Newbie Questions: Fermentation

I keep my ales in the primary for a 3-5 days and lagers for 6-8 (at cooler temperatures) Are you making an effort to control temperature? Speed of fermentation correlates positively with temperature. Lager as low as 47F Ales as high as 75F, but each yeast has its own favorite temperature.

Stop worrying.

If you pitched a dry packet of yeast that sounds about right. I prepare starter and have vigorous fermentation in as little as three hours. Today I'll experiment with a larger 12 hour starter and hope to kick off in less than an hour.

Generally speaking, faster starting is better, with one or two caveats . . . Faster is good because you want the yeast in the packet to eat the wort before the wild yeast or bacteria have a chance to develop. If it is fast because the pitching temp was too high then you may develop some mild off flavors - particularly with fussy lager yeasts. But even problems (like a smell of rotten eggs) go away as the yeast works.

The yeast first get busy eating and reproducing, as the available food is consumed the less favorable foods (harder to metabolize sugars and starches) are consumed. The yeast is floculating and dropping out of suspension. Particles of grain and hops are dropping out of suspension (we hope). There's a lot going on and it is all good, don't worry just let it work.

If you are blowing foam through the airlock, it is time to consider blow off fermentation techniques.

The primary airtight? No it should be vented via an airlock . . . which you've undoubtedly discovered (the hard way) by now.

Smell of alcohol? That was one of your intentions wasn't it?

Just proceed normally and rack it when the fermentation subsides.

While you are controlling your anxiety, here's and excellent read on the subject:

Welcome to the hobby!

the temp is not being controlled any more than simply keeping it at room temperature in my house. This is typically around 68 - 74 F.

I used a liquid bottle of yeast.

When I added the extra gallons of water to the mixture (before placing in the primary) it brought the temperature of the wort down to "around" 50 F. If there were any temp issues I would think (based off the instructions I received) it would be due to the temp being too low as opposed to high.

Nope, no foam.

Airlock is in place. I realized after I posted that the questions was kinda stupid considering that the airlock is supposed to let the gases out and, therefore, the aroma would be present as well.

I am not a fan of the higher-gravity beers and was worried about the A.C. ending up being above the 5-6% mark.

Thank you for your input and I would appreciate any more insight you may have on the subject. Thanks again!!

A vial or tube of liquid yeast? no "smack pack?" Liquid yeast should really be started in a small batch of weak sugar solution several hours or a day in advance. The link I gave you has the detailed skinny on that.

In theory, dry yeast has no need for a starter, but I get better results with a starter. AND . . . my killer 12 hour starter still is just muddling along - smelled wonderful when I pitched it and it is kicking up bubbles _ but I measure the beginning of fermentation when foam comes out the blow off and that looks like it is still hours away. (60 F - Nottingham Ale)

That's not bad. It would slow the start, but along with slowing fermentation it slows the growth of wild yeast so there's less risk of an infection too.

One assumes you brought the temp down and THEN pitched the yeast. Yeast will survive cold (they become dormant) but not hot. When there's active fermentation, the yeast produce their own heat so cooler is better. 50 would be chilly for an ale yeast and just ducky for a lager. Likewise you room temp is warm for lager and ducky for ale.

At 50F you may not get any blow off because that is low for many yeasts (but you never said what type you used). If the fermenter was pitched at 50 and coming up to room temp at ~70 the fermentation peak may look more like plateau - as the yeast is running out of food it is finding warmer temperatures and trying to become more active.

There is no blow off in fermenters with lots of head space (plastic bucket?) Blow off is more common with 5 gallons of wort in 5 gallon carboys.

Blow off is just vigorous fermentation pushing foam out of the fermenter. It depends on a high fermentation rate (5-10 bubbles a second?)

You don't control alcohol content by regulating fermentation, that's not an option - because after you bottle the fermentation will continue if it can - until the bottles explode. You regulate sugar to determine final alcohol. An almost useless "rule of thumb" is .8 (point eight) percent alcohol per pound of dry malt extract (but varies with the type of malt etc.)

Don't worry about gravity at all. Higher means more undigested sugar lower means more alcohol - but specific gravity isn't too important. Your initial gravity is based on the wort being thoroughly mixed - that almost never happens without resorting to an electric drill and spending a half hour mixing..

So high gravity is sweet beer - un fermentable sugars and starches (dark beers as a general rule) and low means most of the sugar is alcohol (be it low alcohol or high).

You might look up the info on the yeast you used and see what the recommended temperature range is. Being on the low end of the range makes the beer taste better - in my opinion.

Another thing to be aware of . . . the wort is much heavier than the water you add to the fermenter. The concentrated wort will almost always be at the bottom of the fermenter (even if it is substantially warmer than the water). They don't mix readily, you should mix them and aerate the mixture before pitching or shortly after. The only time the yeast need oxygen is before they start fermenting, afterwards it helps flavor to keep out light and oxygen.

There's a lot to learn - fortunately you can do most everything "wrong" and still wind up with good beer. As you learn, the beer improves. Eventually you settle on a technique that works best for you.

I do ales most of the time and get on a two week schedule - each batch goes for two weeks 3-5 days in primary fermentation and the balance in secondary - both in carboys. I bottle a batch and brew another simultaneously. I start my yeast before I wash the first bottle and my grains are heated while the bottles are getting cleaned. It works out well for me. I just cleaned out the secondary fermenter for the batch I'm bottling and it becomes the primary for the next batch. One carboy sits idle waiting to become a secondary fermenter. I don't heat my brew space but have heating pads under the carboys and a thermostat on one carboy to switch them on when the temp goes under 60 or so. Sweat shirts insulate the carboys and keep light out.

Beer gets made in spite of what you do - not because of what you do (well, OK you do have some control, but worrying doesn't help). Go with it. Even when every thing seems to be going wrong, beer happens.

It isn't because the yeast are smarter than we are - they are just more resilient than we credit them.

Regards