Have we wrecked this beer?

[RachelM]

We brewed Greg Hughes American IPA on Sun. All went well. Pitched the yeast at 8pm at 20 deg. It was whitelabs wlp060 American ale as per the recipe. Didn’t use a starter but had it out of the fridge for 6 hours prior to pitching as per instructions.
We left it at 20-21 and it was a little slow to start and there was no activity until Tuesday morning by which point there was pretty good airlock activity.
Now the recipe says ferment at 19, so once activity established we moved it to somewhere cooler and got it to 19 (it may have got as low as 18.8 according to the inkbird.
Tues evening it had completely stopped fermenting so we moved it back into the kitchen which is about 20 at the moment. It took until this morning to start bubbling again.
I’m worried that it’s had a significant lag now and also it’s clear that this particular yeast won’t actually work at 19 so I think we’ll leave it where it is. any thoughts?
Have we wrecked it? Do you normall follow the instructions on the yeast or the instructions in the recipe? (The yeast packet suggested 21-24....)
Apologies for rambling....i’m only a beginner...

(the OG was bang on at 1060 for extra information)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
The initial lag was probably due to pitching directly without preparing a starter.
Haven't used that yeast, but White Labs website suggests that it has a fairly broad temperature range (16-22°C), so 18°C should have been fine.
I would keep it at 20°C for the rest of the fermentation - I always allow two weeks to make sure everything is finished. You won't have ruined the beer.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that no airlock activity means no fermentation. I have several FVs that show no airlock activity when the brew is fermenting, yet fermentation is successful.

 

[IainM]

As Col said, don't worry about airlock activity, it isn't a good indication of fermentation. If if has a good krausen, then it's fermenting just fine. Otherwise, you can take a gravity reading to be sure.
I can certainly imagine it starting slowly though, because of the low pitching rate, especially given the OG is moderately high. I always recommend making a starter with liquid yeast. You can always add some clean style-appropriate yeast like Nottingham or US-05 if you are worried about it stalling.

 

[ITMA]

My copy of Hughes says 18 degrees, my guess is that since the book was written they've tuned up the temperature range on the packet, or he's just slammed 18 in as a default for lots of recipes.

I'd trust the packet temperature over the recipe, but as everyone has said it won't have made any discernible difference at all. You'd have to work very hard to wreck it. Don't be fiddling about lifting the lid and fretting about it. After the two weeks do a gravity reading to check it hasn't stalled, you're looking for somewhere around 1.014.

You'll often get an intense period of activity and than apparently nothing. It's still fermenting. But the co2 could be finding another route out, if you're really bothered spray around the bung and the lid with starsan or water and see if you get bubbling. I wouldn't bother though, forget about it until testing time.

 

[Cwrw666]

I would assume the makers of the yeast know what they're talking about. Crank up the temperature.

 

[RachelM]

Actually my copy of Hughes said 18 too. I think we planned on 19 to err on the side of caution.
Thanks all.

 

[GerritT]

It's an ale, 23° would work out too.

You can't wreck a beer unless you try, or when you're unlucky. RDWHH

 

[Sandimas]

Seems strange advice to drop the temp as fermentation progresses, most of us do the opposite - keep it cooler for the initial ferment (not too cool obviously) then warm it up a bit a few days in, as activity starts to drop off. This helps prevent a stuck ferment.

 

[braziliain]

Sounds perfectly fine to me. It should turn out to be a great beer (everything I've attempted from that book has been). Relax, go with the flow and enjoy your brewing :)

As has been said above, leave it two weeks from pitching then take a hydrometer reading to see where you are. My airlock never bubbles, but those yeasties always get the job done!

 

[RachelM]

So bit of an update....
we’re at 1024 after 7 days and we’re supposed to be aiming for 1014
Our plan is keep it above 20 degrees and check again in a few days....
Would the experts agree? It’s tastes pretty great though considering the stage we’re at...

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
You're aiming for a 6% beer, then.
Give it another week at 20°C; the yeast needs time to clean up after itself.
After two weeks in the FV you probably won't need a diacetyl rest.

 

[foxbat]

So bit of an update....
we’re at 1024 after 7 days and we’re supposed to be aiming for 1014
Our plan is keep it above 20 degrees and check again in a few days....
Would the experts agree? It’s tastes pretty great though considering the stage we’re at...

After 7 days you will not get more than 1 or 2 points more without taking some kind of action and given that you're only at 59% attenuation when you should expect at least 72% according to White Labs I think that the massive underpitch has caused the yeast to stop early. What you can do:

1. Nothing. Accept what you've got and run with a sweeter beer than you expected.
2. Try to get the flocculated yeast back into suspension by stirring it up with a sterilised paddle/spoon. I doubt this will do much because the problem is too little yeast, not lazy yeast.
3. Pitch some rehydrated neutral dry yeast such as S05 to finish the job.

(All this is assuming you're using a hydrometer to take readings and not a refractometer that hasn't been corrected for alcohol presence. Also assuming that if this is an AG recipe you didn't mash really high, like into the 70s).

 

[RachelM]

Using a hydrometer and mashed at 65.
What does “massive underpitch” mean? Does that refer to the temp drop?
In terms of the yeast we exactly followed the instructions on the yeast tube, we had more yeast than required for our volume. The pack said no starter required. We got it out of the fridge 6 hours before.
Sorry, i’m confused...

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

How many gallons did you do?

 

[RachelM]

We ended up with 20 litres

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

you should have had enough yeast, what date was on the pack?

 

[RachelM]

BB Nov 16 18

 

[cushyno]

Three things here:

1. Some yeasts don't take well to starting at higher temperature and then dropping 1 or two degrees suddenly (I have read that of Fermentis S-04)
2. You may have an air leak and when you thought there was no initial fermentation it may have been happily fermenting but the gasses couldn't build up enough pressure to push air through the airlock. Only when the yeast were at the height of activity did you then have enough gas to start escaping from airlock too. I have had this with a FV bucket that is distorted where the lid fits.
3. Underpitching is where, either you've used a small amount, or the yeast has been in poor health and there are not enough healthy yeast cells with the nutrients they need to multiply and chomp through all your sugary liquor.

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

Personally, keep opening the vessel is not the ideal thing to do.
You could try a gently stir without introducing any air bubbles to get the yeast back in suspension.And increase the temp a degree upwards to 21.after 2 days check to see if its changed. if not either make do with a sweeter beer, or pitch some dry yeast.
Have you tested your hydrometer?

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I found this online:
For beers with higher original gravity of 1050 we recommend two vials or the preparation of a starter in 1 liter of water. For initial density greater than 1070 we recommend 3 vials or the preparation of a starter in 2 liters of water.