Fermentation Seemingly Ongoing 23 days Later

[Show Me a Stein]

Gravity's remained the same.

For what it's worth, if I had bottled it when it was, for example, 1.010, what impact would this have had on the carbonation (say, in 5 gallons and I was measuring sugar for 3.0 volumes)? Would the bottles have exploded?

I guess what I'm asking, is what's the relation between each drop in gravity and CO2 volumes produced?

 

[phildo79]

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean that I'm one point off target?

Sorry, for some reason I thought TFG was 1.004.

They might have exploded. At the very least, you would have ended up with very fizzy beer.

 

[Brew_DD2]

There is always the temptation to keep checking gravity in your first brew, but each and every time you open that lid you are increasing your chances of infection. Given that your beer plateaued then dropped quite a few points further (past the yeast's attenuation range), coupled with the sudden change in the flavour you describe; I fear it may be infected.

Also, try not to fall into the trap that airlock activity equals active fermentation. Quite often it's the CO2 produced during fermentation leaving the solution.

Get it bottled and put the bottles somewhere in a container in case you do get bombs. See how it's tasting in a couple of weeks once it has carved up.

 

[Show Me a Stein]

There is always the temptation to keep checking gravity in your first brew, but each and every time you open that lid you are increasing your chances of infection. Given that your beer plateaued then dropped quite a few points further (past the yeast's attenuation range), coupled with the sudden change in the flavour you describe; I fear it may be infected.

Also, try not to fall into the trap that airlock activity equals active fermentation. Quite often it's the CO2 produced during fermentation leaving the solution.

Get it bottled and put the bottles somewhere in a container in case you do get bombs. See how it's tasting in a couple of weeks once it has carved up.

Bottling as we speak. In my defence, it was between my 2nd and 3rd gravity readings when I discovered it was rapidly going down, as I was trying to limit the number of readings. Then every time I checked so I could bottle it had kept going down!

 

[Show Me a Stein]

To give a conclusion to this thread, this ended up a really great wheat beer! After bottle conditioning, there was no 'green taste' at all and it tasted just like it did when I first shocked at how nice it tasted.

I'm preparing to brew it again! Will be interesting to see if the fermentation takes the same journey.