Coopers Stout Dead or Just Sleeping?

[Herbert Pockett]

I started my second batch of Coopers Stout on Sunday afternoon / evening. When I came home from work yesterday (about 17:30) I was delighted to find it fizzing and hissing and foaming and bubbling etc with gusto. This morning I was gutted to find it almost dormant and with the airlock empty, and this evening it is completely lifeless, although the lid of the fermenter is still domed so there is pressure inside the bin. I added a stick of liquorice, bought from my local Homebrew shop when mixing the brew.

Should I wave a tearful farewell to it as I pour it down the drain or can I save it?

 

[graysalchemy]

No it will be fine beer will loose its krausan (head) after the initial stages after that it will be still doing its thing. Airlocks aren't that important in beer and quite often the FV will leak and you will see no airlock action.

Have you goit a hydrometer? If so take a reading. A hydrometer is the only eay to determin if a brew has finished. When you get 3 days at the same reading usually 1010-1015 (kits usually at the lower end) it will be done, but leave a few more days at the fermentation temp the yeast clean up any by products. Then move it somewhere cool to clear, then bottle.

 

[abeyptfc]

calm yourself young herby. ive brewed the coopers irish stout, a milestone stout and my extract stout and they went off like a train aswell,then calmed down. the fact it has fermented and foamed and there is still pressure bulging against your lid tells you its still going. you can always test with a sanitised hydrometer for peace of mind otherwise just let it chill and do its thing. leave it alone for 10 days to 2 weeks if you can and resisit the temptation to stick your coupon in it 2 times a night! the more time you open the lid then the more likely you will get an infection ( and your brew might get infected aswell haha!) :

 

[Herbert Pockett]

Many thanks for the helpful replies gents. I left the last batch in the fermenter for almost four weeks and it was fine but that bubbled away nicely for nearly a week. I'm relieved that all is well.

Thanks again.

PS: I'm not so young, sadly.