Brewing Progress Update

As would have been expected, our first batch has given us a few problems, one of which may render it undrinkable. Currently, Rachel is sitting in the freezer set to between 65 and 70 degrees, and has been there for the last three days. Typically, healthy fermentation should start in 24 hours, but the water in our airlock has only visibly bubbled (meaning escaping carbon dioxide, a good thing) a few times. I opened the lid today to check out the progress, and was surprised and pleased to find a pretty thick coating of foam on the top of the beer. This means the yeast is doing what it needs to be doing, yet there is still no air escaping from the airlock. Either we have a broken seal and air is escaping elsewhere, or the foam is less yeast related and more infection related. Both are bad, but obviously the latter is worse.

Every gut instinct of mine says to toss out the batch and start anew, but maybe by the grace of God this batch will turn out. The root of the slow fermentation, we believe, is that we used a vial of liquid yeast that was advertised to be ready to pitch. Other sources say that, when using liquid yeast, the brewer should start several days in advance and propagate the yeast in some sort of priming vessel, so that, come brew day, the yeast is already active and fermenting and is more likely to survive and prosper through its change of environment. We failed to do this...

Well, you live and you learn. I'll keep you all updated on how this batch turns out. In another 4 or 5 days, we will transfer it to a secondary fermenter (glass), as long as complete fermentation has taken place. In the result of a stopped fermentation, we may toss the contents and brew again the following weekend, making sure to prime our liquid yeast and have a packet of dry yeast on hand to jump start the process before three days of stagnant contamination.

Sam