effing disaster

[johnluc]

Hi all, was asked to make 2 ag brews for my friends 70th birthday, a london pride & a ruddles, have done about 50 ag brews so far with great results, anyhow first one, the london pride went well, 2 weeks in fermenter, checked fg stuck @ 1.020, gave it a stir checked 3 days later still 1.020 pitched another sachet of rehydrated s04, left another week only went down to 1.016, so decided to keg anyway, week later found the tap was leaking, b*****ks, laid the keg on its side so i could change the tap job done :P checked a few days later guess what no carbination so recharged with co2 day later no pressure again, cap leaking re washered cap twice, now seems to be holding. a couple of questions for the experts.
a: did i under pitch yeast, 1 sachet s04 for 28 ltrs
b: have just started rehydrating my yeast (previously just pour on when running off wort then whisking like mad) and it has not frothed up after 30 - 45 mins after adding to cooled boiled water. (3 times now)
c: as it still tastes ok is it worth leaving alone after all the faffing about or will it go off considering the amount of air it must have come into contact with while changing tap and rewashering cap.
johnluc.

 

[joe1002]

Fermentis recommend 50-80 g/hl for s-04 therefore you should have pitched 14-22.4g for 28l. You pitched 11.5g so yes you did under pitch a little.

The yeast wont froth while rehydrating, mine doesn't anyhow.

Yes I would leave it alone, well apart from the odd tester here and there. It will probably be fine, there is no point in chucking it unless you know your beer is bad. :thumb:

 

[MyQul]

a: Possibly. I use this Mr Malty website to calculate how much yeast to pitch

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[Dave1970]

You might have underpitched a bit but not so much it would give you that much of a problem. Have you considered making starter?..it's not needed for dry yeast but might help your issue. I take 100g of DME and dissolve it in 1 litre of water and boil for 10 mins. Once cool put in a bottle/ jar and add yeast. Cap with foil. Give this a swirl every time you walk past to keep it oxygenated.
A day before you brew put in the fridge and allow the yeast to settle then once you get the boil on drain the liquid off. Take a bit of wort out of the boil after 10 mins and once cooled pour it on top of your yeast - by the time your beer's cooled and ready to pitch your yeast should be lively and ready to pitch, and there will be more yeast cells - it often gets going within a few hours done like this and should attenuate better as well.

As for your current brew definitely don't chuck it, but you may well need to reprime rather than just charging with gas.

 

[johnluc]

thanks for your replies guys, if i re prime what would i do, add more sugar direct to keg, and how much ?

 

[Dave1970]

Maybe about 50g? If you assume that there's still some gas in the brew - dissolve the sugar in a little water and boil for a few minutes to sterilise, cool and add to brew

 

[johnluc]

thanks for that dave hope it turns out ok, only got a month to the party and would hate to let him (and myself) down, sods law it goes **** up when doing it for someone else.