Comments on: AHA Rally at Surly

By: george alexandrou

george alexandrou — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:26:00 +0000

you shouldnt have to re-pitch tony. If your wort was anything lke mine( and it is) it fermented very vigorously for 4 days. My air lock looked like an oxygen line was running through it. quality of fermentation is more important than duration.

By: george alexandrou

george alexandrou — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:22:27 +0000

yep, yep, yep. i was there for the rally, great time. I had the exact same thing happened with my primary fermentation. It took off in hours, made a huge mess ( didnt have blow off in), and then stopped within 4 days or so. Just transfered to secondary fermenter. I reaaly liked the small sample i had. cant wait to try it around christmas. Omar and the guys at Surly Brewery are awesome people!

By: amm002

amm002 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:41:31 +0000

Did you use a yeast starter, or pitch right from the smack pack? Wondering if you had enough of a yeast population to begin with. You could try gently rocking your primary to rouse the yeast a bit, that may help move things along a little. The Wyeast 1056 strain isn’t supposed to be highly floculent, which leads me to believe it just pooped out with the relatively high original gravity.

Also, what temp are you fermenting? Were there any dramatic temperature fluctuations downward? Yeast can floculate early if they’re shocked by cool temps…I had a primary that was getting too warm (mid 70s) so I put the carboy in a bath of water that was about 60 degrees to try and level out the temp. The yeast went to sleep on me, and it never really recovered.

By: tonytevogt

tonytevogt — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:47:56 +0000

I too brought home the free wort from Surly. I started off with an airlock, but soon switched to a blow off tube. I had a good fermentation for 3-4 days, then it slowed, so I put the airlock back on. On day 7 it had slowed to one air bubble every 15-20 seconds. I decided to transfer to a secondary fermentor. I took a gravity reading at that time, and it read about 1.044. The fermentation has slowed to one bubble every 30-40 seconds. After another week, it the gravity reading is still at about 1.042. I am a bit of a novice, but with all that sugar still in there, what could be the issue? I pitched a Wyeast American Ale W1056. I am thinking that I should pitch more yeast???? Any thoughts??

By: Denise

Denise — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:03:11 +0000

It follows my moto … If it’s free – it’s for me. Cool post!

By: John T. Hoffoss

John T. Hoffoss — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:57:41 +0000

Really wish I would’ve know about this. And holy kreusen!

By: nostawetan

nostawetan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:58:22 +0000

That is so damn cool. This is a concept Nate and I will revisit when we have our brewery. I love the pic of that yeast popping over the open primary fermenter. Nice!

By: October 13 Morning Roundup « The Heavy Table

October 13 Morning Roundup « The Heavy Table — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:25:38 +0000

[...] of spice blends including Ras al Hanout, a blogger dings Loring Pasta Bar for gritty mussels, Surly brews it up with about 400 pals from the American Homebrewers Association, the Olive Grove olive oil and vinegar shop is open in [...]

By: bart

bart — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:03:19 +0000

Yea, wow. Surely Surly rules.
First they gave us all the Wet-Cynic-Bender-Furious-Hell-Fest we wanted to drink and then sent us on our way with five gallons of wort. Let me say it again, Wow.

Omar – and the rest of you Surly folks – thank you. This was a truly amazing day – you made alotta home brewers very happy.

I waited to pitch till I was back in Des Moines (a day) and Pfwoff! that krausen kicked my blow-off tube outta the carboy. I woke up this morning to a beautiful mess!
This is gonna be good…

By: Bill Hansen

Bill Hansen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Yes, this is a fun experiment! And if a bug happens to get in our beers, we’ll just have to call it a brown sour and drink it anyway!