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Author Topic: Fermentation never started  (Read 2534 times)

Offline Slowbrew

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Re: Fermentation never started
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2015, 12:29:02 pm »
If it helps...

My last 2 batches were brewed while the ground temp was too warm to get the wort down below 70F.  I stuck the carboys in the fridge and promptly forgot about them until the next day.  At that point they were down to about 34F and I took them out.  I shrugged my shoulders added the yeast (smack packs, no starters) and let them sit.  After 3 days or so they finally started showing signs of fermentation.  They did their normal things with no issues.

Things got busy with marching band and I wasn't able to touch them again for about 7 weeks.  Except for the rather nasty mold growing in the blow-off bucket (and I mean really nasty), nothing out of the ordinary happened.

I kegged them last week and they were more clear than any beer I've made in ages and the samples tasted great.

I'm not recommending this approach, but offer it only as an example of all the things you can do to wort that are completely wrong and still have very good beer come out of the process.  I broke just about every "rule" and, assuming nothing goes south during carbonation, I will have a very tasty wheat and an Irish Red on tap in a couple of weeks.

Kind of proves RDWHAHB. 

Now that the girls are done with marching band I will have time to brew again and hopefully pay more attention.

Paul
Where the heck are we going?  And what's with this hand basket?

S. cerevisiae

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Re: Fermentation never started
« Reply #16 on: October 26, 2015, 07:47:35 pm »
That's quite a generalization to make without actually knowing how fast it was. I've seen a drop that large stall fermentation in a 5 bbl fermenter where it took several hours.

Placing a 5 gallons of wort in a temperature controlled fermentation chamber is not quite like a glycol jacked fermentation vessel.  Glycol cools a lot faster than air.

narvin

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Re: Fermentation never started
« Reply #17 on: October 26, 2015, 07:54:11 pm »
That's quite a generalization to make without actually knowing how fast it was. I've seen a drop that large stall fermentation in a 5 bbl fermenter where it took several hours.

Placing a 5 gallons of wort in a temperature controlled fermentation chamber is not quite like a glycol jacked fermentation vessel.  Glycol cools a lot faster than air.

Surface area to volume is way higher for a 5 gallon batch. You can cool at least as fast if not faster.  I can drop a carboy 10 degrees in a few hours in a chest freezer chamber (measuring with a thermowell in the very center).
« Last Edit: October 26, 2015, 07:55:50 pm by narvin »