Ginger beer - I killed it L:( halp?

[SaintRoam]

Hello supreme court of brewing love,

I have a confession to make, its been a while since I been back on here but everything's been going so smooth with my brewing...

-until-

I decided to make a batch of ginger beer the usual way I do where I buy a kit from the LHB and add some flavours to the boil. So started by grating and boiling 1.5kgs of fresh ginger with 1 cinnamon stick 2 cloves and a diced chilli for a hour ish, I then strained that into the carboy with 1kg dextrose and filled it up to the 22ltre mark with water (I left out the ginger essence that came with the kit as I thought it would make it too ginger'ry)
now this is where it all goes down hill.. I made a started with the yeast supplied in the kit - 1 spoon of dry mix + 1 dextrose + yeast and tepid water, left it for the time good time but no frothing or activity!! I left it a good while longer (maybe half a day?) and decided by some nature of god that'd id accidently murdered this yeast. Okay next plan I grabbed one of the yeasts I got with a coopers beer kit made another started the same way and this time left it over night where it seemed to froth a little but not that much. I put this in the carboy and its been a week and a half and apart from about 3 bubbles from the airlock no sign of any activity or bubbling at all!!! during the time I've freaked out a couple of times and opened it, given it a stir and even added the kit essence in thinking there was some ingredient I missed in it. Unfortunately I cant give any temps or gravity tests as my thermometer is broken and wasn't smart enough to take a reading

Question is: should I leave in a bit longer and just bottle it anyways (keeping in mind I will be mentally paranoid of bottle rockets if it starts fermenting all of a sudden!!) Or should I just ditch it and learn from my lesson what ever that was lol

I know I don't have much to work with here but if anyway has any sage advice on how (or if) I can recover this brew it would be greatly appreciated. ALOT of money and ginger went into this :unsure:

 

[Liam_snorkel]

don't ditch it, it's probably fine!
Ignore the airlock, a hydrometer will be the only practical way to measure signs of fermentation. Don't bottle it until you can take a couple of identical gravity readings 1 day apart.

 

[SaintRoam]

Thanks Liam, might take some readings on Sunday and Monday and see how it looks. Ill post up some pics as I might need help on what it all means haha

 

[manticle]

1. On no account bottle until you've measured with the brand new hydrometer you are going to go and buy and found the gravity to be at the expected finishing point.
2. Taste and see if the brew is OK.
3. Forget bubbles as an indicator of fermentation. Use visible krausen, condensation on lid and above all - gravity readings to check.
4. Look up rehydrating yeast according to the manufacturer of whichever one you are using. Dextrose is not recommended, temperature of rehydration is important.
5. If fermentation really hasn't started fermenting, boil up 1 litre of water with 100g dried malt extract. Once the yeast is actively fermeting the solution (carbonation bubbles visible in the light, krausen on top or dropping gravity) add in this active starter to kick things off.

 

[SaintRoam]

Hey guys, so I took a reading last night...



And then once again another reading this morning...



which it seems to be sitting pretty steadily riiiiiiiiigggggghhhhht about here...



Also had a taste and other than seeming a little bit weaker than my others it tastes pretty okay so what would you make of it all? worth bottling?

Thanks!

 

[Liam_snorkel]

looks cooked to me

 

[SaintRoam]

what's cooked mean mate? dead?

 

[panzerd18]

If it's that low surely it's properly fermented?

 

[Liam_snorkel]

yeah sorry I mean it looks done. Should be safe to bottle

 

[SaintRoam]

sweet. Thanks again for all your help hey. Learnt some big lessons on this one but we'll see how it turns out.