Stalled Fermentation

I am new to brewing and am having a slight issue with my 1st brew.

It's a Youngs Lager.

The setup all went perfectly well and I used Brew Enhancer instead of Brewers sugar.

OG was spot on at 1042.

As of today it's been in the fermenter for 2 weeks and over the last 3 days I have had a constant reading of 1014.

The brew is supposed to be fermented in 4-6 days from start and is supposed to reach 1006 or below.

The fermenter has been stored in a stable temp of my airing cupboard at a constant temp of 21deg.

I have tried the swirl method to rouse the yeast but nothing.

I have some more yeast coming on the thinking that perhaps there was not enough to start with or that some May have been bad.

Any thoughts?

Regards..,

Kirk

It might be worth a gentle stir to bring some of the yeast back up from the bottom of the FV - gentle as in don't allow any air to mix up with the brew.

Most of the posts I've read say is best to leave it going for a good 3 weeks minimum to allow the yeast to clean up any undesirable by-products, so you've got a while left yet.

Thanks for the reply.

I have considered a gentle stir but really want to leave that as a last resort because of the risk.

I am going to leave it a while longer to see if it starts again.

In you opinion do you think putting extra yeast in is a good idea?

don't put extra yeast in at the mo, may give off flavours that you don't want. What do the instructions say on the packet about final gravity? how much sugar did you add to the wort in the beginning? What temperature are you fermenting at? Have you calibrated your hydrometer? it will have a certain temp to calibrate it to. say 15 or 20 usually. Use your trial jar, fill with water at the correct temperature that your hydrometer is calibrated at and take a reading from it. It may be That your hydrometer is reading a little high. Keep us updated with what you are doing.
JD

My suggestion is to make sure the hydrometer has no bubbles affecting your reading. Give the sample a shake (assuming it's in a sample jar and you're not floating the hydromer in the FV) to get rid of some CO2 and give the hydrometer a quick twirl and see what the reading is then.

If it's stopped bubbling and fermented at 21C then 1010 - 1012 is well feasible and I think that's where it perhaps is. Follow what JonnyD says using water left to stand to the same temp as your FV (for calibration) and see if you still think it's 1014.

If it is, then you can start thinking about messing with it.

Good luck and stay patient. :thumb:

I have a Geordie Scottish Export where I used Youngs lager yeast also sitting at 1.011 after 27 days when I would have expected 1.006 had I used different yeast. Not a clue why but not really stalled just very slow. I am just leaving it until at least under the 1.010 point had I not done same brew before with same amount of sugar and know it will normally end up at 1.006 I would have bottled it. Made that mistake with Coopers Ginger Beer and had to pour it all back into fermenter for a week which is a lot of messing around so better to just wait a little longer.

Don't think a single kit beer has ever been ready to bottle after time given in instructions always needs at least a week longer.

Okie dokie guys I have some more info.

I left my thermometer overnight right next to my fermenter and got a consistent reading of 22 degrees.

I have then made a 22 degree sample of plain water in my trial jar to test my hydrometer but unfortunately this has not really helped matters as the reading was 998.

I had already been considering a hydrometer fault and had purchased another different make, which as yet I have not used on the beer.
This new one measured 1002 in the same water sample.

Where I was hoping to see my original hydrometer read naturally high on calibration and use this to account for the current high SG, it is now the other way around and I need infact to add two points on to the reading I have which makes my actual current SG 1016.

I am going to take another reading from the mix tomorrow and go from there, probably take further readings every other day.

I know something must be happening because the lid of the fermenter is continually ballooning even after I have replaced it after sampling.

Regards..,

Kirk

There are Density Hydrometers and Specific Gravity Hydrometers and it would seem density calibrated at 20°C and specific gravity calibrated at 15.6°C or 28.9°C (S60/60°F or S84/84°F) this means with no fault you can get three different readings also surface tension can alter the reading. I have two hydrometers one glass and one plastic and again different readings because the correction factor varies according to material used. Many food producers ban use of glass because of the danger if one should break.

But in the main all this does not matter you are only really worried as it if ready to bottle and normally there are other signs like air lock activity so with a strange beer where you don't know expected final s.g. it's just a case of looking for other signs of activity as well. With this in mind I have made a very good seal on the air lock with my fermentor.

