Scootin' Scottie Ale update

I checked the gravity of my Scootin’ Scottie Ale (Scottish 80 /- Export) this past weekend. After two straight weeks, fermentation had finally calmed down. The airlock was bubbling once every 7 to 9 seconds (the airlock had been bubbling once every 4 to 5 seconds for the first 10 days), so I figured it might be time to transfer the batch to secondary. I took a refractometer reading this past Sunday 1/30 that came in at about 9 brix or a little over what I’m shooting for. That equates to a gravity reading of roughly 1.024 – 1.020, where I’m actually looking for 1.014 to 1.012 for this style.

On Tuesday night 2/1, I snagged another sample out of the carboy and the brix reading came in at 8.0-8.5, which is 1.017-1.020. It’s arguably moved down a bit, but the airlock is bubbling once every 9-11 seconds now, so I’m concerned fermentation is stalling right near the end. The fact that it just got a bit colder outside again (and colder in the house) didn’t help either, as the batch got down to about 58*, a few too low for this yeast strain.

After securing the airlock back on the carboy, I spun it around a bit to rouse the yeast back into activity and also positioned the carboy right next to the heat vent in the office. In a short while, it was back to bubbling once every 4 or 5 seconds, and when I got home from work on Wednesday 2/3 the batch was all the way up to 73* — ouch! Too hot! I’ve since moved it away from the heat vent so hopefully it cools down to the optimal 60-65* soon. Since fermentation is moving along again, I decided it wasn’t worth it to take another gravity reading Wednesday.

Apparently I must remain patient. Man this Edinburgh Ale yeast strain sure takes it’s time compared to most of the American and English ale yeasts I’ve worked with in past batches.

Scottie on the left, Cliffred Lager on the right