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Need help with my yeast problem

Trevor1975

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I got one of those home brew kits for christmas(the nicer one). And an Irish Stout kit. I started last Sunday and by Tuesday morning I had nice action in my air lock. Let my premise my problem with the fact that I live in Ohio and its February. Sometime Tuesday my furnace broke and they didn't get the part for 36 hours. My wort reached around 60 degrees and my ferm has stopped. Is it all trashed or can I do something to save my first batch? Please help ASAP! Thanks.
 
A couple of things.  First of all Primary (active) fermentation may have finished and it has moved onto slower secondary fermentation. Primary fermentation will usually finish up in 2-4 days. Secondy,  the temperature range of your specific yeast strain is important. For an ale yeast 60° F might be to low. Have no fear the yeast is not ruined, their just napping.  Warm up your fermenter with blankets, hot packs, or heating pad to your desired temperature (65°F-67°F??). They'll get back to work. 
 
GoodisBeer said:
A couple of things.  First of all Primary (active) fermentation may have finished and it has moved onto slower secondary fermentation. Primary fermentation will usually finish up in 2-4 days. Secondy,  the temperature range of your specific yeast strain is important. For an ale yeast 60° F might be to low. Have no fear the yeast is not ruined, their just napping.  Warm up your fermenter with blankets, hot packs, or heating pad to your desired temperature (65°F-67°F??). They'll get back to work.

+1  and relax and have a beer.

Matt
 
If it's Irish ale yeast from Wyeast 58-60 is perfect.  Lower esthers is what I  like about Irish stouts and that temp does that nicely. 

Mark
 
Ok. My temp is back to 68 for almost 48 hours. I'm getting zero action. Should I just consider it done in the primary and move it to the secondary? It appears that the yeast were only working for about 30-36 hours before the cold stopped it( I'm now assuming it was the cold). My SG was 1.045 and that's the very bottom end for this stout. Am I over analyzing and should march on?
Thanks for the help so far. I just signed up to this site last night (just found it) and I'm digging it. I may have found an art I can enjoy.....man art!
 
If you have the means to pull a sample from your batch, like a sanitized wine theif, i'd check the gravity and see if its close to your FG.  You'll here alot of different thought on what i recommend  next: don't tranafer to secondary.  Leave it in primary. You won't taste a difference between the two methods with a stout and if it needs more time on the yeast...well dont take it off the yeast.  Just my two cents.

Oh yeah...just have a beer!
 
I've had ales with that starting gravity totally ferment in just a couple days.  Take a gravity reading. If it's too high you could try rousting the yeast, but I bet it's just fine.
 
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