 1.077 after the remaining wort was diluted to 10 gallons. Very poor in terms of efficiency, but I am sure I will do better job next time. My issue is the following. Since I did such a crappy job washing the sugar out of the grain( and/or breaking the sugar down , I used the remaining sugar to make a "small beer" in a 4 gallon batch. The post boil gravity of this beer was 1.051. This morning, the 10 gallon original beer was obviously vigorously fermenting. The small beer was suspiciously absent of CO2 bubbling. I added the same strain of yeast to both (High Gravity Trappist), at about 24 million cells per ml, as suggested by Wyeast, to the Dixie Cup, and about 12 million cells per ml to the small beer. Should I be worried that there is no obvious CO2 bubbling? Is there a good way to test if the batch is on course?
Your 4 gallon batch may have an air leak which is preventing air from going through the airlock. It's ok to remove the lid to see if you have foam. If you do, it's fermenting and you have a leaky lid.
I looked around 3pm today and there only was a thin layer of foam covering maybe 70% of the surface. 8 hours later, I opened again, and there was a thick layer of foam. I feel much better about it now. Thanks
