reincarnationfish
New Member
Hello, I'm pretty new to this beer brewing lark and I'm looking for some advice/reassurance for a couple of batches I have on the way that I'm concerned about (I'm brewing single Gallon batches, so I can do weekly brew days and experiment a bit more with making up my own recipes).
Firstly, I have two batches that I bottled a bit late, after three and a half weeks instead of two, due to being knocked on my back by the flu in the interim. Is there any danger the yeast will die at the end of fermentation if left too long in the fermenter and you won't be able to carbonate in bottle (The yeast in question is Safale S04 by the way). I admit that these batches have only been in bottle for 4/5 days and they are fairly strong (5.5 and 6.5 percent), as I said, mostly looking for reassurance on this one.
Secondly, rather more worrying, I have a batch that's been in the fermenter for three days and isn't doing very much. There's about half an inch of foam built up but no bubbling and now even that is beginning to die away. Previous batches have all gone crazy for the first 48 hours and have been happily still bubbling once every few seconds a week later. Temperature is about 22C, Yeast is Safale S05.
Now I did screw up on the mashing on this - the temperature went far too high and even boiled, but the grain bill was 500g Maris Otter + 100 grams Crystal Rye malt, followed by 200 grams light spay malt and 100 grams sugar after mashing (remember, this is only a 1 gallon batch), so even if the mash screwed up and didn't get any sugar out of the grain at all, I'm still going to have at least 300 grams+ of sugar in there. Boiling the mash would have released tannins and possibly starches into the wort, but these wouldn't prevent the fermentation of the other 300+ grams of sugars, would it? Also, I pitched the yeast straight in instead of rehydrating first, because, well, that worked fine for S04 yeast last time. I assume the yeast can't be dead, since it did at least start causing a reaction, it just soon died away.
If the batch is ruined, well, at least it's only 1 gallon and I have others on the go, but anything I can learn from the screw up is positive.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give...
Firstly, I have two batches that I bottled a bit late, after three and a half weeks instead of two, due to being knocked on my back by the flu in the interim. Is there any danger the yeast will die at the end of fermentation if left too long in the fermenter and you won't be able to carbonate in bottle (The yeast in question is Safale S04 by the way). I admit that these batches have only been in bottle for 4/5 days and they are fairly strong (5.5 and 6.5 percent), as I said, mostly looking for reassurance on this one.
Secondly, rather more worrying, I have a batch that's been in the fermenter for three days and isn't doing very much. There's about half an inch of foam built up but no bubbling and now even that is beginning to die away. Previous batches have all gone crazy for the first 48 hours and have been happily still bubbling once every few seconds a week later. Temperature is about 22C, Yeast is Safale S05.
Now I did screw up on the mashing on this - the temperature went far too high and even boiled, but the grain bill was 500g Maris Otter + 100 grams Crystal Rye malt, followed by 200 grams light spay malt and 100 grams sugar after mashing (remember, this is only a 1 gallon batch), so even if the mash screwed up and didn't get any sugar out of the grain at all, I'm still going to have at least 300 grams+ of sugar in there. Boiling the mash would have released tannins and possibly starches into the wort, but these wouldn't prevent the fermentation of the other 300+ grams of sugars, would it? Also, I pitched the yeast straight in instead of rehydrating first, because, well, that worked fine for S04 yeast last time. I assume the yeast can't be dead, since it did at least start causing a reaction, it just soon died away.
If the batch is ruined, well, at least it's only 1 gallon and I have others on the go, but anything I can learn from the screw up is positive.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give...