This is a first for me. I brewed a Belgian Strong Dark last week, (7 days ago to be exact). I used Wyeast #3787 Trappist High Gravity yeast. I oxygenated and pitched roughly 400-430 billion cells. I was using a plastic fermentation bucket (which I always use for primary) so I just stuck a 3 piece airlock in it, (like I always do). I set the ferment temp to 68. The next day I had happy yeast bubbling all over, up through the airlock, all over the lid, down into the temp probe tube, and all over the inside of my fermentation chamber. The lid on the plastic bucket was bulging and straining, but hadn't blown off. I wiped it down real good and sanitized the lid then pulled the airlock out and replaced it with a makeshift blow off tube, (the bottom piece of another airlock with 1/2" hose into a 1 qt bottle 1/3rd full of sanitizer). The next day the blow-off bottle was also full of yeast and some had leaked into the chamber, but not as bad as the first bubble over. By the 3rd day it had slowed down considerably so I let it go. I bumped the temp up from 68F degrees to 70F degrees. I've checked every day and it's still bubbling, but very slow. 1 bubble every 2 or 3 seconds or so.
Today it's been 7 days and it's still slowly bubbling, but I figured that after 7 days certainly it had finished fermenting and the bubbles I was seeing were just escaping CO2. So I popped it open to take a test sample. There is still an extremely thick mass of foam on top.
The OG was 1.073, which was a little low but I didn't get the amount of boil off I usually do so my volume was more than calculated. The FG is calculated to be 1.015 for an abv of about 9.8%. This yeast is supposed to tolerate 11%-12% in a temp range of 68F-78F, so I'm well within those boundaries. Last night I bumped the temp in the chamber up from 70F to 72F to finish.
The gravity reading this morning was 1.028 - only about half way there. Is this stuck or just slow. I wasn't planning to use a secondary on this. My plan was to give it 10-12 days in primary and bottle condition until December for Christmas gifts. I assumed it would be done fermenting after at most 5 or 6 days.
So I stuck the lid back on and let it go. Wondering if I should stir it up? I don't want to use a secondary if I can help it. I want this beer to age well so I'm taking precautions to limit as much oxygen as possible. It's going to bottle condition for two and a half months at room temp, 78F-80F.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
I used two packages of Wyeast to make two 2L starters because I didn't have a way to make one big starter. One starter was on the stir plate for 2 days, the other I just used the shake it every time you walk by method. I put them in the fridge 2 nights before I brewed to settle. I decanted one starter and poured the slurry into the other starter, then just pitched that whole thing.
The yeast was obviously very happy in the beginning - just wondering why it slowed down all of a sudden and what I should do to kick start it. At $8 a package I seriously don't want to add more yeast if I can help it. This beer has already cost me almost $90 for a 5.5 gallon (turned out to be 6 gallon) batch
Today it's been 7 days and it's still slowly bubbling, but I figured that after 7 days certainly it had finished fermenting and the bubbles I was seeing were just escaping CO2. So I popped it open to take a test sample. There is still an extremely thick mass of foam on top.
The OG was 1.073, which was a little low but I didn't get the amount of boil off I usually do so my volume was more than calculated. The FG is calculated to be 1.015 for an abv of about 9.8%. This yeast is supposed to tolerate 11%-12% in a temp range of 68F-78F, so I'm well within those boundaries. Last night I bumped the temp in the chamber up from 70F to 72F to finish.
The gravity reading this morning was 1.028 - only about half way there. Is this stuck or just slow. I wasn't planning to use a secondary on this. My plan was to give it 10-12 days in primary and bottle condition until December for Christmas gifts. I assumed it would be done fermenting after at most 5 or 6 days.
So I stuck the lid back on and let it go. Wondering if I should stir it up? I don't want to use a secondary if I can help it. I want this beer to age well so I'm taking precautions to limit as much oxygen as possible. It's going to bottle condition for two and a half months at room temp, 78F-80F.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
I used two packages of Wyeast to make two 2L starters because I didn't have a way to make one big starter. One starter was on the stir plate for 2 days, the other I just used the shake it every time you walk by method. I put them in the fridge 2 nights before I brewed to settle. I decanted one starter and poured the slurry into the other starter, then just pitched that whole thing.
The yeast was obviously very happy in the beginning - just wondering why it slowed down all of a sudden and what I should do to kick start it. At $8 a package I seriously don't want to add more yeast if I can help it. This beer has already cost me almost $90 for a 5.5 gallon (turned out to be 6 gallon) batch