This never happened

Over The Cliff Brewing

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I pitched Imperial A38 Juice into my black IPA on Monday. No activity until yesterday morning. Then nothing all day. When I got home from work, I noticed that there was a space between the krausen and the wort (bucket). I never seen this before. So I shook the bucket a bit last night and this morning and the blow off tube is full of foam. Now there is just an occasional gurgle according to my wife at home. Sorry for the long drawn out post but something just doesn't seem right. Any ideas?
 
Following this one. I don't have a lot of experience but what was the temp of the wort when you pitched it? I have used Imperial on the last few brews I have don't and i'm amazed the yeast usually starts going strong shortly after pitching.
 
Imperial says that yeast needs a lot of oxygen, 20-25 ppm at pitch. That's crazy high, lagers only require 12-15 ppm. That aside, you could have had a little longer lag time from whatever (lower pitch rate, lower oxygen, etc.), but once it takes off it can finish very quickly. Doing most of the heavy fermenting in 24 hours is not unheard of in some ale yeast, especially if the OG is 1.050 or lower. I'm assuming this yeast comes through an English strain, they can finish very fast.

Let it set a day, check to see how it smells and maybe even take a gravity reading to see where it's at. I'm guessing your beer will be totally fine.
 
I was going to get a gravity reading tonight or tomorrow. My OG was 1.052 so maybe it devoured the sugar quickly!
 
Let us know how it turned out. We can all learn from this.
 
Imperial says that yeast needs a lot of oxygen, 20-25 ppm at pitch. That's crazy high, lagers only require 12-15 ppm. That aside, you could have had a little longer lag time from whatever (lower pitch rate, lower oxygen, etc.), but once it takes off it can finish very quickly. Doing most of the heavy fermenting in 24 hours is not unheard of in some ale yeast, especially if the OG is 1.050 or lower. I'm assuming this yeast comes through an English strain, they can finish very fast.

Let it set a day, check to see how it smells and maybe even take a gravity reading to see where it's at. I'm guessing your beer will be totally fine.
Interesting on the oxygen levels. All I have ever done I let the wort drop into my fermenter, shake around for a few mins and pitch. I guess I've been lucky
 
I'll provide an update in a couple of days. Hopefully, it turns out to be a great beer!
 
Interesting on the oxygen levels. All I have ever done I let the wort drop into my fermenter, shake around for a few mins and pitch. I guess I've been lucky
Oxygen is critical at pitch. The yeast use it for lipid production to help with creating a cell wall that “soft” enough for budding or reproduction. Some strains are not as sensitive to low oxygen levels, but it’s good to aerate the wort no matter what strain for quicker starts, better attenuation and cleaner fermentation.

Dry yeast isn’t sensitive to low oxygen levels since they are de-hydrated in a way so they already have lipid and sterol reserves. Lagers yeasts pitched at low temperatures need the most oxygen, 12-15 ppm. Ales need 8-12 ppm. 20-25 ppm is very high and it’s tough to obtain those numbers even with pure oxygen.
 
OK here's the scoop after a couple of days. There is still about a 1/2 inch of krausen sitting on the beer. I took a gravity reading and it is sitting at 1.012 down from original 1.050. I think the problem is I decided to use a bucket to ferment this time and the top is not completely sealed. I believe most of the CO2 was escaping from the lid and then thru the blow off tube. (Buckets used to be my solid performer. No more.) I dropped in some cascade and will drop in some citra tomorrow. Hopefully by Sunday the gravity will be a bit lower. Was hoping for 1.009. So that's the latest beer drama on this end.
 
OK here's the scoop after a couple of days. There is still about a 1/2 inch of krausen sitting on the beer. I took a gravity reading and it is sitting at 1.012 down from original 1.050. I think the problem is I decided to use a bucket to ferment this time and the top is not completely sealed. I believe most of the CO2 was escaping from the lid and then thru the blow off tube. (Buckets used to be my solid performer. No more.) I dropped in some cascade and will drop in some citra tomorrow. Hopefully by Sunday the gravity will be a bit lower. Was hoping for 1.009. So that's the latest beer drama on this end.
Patience friend!
Forget about it for another week, then check your gravity.
You can't rush science!
 
As Keith Stone always says, "everything is gonna be totally fine". Great words to brew by.
 
You guys are right! I'll leave it alone and start planning my next beer, a saison.
Sounds good!
Fix your avatar too, looks like your beer is going spill out all over my screen:rolleyes:
 
That's the spirit. Let er buck, she'll be right.
I just drain my brews right into the fermenter, messing around with an O2 tank is beyond what I'm willing to do and I reuse yeast all the time. I have all kinds of medals from when I competed.
Brew what you are comfortable with, if you don't like it, change 1 thing at a time until you nail it.
Or do like me and brew something different every time, then try to remember why you used X instead of Y the last time you brewed.
 
Had thick krausen still on top of a batch of English Brown at 12 days with Safale-04. It looked like a dried crust. Drained and bottled just fine. Only had it happen once. Gravity had been stable for 5 days.
 
Continued from.... The Black IPA has been cold crashing since Wed. evening. I will probably force carb it tonight or tomorrow. I need to finish up the brown ale (my avatar) before I can get the IPA in the kegerator.
 
Hi Folks the the black IPA turned out pretty tasty. I think I may have over carbed it a bit but not a show stopper. I did leave out the last dry hop of Columbus on purpose and I think it worked out better.
 

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Sure looks good, looks like you have a pretty clear black beer there!
 
Thanks to all of you for talking me off the ledge. Time to get brewing again. The BIPA is the only thing I got going right now. Must...Brew...Before...Keg...Empty....
 

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