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.