When brewing beer, how short can fermentation be?

Question

My beer was bubbling like crazy at 8:30am yesterday. It worked like this for about 24 hours and now the fermenation has ceased. Am I still okay, or is this too soon? i have read that beer can ferment between 2-7 days.

I am going to try to swirl the fermentor to activate some yeast that may have fallen as well as take the final gravity, but any help would be great.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It will still be fermenting long after it stops appearing frothy. You're better to leave it alone. There's no need to swirl...what fell to the bottom belongs on the bottom. Any living, fermenting yeast is still suspended in the wort. If you can't see through it, it's still there.

Give it a whole week regardless of what happens before you take your final gravity.

Patience is half of the game in home brewing. Keeping things sterile and clean and oxygen free is the other half. Get those two down and you can make something worth drinking out of nearly everything.

Answer 2

The bulk of the fermentation usually starts within 24 hours and ends within 24 hours. Your beer is still fermenting but not at an accelerated pace. Let it complete the fermentation which should take approximately 2 weeks. If you have another fermenting vessel, sanitize it and transfer the beer over to it. This will help clarify the beer in the 2nd stage of fermentation. At the end of the 2nd week take a hydrometer reading. If it reads 1.010 - 1.012, you're good to go with the bottling.

If you feel that you need to swirl the beer to re-activate the yeast do so with a sanitized spoon and do it gently so you are not introducing oxygen into the wort. This will stale the beer.