My results have been mediocre to outstanding. The problem has been the number of days of fermentation. I get great fermentation results for the first few days (3+) , then it subsides. I believe this is pretty good and then I want to bottle the beer. I have tried secondary fermentation and re-filled the second carboy with mediocre results. The finished product has been flat. I ask myself, why the hell did I try to secondary ferment when I believe the first ferment gave me the results I needed. I read where the fermentation can go on for a few weeks, but, I don't see that happening. Am I crazy? Do I need to add an addtional amount of yeast? And if so...why don't I see that in any reference material? My last couple of batches of Pumpkin ale have been nothing less than outstanding. One batch produced the carbonation I required, the next was poor. I have read where some folks add a small amount of yeast to "kick-up" the carbonation. Yea or Ney? If I can solve this issue, I'm home free! By the way, I am an all grain brewer.
I typically bring the pre-carboy product up to room temp over a few days and then drop the temp to the mid 60's range to get fermentation results without any yeast off-tastes.
Further more...I see a lot of recipes with both grain and malt extract ingredients. So...what's the conversion answer as I don't want to use extract ingredients?
I'm sure there is no right or wrong annswer as it's all organic...any help would be appreciated....thanx.
I believe we can help but some clarification may be in order.
"I get great fermentation results for the first few days (3+) , then it subsides. I believe this is pretty good and then I want to bottle the beer." Have you been bottling with an active ferment and relying on this for carbonation?
"I have tried secondary fermentation and re-filled the second carboy with mediocre results. The finished product has been flat." Refilled with what/how? Did you bottle after a secondary by just bottling without a priming sugar added?
"I read where the fermentation can go on for a few weeks, but, I don't see that happening."This is normal depending on the amount of consumable sugars, yeast health, temps, etc.
"Am I crazy?"Probably no more than the Tubercle
"I have read where some folks add a small amount of yeast to "kick-up" the carbonation. Yea or Ney?"Yea if the gravity and conditioning time and temp meet certain conditions - Nay if "normal" gravity and conditioning times. Are you confusing having to add yeast to adding more sugars?
Just a note: bottling with an active fermentation can be very dangerous because a bottle may explode in you face. Bottling after fermentation has
completely finished and using a pre-determined amount of priming sugar to get an expected result is safe as long as your bottles are not defective.
I'm not being too picky or trying to insult your intelligence. I just don't know your level of brewing knowledge or procedures to be able to help like I want to.