First own recipe AG Bitter

[Portreath]

I've just moved my first 'own recipe' BIAB brew to the 2nd FV after 7 days in, and so far I'm really impressed. The taste is pretty good even this early, not too bitter and slightly floral!!, plenty of hoppy aroma which is what I was hoping for. I have started moving my brews to a 2nd FV after about a week because it appears to kick start the yeast again, and fermentation returns to a more lively state. I wonder if this is what is happening, or whether fermentation signs are different from FV to FV? Either way, today the brew is down from 1.051 to 1.024, so merrily on its way down to about 1.013 which should give me a nice 4.9% ish Bitter

 

[MyQul]

The reason a fermentation may restart if you 'rack to a secondary' Is that yeast have to be in suspention to ferment wort. If it's sitting on the bottom of the FV 'with its trotters up' it wont ferment the wort. When you rack to a secondary it disturbes the yeast on the bottom and resuspends it a bit, therefore possibly re-starting suspension

 

[foxbat]

After 7 days I'd be surprised if it finds another 11 points of attenuation with the existing yeast. Which one was it and how was it prepared?

 

[Portreath]

The reason a fermentation may restart if you 'rack to a secondary' Is that yeast have to be in suspention to ferment wort. If it's sitting on the bottom of the FV 'with its trotters up' it wont ferment the wort. When you rack to a secondary it disturbes the yeast on the bottom and resuspends it a bit, therefore possibly re-starting suspension

So a good ol stir up of the sediment in FV1 would do the same trick?

After 7 days I'd be surprised if it finds another 11 points of attenuation with the existing yeast. Which one was it and how was it prepared?

I used Mangrove Jacks strong ale yeast, stored in the fridge (as requested on package) and sprinkled over at about 24 c

 

[MyQul]

@Portreath

If that's what you're trying to achieve, then yes. Make sure you stir gently though as you dont want to introduce oxgen to the beer at this stage

 

[ACBEV]

I'm agreeing with foxbat. 1.024 seems high after 7 days, especially with the yeast you used.

5% beers (22L plus) is my border line for making a starter or pitching two packs of yeast. Its common practice to rehydrate dried yeast before pitching, as more yeast survive at this stage. Also you may have had low oxygen levels in your wort. These factors and others can conspire in stalling fermentation (under pitching).

MyQul suggests some gentle stirring, which might get things going again. But, my emergency method to recover stuck brews is ... Pouring the beer into another FV with some fresh yeast and leave for another 7 - 10 days. Disclaimer: Doing so may ruin your beer!

 

[Portreath]

Good point ACBEV, I wonder if the high temps last week reduced the oxygen levels in the wort? I did have a right faff to get the wort down to pitching temp, builders bucket, cold water ice packs etc etc.

 

[Zephyr259]

Just as a sanity check, your using a hydrometer and not a refractometer right?

 

[GerritT]

Just as a sanity check, your using a hydrometer and not a refractometer right?

My first thought. Unless one severely underpitches, a normal ale should have reached fg (or very close to) in a week.
Or else I'd start thinking of high % crystal or high mashing temps. But especially MJ can chew through that.

My brewersenses are tingling.

 

[Slid]

Temperatures this last 8 days or so have been far too high to give a sensible baseline for yeast attenuation.

Just leave the beer in the second FV for another 10 days before you bother it again, is my first advice.

If the gravity is very slow to drop, try adding 100g of sugar, perhaps dissolved in water, that might kick start the yeast.

Fermentation will NOT stop, it will only be delayed. Slowly but surely those yeasties will carry on and on, no matter how few are left active and they will, in the end, get right down to their tolerance limits.

 

[BeerisGOD]

This reminds me to give myn gentle stir later today
Seemed to be a bit slow and what I wouldn't want is too transfer a stalled beer bottling day for the above mentioned not forgetting the chances of bombs

 

[Drunkula]

Could you explain your choice of ingredients and what you thought they'd bring, and what they actually did bring.

 

[Portreath]

3500g Maris Otter
300g Crystal Malt
200g Torrified Wheat
100g Chocolate Malt

25g Challenger & 18g Fuggles @90 mins
15g East Kent Goldings @ 10 mins
20g Fuggles for dry hopping
MJ's New World Strong Ale yeast
25 ltrs Spring water
Aiming for 19 ltrs of strong bitter at 4.9% ish

Here is the recipe I came up with, I used the recipe builder on brewer's friend to check the potential outcomes. I use a standard hydrometer.

 

[MyQul]

Also what temp did you mash at?

 

[Portreath]

I managed to get the mash stable at 70 c throughout.

 

[Zephyr259]

That sounds like a really tasty brew. Saw the temp and thought we'd found the reason as mashing at 70c is a bit on the hot side for the style usually, but running the numbers myself I get an OG of 1.050 and an FG of 1.013 as the GF calculator thinks that yeast will reach 79.5% average attenuation. Have to lower that figure to 60% to get an FG of 1.024 which isn't likely.

So hopefully it'll kick off again, only thing I can think of is that it got cold and the yeast dropped a bit early, then you racked off the cake? Still not very likely I'm guessing with this heat.

 

[MyQul]

I managed to get the mash stable at 70 c throughout.

That'll be why your brew is stuck at 1.024. Mashing high creates unfermentable sugars. You want to mash at about 66C for an ESB of 1.051. 70C is good for and ordinary bitter with an OG of 1.035 so you can get more body

 

[Sadfield]

The problem is probably the result of a number of issues, making a difficult to ferment wort, with conditions that don't help the yeast.

Very little oxygen in the wort.

Too high mash temperature.

Racking to secondary after 7 days using a highly flocculent yeast at quite a high temperature.

Possibly too low Calcium content in a wort made from spring water.

The likelihood is that there was insufficient growth stage. What yeast there was, consumed all the simple sugars, and flocculated to the bottom of the Fv. The wort was then moved to secondary, where it now doesn't have enough yeast in suspension to fully ferment the remaining dextrinous wort, in a normal timeframe.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[Portreath]

Thanks for all of the feedback, I'm planing on making another batch today, same recipe, same volume, yeast etc, but will be mashing at the recommended temp. I'll post a compare & contrast review in a short while.
With my stuck brew, I pitched 1/2 a packet of MJ liberty bell I had left in the fridge and now we have 'beaucoup movement', no problem @ACBEV if the brew goes tiddzup I'll mark it down as another entry in my note book of home brewing.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks for all of the feedback, I'm planing on making another batch today, same recipe, same volume, yeast etc, but will be mashing at the recommended temp. I'll post a compare & contrast review in a short while.
With my stuck brew, I pitched 1/2 a packet of MJ liberty bell I had left in the fridge and now we have 'beaucoup movement', no problem @ACBEV if the brew goes tiddzup I'll mark it down as another entry in my note book of home brewing.

Tiddzup? Is that like 7up but alcoholic If the brew comes out ok you could call it Tiddzup Bitter (Dont ask any of the forumites to design an appropriate bottle lable though, as it'll be anything but appropriate )