Other thing is use plastic bottles. I have found with plastic bottles I can monitor after bottling without opening by how hard the bottle is so before any bang and bottle exploding I can feel something has gone wrong. Even if only one bottle is plastic you can then judge how the rest are doing.

I generally plan to leave to condition for at least 2 months so to leave an extra week in fermentor is nothing really the only thing I find is I often transfer to secondary ferment to reduce sediment and one brew being delayed will also reflect on next as lack of fermentor for transfer.

I here a lot about stuck brews but not really had one. My Ginger Beer went slow but did not really stop. Up to now only had slow brews there has always been activity. At 18 - 20 degrees Cider was my longest done in demijohns so could see progress started cloudy then cleared then went cloudy again and then cleared again with sediment and crust forming the latter slowly returning to bottom to become sediment during the latter stage the air lock was near inactive but clearly activity was going on. From making apples into juice to bottling around 3 months some had semi-floating sediment and some hard sediment but all tasted great although dry. Mixed 50/50 with Ginger Beer was great. But it all takes time.

The biggest problem starting brew my own was getting enough bottles so I could leave to condition. One has to think months ahead not days it just takes time.

Well, today is the 3rd week in the fermenter and I have just taken another reading, it is still showing 1014.

I noticed today though, that the fermenter lid was not domed but it was up to yesterday when I checked it.

The surface of the brew is fairly clear of foam, just a number of individual islands of it, if that makes sense.

The brew itself looks a lovely golden colour in my trial jar and also pretty clear.
Taste is not too bad, less sweet than the last time I checked.

I will update when I gave more news.

Cheers

Perhaps the yeast is struggling with extra non fermentables in the enhancer this would probably raise the FG by a few points, see below.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter3-5.html

Thanks for the reply, this has probably answered my question now.

After researching the Cooper Brew Enhancer 1 that I used, I have found that it contains only 75% of fermentables.

I quick whizz on my calculator shows me that the OG of 1042 to my current G of 1014 is roughly 75% of the way to the expected FG of 1006.

So, on this occasion it looks as though I will gave a light beer but flavoursome.

A further update.

I had nothing really to loose so I added a touch more yeast to the brew a few days ago.

I checked on the brew daily and found no change in SG, until that is today. It has now dropped a further 2 points to 1012 and aside from the usual ballooning of the bucket's lid, there are more obvious signs of activity i.e. a complete layer of white foam head, just as it did with the initial fermentation and the brew is slightly cloudy again.

I am hoping this is a sort of 'second wind' and I may see some further improvement in SG.

:pray:

After dropping to 1.010 and staying there for about a week or so, I have just checked it again and it's dropped again to 1.009. Great news.

Seems to be fermenting but just very slowly.

I was considering bottling today if the reading was still 1.010, now I'll wait a little longer.

It may be worth you transferring it off the trub once fermentation has finished as you added extra yeast, otherwise a long fermentation on the trub could risk causing off flavours, you could also then put it somewhere cool to let more yeast drop out before bottling.

Thanks for the reply Rivvo.

What is a trub?

Trub is the layer of stuff at the bottom of the FV usually made up of dead yeast, proteins and other stuff you don't want in your finished beer.

Rivvo said:

It may be worth you transferring it off the trub once fermentation has finished as you added extra yeast, otherwise a long fermentation on the trub could risk causing off flavours, you could also then put it somewhere cool to let more yeast drop out before bottling.

Click to expand...

Actually ignore this, I've just read something elsewhere that suggests it should be fine staying in primary for up to a month, this is contrary to earlier thinking on the subject that I had previously read in various sources, even John Palmer has changed his mind about this due to the improvement in modern yeast strains!

OK thanks for the update

You're welcome, I'm glad it came up because there has always been a bit of dispute about the necessity for racking off and it was a good time to have another look at it.

Okie dokie, my brew had finally finished fermenting, no doming of the lid & a constant SG reading.

Now I'm ready to bottle.

Approximately how short of the top should I fill my bottles, they are plastic if that makes a difference.

Regards..,