Ale Still Fermenting After 2 Weeks

[gerald]

doing a cooopers sparkling ale according to the recipe on the back

1.7kg of sparkling ale
1.5tin LME
500gram LDME
350gram dex

and ive dry hopped it with 10grams of POR.

anyway its been in the fermenter for 2 weeks now and its still bubbling...BUT the FG doesnt seem to be dropping. infact, its done some weird things. i took one reading about a week ago and it said it was down to 1007(but could have just been cos it was my first reading and the beer in the tap thing wasnt showing an accurate reading?). but now its sitting at a solid 1010-1011. hasnt changed for 3 days but it keeps bubbling - quite slowly though. maybe one bubble each min.

so do i leave it for another few days? OR get to bottling it tomorrow....if it still reads the same gravity reading tomorrow that is.

cya
gerald

 

[Lobsta]

doing a cooopers sparkling ale according to the recipe on the back

1.7kg of sparkling ale
1.5tin LME
500gram LDME
350gram dex

and ive dry hopped it with 10grams of POR.

anyway its been in the fermenter for 2 weeks now and its still bubbling...BUT the FG doesnt seem to be dropping. infact, its done some weird things. i took one reading about a week ago and it said it was down to 1007(but could have just been cos it was my first reading and the beer in the tap thing wasnt showing an accurate reading?). but now its sitting at a solid 1010-1011. hasnt changed for 3 days but it keeps bubbling - quite slowly though. maybe one bubble each min.

so do i leave it for another few days? OR get to bottling it tomorrow....if it still reads the same gravity reading tomorrow that is.

cya
gerald

i would wait until some more people agree with me before taking my advice, but i had a similar thing happen to my first brew, and i was told that it was just CO2 that was dissolved in the beer down the bottom (hight pressure, therefore can hold more CO2), which was slowly coming out of solution. thats why your hydrometers may have been slightly carbonated. that could also account for the slightly higher hydrometer readings, have you been spinning your hydromoter in the tube, because bubbles of CO2 form on the side of in when you put in the sample which make it float higher. so i would say bottle it. thats what i did and no explosions 3 weeks down the track...

Lobby

 

[gerald]

yeah, been spinning it and i let it sit around for half an hour or more to double check the reading.

 

[BottleBitch]

doing a cooopers sparkling ale according to the recipe on the back

1.7kg of sparkling ale
1.5tin LME
500gram LDME
350gram dex

and ive dry hopped it with 10grams of POR.

anyway its been in the fermenter for 2 weeks now and its still bubbling...BUT the FG doesnt seem to be dropping. infact, its done some weird things. i took one reading about a week ago and it said it was down to 1007(but could have just been cos it was my first reading and the beer in the tap thing wasnt showing an accurate reading?). but now its sitting at a solid 1010-1011. hasnt changed for 3 days but it keeps bubbling - quite slowly though. maybe one bubble each min.

so do i leave it for another few days? OR get to bottling it tomorrow....if it still reads the same gravity reading tomorrow that is.

cya
gerald

Gerald,

the best thing to do is to degas the sample before testing it, just get to plastic jugs and pour the sample from one jug to the next about 10-15 times this should degas the sample so the CO2 wont cling to the hydrometer, giving you a false reading. Primary fermentation should really only take 3-6 days for an ale, the best why to know when fermentation is finished is by using a pH meter, yes they are kind of expensive, but they are so valuable in the brewing process, if you take pH reading with your gravity reading you will see the pH rise by about 0.1 at the end of fermentation, generally the end of fermentation is about 4.2-3.9, this is a great tool for knowing the exact end of fermentation.

From experience the average about of CO2 in solution at the end of fermentation is about 3.0 grams a liter, beer that is bright and fully carbonated is somewhere from 4.8-5.5 grams a liter, so the bubbles that you see in the air lock are just the CO2 in solution just trying to escape for the beer.

use the above methods and you will never have any dramas predicting the exact end of fermentation again.

Cheers

Brett

 

[Maxt]

Bottom line...... If you get the same (expected finishing) SG reading for 3 days. Bottle/keg/rack.Your'e done!

 

[gerald]

fermentation was started at around 24-25 degrees and has been sitting on 20-21 the remainder of that so my hydrometer readings are always at 20 degrees.

not sure if i want to invest in a Ph meter.

OG was 1052, and its now at 1010(1011), according to the brewcraft calculator thats a fair whack off what they recon it should be (1062-1015??) but i dont trust that thing too much.

might test it tomorrow and degas my sample first and see how its going then.

my current sample is still showing the same reading.


thanks for all the help so far

 

[Adamt]

It is finished.

I wouldnt expect it to go any lower than 1010 with those ingredients.

As for the first reading of 1007... could have been carbonation, could have been yeast (though this would have the opposite effect), doesn't matter.

Bottle it!

 

[axl]

Bottle it/keg it. It's done