paul84043
03-31-2003, 07:11 PM
My current batch of Apricot Wheat has been a really weird batch of beer....
My first couple really took off and fermented well, then the activity dropped like a rock, like from 2 or 3 burps per second to one every 30 seconds within two to three days, the gravity readings leveled out and within a (full) week I was bottling. They both have turned out to be fantastic beers. I kind of felt like I was getting into a groove.
I did another batch, a Corona clone, same deal, but even easier, no specialty grains, just boil malt and add hops...nothing to it. I used my oxygen on this batch and it worked even better! I was amazed, and the same thing happened...within 9 days, I was bottling!
Then this one....cooks up, no problem, very easy, only one hop addition like the Cerveca. Used oxygen, aerated really good, fermentation was going within 6 hours and it went like crazy. It even came out the airlock on my 6.5 gallon fermentor. I was thinking that it would be more of the same...but it didn't slow down like the others....it's just been chugging right along, slowing down veeerrryyyyy slowly...
It's already been 9 or 10 days, the others were bottled by now and conditioning, but it's still burping at one every 25 seconds...
The gravity reading is 1.014 (corrected is probably 1.015), still a couple of points higher than I would like to see it, but it hasn't changed for a few days...
If it keeps going for the rest of this week and the gravity is the same, I'm bottling this weekend no matter what.
The only thing about the Apricot wheat was the addition of the apricot extract. Is it possible that it's what is making the fermentation take so long? Maybe it's harder for the yeast to break down than the malt sugars?
They said I could add it any time I wanted, but if this is the case, then I surely wouldn't want to add it after the ferment, I'd almost definitely be making bombs wouldn't I?
My Belgian Dubbel that I cooked up several days after this one is on track to probably be finished at the same time, and it's a much heavier, more substantial beer....
It's just weird.
Anyone have this sort of thing happen on occasion?
My first couple really took off and fermented well, then the activity dropped like a rock, like from 2 or 3 burps per second to one every 30 seconds within two to three days, the gravity readings leveled out and within a (full) week I was bottling. They both have turned out to be fantastic beers. I kind of felt like I was getting into a groove.
I did another batch, a Corona clone, same deal, but even easier, no specialty grains, just boil malt and add hops...nothing to it. I used my oxygen on this batch and it worked even better! I was amazed, and the same thing happened...within 9 days, I was bottling!
Then this one....cooks up, no problem, very easy, only one hop addition like the Cerveca. Used oxygen, aerated really good, fermentation was going within 6 hours and it went like crazy. It even came out the airlock on my 6.5 gallon fermentor. I was thinking that it would be more of the same...but it didn't slow down like the others....it's just been chugging right along, slowing down veeerrryyyyy slowly...
It's already been 9 or 10 days, the others were bottled by now and conditioning, but it's still burping at one every 25 seconds...
The gravity reading is 1.014 (corrected is probably 1.015), still a couple of points higher than I would like to see it, but it hasn't changed for a few days...
If it keeps going for the rest of this week and the gravity is the same, I'm bottling this weekend no matter what.
The only thing about the Apricot wheat was the addition of the apricot extract. Is it possible that it's what is making the fermentation take so long? Maybe it's harder for the yeast to break down than the malt sugars?
They said I could add it any time I wanted, but if this is the case, then I surely wouldn't want to add it after the ferment, I'd almost definitely be making bombs wouldn't I?
My Belgian Dubbel that I cooked up several days after this one is on track to probably be finished at the same time, and it's a much heavier, more substantial beer....
It's just weird.
Anyone have this sort of thing happen on occasion?