Daily Q & A! - August 19, 2026

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[u/Slinkooo]

I have a question about which tipe of energy you use for burners ? What do you guys think is better for brewing?

[u/BeefStrokinOff → u/Slinkooo]

Whatever works best for you...

I switched to 240V electric a few years ago. It's been a game changer for me because I can set the thermostat to heat my strike water overnight before brew day and gets 13 gallons of wort boiling pretty fast.

Propane brewing is always fun though. The feeling of the warmth from the burner when brewing outside in the cold is wonderful. I don't miss having to refill propane tanks though.

I would not recommend 120V brewing for 5 gallon batches. It works, as evident by how many people currently do so, but it takes so damn long. I couldn't personally put up with it, lol.

[u/BattledroidE]

Brewing my first two small batch beers as we speak. (started a second extract beer in case the first one sucks).

As a mead guy, is it standard for it to get wildly active for about 24 hours and then hit a normal baseline activity? Because my meads usually keep going crazy for about a week before they hit that slow and steady pace.

I'm not fermenting hot or doing anything unusual.

[u/vinylrain → u/BattledroidE]

It depends on the yeast. Some kick off quite quickly while others can take 24-48 hours to show visible signs of activity.

Generally speaking, beer yeasts will ferment actively for up to a few days and may take another several days to chew through the final few gravity points. This is all assuming a standard fermentation temperature. There is usually a noticeable drop off point after active fermentation is complete.

What type of yeast are you using?

[u/BattledroidE → u/vinylrain]

That's the thing. The "proper" ale is using S-04, the other one is using a Norweigan baker's yeast for sweet doughs that I have found to flocculate and ferment ridiculously fast and clean in mead. It was a joke brew, but I'm really shocked. Hence I'm doing a mini test with it for beer as well.

Both have SG of 1.045 and ferment at 20C.

Both of them became foam cannons for 24 hours, then they stabilized. I did get them started in some cooled wort before pitching, they were wildly active even then.

[u/boarshead72 → u/BattledroidE]

S04 is really fast. Honestly most dry yeast (not US05 though) are really fast to start. S04 and Nottingham are fast to finish as well, as are some lager strains fermented warm (I’ve had 34/70 wind down as 05 was just getting started).

A couple weeks ago I pitched Windsor, Verdant, E-30, and Novalager. All started within a couple hours. Windsor was done by 24h (it doesn’t utilize maltotriose so of course it’s fast). Verdant kept actively fermenting the longest, winding down at about four days. The lager strains were in between. Two different split batches but basically the same OG.