ginger beer doesnt appear to be fermenting

[rhrosendorff]

I started up my first batch of ginger beer from scratch , its been 7 days and specific gravity hasn't dropped from 1.5 .... There doesn't appear to be any bubbling .
I used saflager yeast but forgot to crash chill so i think the yeast might of died off as it was quite warm for a few days . When the temp dropped to 18 degrees i added some more yeast ... The brew tastes fine but i want to make it more alcoholic !
Help !

 

[bum]

If gravity hasn't dropped there isn't any alcohol at all, so you could definitely do with more alcohol. A week is a long time to have a batch sitting around without active yeast in it.

What was the "more yeast" you added at 18C? How much did you add in what volume of GB?

What is the recipe, just out of interest?

 

[rhrosendorff]

I used about 11 g of safale yeast to about 24 litres of gb.
For recipe I used
600 g of ginger ,
1 kg of honey
2 kg of sugar
4 lemons
4 limes
some chilli, lemongrass and cinnamon
.
I got the base recipe off someone and added the chilli etc..
It tastes real good tho
.
Do you think it would be possible to try and start a fermentation now after about 2 weeks or start a new batch ??/
This has never happened to me before

 

[rhrosendorff]

Oh and I added about 5 g more yeast
......

 

[bum]

I personally wouldn't bother throwing any more yeast at a batch that was already two weeks old without dropping. Something is very wrong. No clue what it is though - it is nothing in your ingredients as far as I can see. Did you change your sanitation regime or something?

Just realised that you haven't explicitly said that it still hasn't dropped. It really hasn't fermented at all?

 

[chewy]

I for one am baffled...

 

[charlie_b]

Any luck? I've got the same issue. Added kit yeast from Morgan's kit along with the yeast nutrient and nothing after three days. Fermenter is a little cold due to the cold snap but more or less 16-18 from the horribly inaccurate temp sticker.

 

[StayatHomeDad]

I had the same problem on a 5gal batch I just started on the 15th. It sat for ~4 days with nary a sign of fermentation and the hydrometer didn't budge from 1.05. I added about some porter yeast I had laying around from a John Bull Porter kit and within 30mins, the carboy was going crazy. It's since slowed down a bit (4-6 times/min that the s lock would bubble but now at 1-2 times) and I plan on rechecking in 4-5 days when I check a porter I have going next to it. Otherwise, it sounds like we've got similar recipes and conditions. Might want to give that a try.

 

[fletcher]

only thing i could think is that the yeast was potentially bad/spoiled or maybe pitched at a high temperature. i see you said "when the temp dropped". how high was it at the start?