carljbray
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2020
- Messages
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Hi All,
My first post here, and a return from a 7 year hiatus in brewing, so please go easy on a newbie ;-)
following lockdown in the uk, I grabbed my old brewing gear out of the garage, unused in 7 years since moving into a flat with restricted space
Managed to get a new 40 pint brewing kit (can) from wilkos, a tom claxton real ale, and new brewing sugar/spray dry malt, and got that one going after well cleaning and sterilising some very dusty gear - all went well, was done fermenting after 5 days. Then after a week, bottled half and the rest in a pressure barrel - still conditioning, and as yet untouched. So far so good.
Same weekend started on the next one. I had an old kit from years previously; a wilko's newkie brown kit, and some brewing sugar, both well out of date, by about 5 years, but I thought, what could be wrong; they were both sealed, in a can, and sugar sealed in an unopened plastic bag, and the sugar still a powder (unlike some of my old spray dry malt which had solidified into a big lump, even though sealed).
I bought a new packet of yeast and ditched the old, as I know that does go off, and started with the next batch.
this one was happily bubbling away within a few hours, but now 11 days later is still going, at a slightly reduced rate, but still a bubble through the airlock every 35 seconds, and going strong, so I would say is still steadily fermenting.
None of my previous batches have gone on for this long, usually are done within a week, maybe 9 days max, and the kits normally say 4-6 days
Did everything as per the first kit, except:
- it is a different kit of course; an old can of malt and old brewing sugar, but with newly purchased safale yeast
- the wort was a little warm when I pitched the yeast - about 23-24 degrees, I usually go in about 21 degrees, but didn't want to leave the wort hanging around, and the yeast packet said anything up to 25-26 degrees was fine.
- I was short of bottles so put in about a litre or two less than the prescribed 23 litres of water into the fermenting tank, thinking this would just make it a little stronger
- I put a towel around the fermenter to keep the light off it, and insulate it a little. The strip thermometer on the side has shown a consistent 20-21 degrees
Would any of these things likely cause a long slow fermentation? or am I just not being patient enough?
the line of scum on the top (krausen?) is thin this time, normally an inch or two thick, this time less than 1cm - so is this just a slow yeast perhaps?
Does it get to the point whereby it's gone on too long, and is likely to have gone off? how long?
I have resisted the temptation to take off the lid and look inside - the gasses bubbling off still smell nice and beery.
Is this likely just cos it was old?
Cheers, and thanks for any help or reassurance
Carl
My first post here, and a return from a 7 year hiatus in brewing, so please go easy on a newbie ;-)
following lockdown in the uk, I grabbed my old brewing gear out of the garage, unused in 7 years since moving into a flat with restricted space
Managed to get a new 40 pint brewing kit (can) from wilkos, a tom claxton real ale, and new brewing sugar/spray dry malt, and got that one going after well cleaning and sterilising some very dusty gear - all went well, was done fermenting after 5 days. Then after a week, bottled half and the rest in a pressure barrel - still conditioning, and as yet untouched. So far so good.
Same weekend started on the next one. I had an old kit from years previously; a wilko's newkie brown kit, and some brewing sugar, both well out of date, by about 5 years, but I thought, what could be wrong; they were both sealed, in a can, and sugar sealed in an unopened plastic bag, and the sugar still a powder (unlike some of my old spray dry malt which had solidified into a big lump, even though sealed).
I bought a new packet of yeast and ditched the old, as I know that does go off, and started with the next batch.
this one was happily bubbling away within a few hours, but now 11 days later is still going, at a slightly reduced rate, but still a bubble through the airlock every 35 seconds, and going strong, so I would say is still steadily fermenting.
None of my previous batches have gone on for this long, usually are done within a week, maybe 9 days max, and the kits normally say 4-6 days
Did everything as per the first kit, except:
- it is a different kit of course; an old can of malt and old brewing sugar, but with newly purchased safale yeast
- the wort was a little warm when I pitched the yeast - about 23-24 degrees, I usually go in about 21 degrees, but didn't want to leave the wort hanging around, and the yeast packet said anything up to 25-26 degrees was fine.
- I was short of bottles so put in about a litre or two less than the prescribed 23 litres of water into the fermenting tank, thinking this would just make it a little stronger
- I put a towel around the fermenter to keep the light off it, and insulate it a little. The strip thermometer on the side has shown a consistent 20-21 degrees
Would any of these things likely cause a long slow fermentation? or am I just not being patient enough?
the line of scum on the top (krausen?) is thin this time, normally an inch or two thick, this time less than 1cm - so is this just a slow yeast perhaps?
Does it get to the point whereby it's gone on too long, and is likely to have gone off? how long?
I have resisted the temptation to take off the lid and look inside - the gasses bubbling off still smell nice and beery.
Is this likely just cos it was old?
Cheers, and thanks for any help or reassurance
Carl
