BeerBorg

Last Sunday I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch of brown ale, trying again to get closer to the tastes I can only envision.

I used a different yeast; Mangrove Jack Newcastle Ale yeast. I've used a couple of their other strains this year, and I was pleased with the result.

Everything went pretty smoothly on brew day, although I pitched a little warmer than I'd have liked, but not outrageously so. And I noticed over the week that the temp strip read in the low 70s. Again, not a deal-breaker by any means.

But what is very curious is that there never seemed to be a whole lot of active fermentation; at least not for long. Sunday evening I noticed the usual churning, but a day or two later, it seemed to have stopped. There wasn't really any krausen to speak of, and the blow-off tube was so quiet, I changed it out for an S-curve airlock midweek. Not much going on there, either.

The only thing that reassures me is that there's a nice layer of trub with clear striations where you can see the pretty yeast on top of the gray junk. I'm going to take a gravity sample tomorrow and see what the progress is. Maybe it's just how this yeast performs.

Yea, that is odd. What was the OG of the beer? Maybe it just didn't need to work to hard. Is that yeast a dry or liquid?

I'm thinking, like many English strains...

They are not really big top fermenters (meaning not crazy with krausen like say 3787)...

Most likely it did what it could for primary and then started dropping out.

I'll bet you are getting close to your target FG... Though it will still need a week to clean up.

Dan, the OG was 1.042, so this isn't a killer beer, by any means. But it's a brown ale, so.... And the BJCP style guidelines says the OG range is 1.040 - 1.050, so....

Also, this is a dry yeast, which I rehydrated.

George, it's been less than a week, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was close to FG. I'll give it at least another week, though, to clean up. No need to rush things.

Gravity reading is 1.016, which is a bit high, but it's only been a week. And fermentation is definitely going on, so I'll give it more time and RDWHAHB. Tastes pretty good, even this early!