Ginger Beer - Yeast Stalled?

[ben.h.anderson]

Hey guys. I have a batch of ginger beer that I put on to ferment on the 25th of March.

I started with the Brewcraft Ginger Beer Kit and added 1kg Brewcraft Blend #15 and 500g Lactose.

I also did a 10m boil with 3 tsps fresh grated ginger, 1/2 lemon, 10ish cloves, 1 stick of cinnamon and about 500ml of water which was added to the wort.

I did what the guy at the shop said to do which was to fill to 15L rather than the full 23L.

My starting gravity was 1.072 which I thought was a little too high but I decided that the guy was probably right.

For 3 days now the hydrometer reading has been at 1.022 which seems really high, should this be correct? Is this just the unfermentable lactose pushing up the gravity, I've never used lactose before so I'm unsure about what it's effect really is.

Could someone please let me know whether this is going to be safe to bottle, I don't want to end up with a sticky mess on my hands.

 

[buttersd70]

For 3 days now the hydrometer reading has been at 1.022 which seems really high, should this be correct? Is this just the unfermentable lactose pushing up the gravity, I've never used lactose before so I'm unsure about what it's effect really is.

Simplified (rough) version is, lactose will leave around the same amount of SG points at the end of ferment as it contributed at the start of ferment. 500g lactose in 15L adds around 13 SG points. So 1022 doesn't seem all that high when taking this into account....I would think that if you discount the gravity added by the lactose, and consider it to be 1059-1009, thats 84% apparant attenuation, which is quite high. So sounds done to me. Edit: not having done a GB before, I'm not sure what kind of end gravity is normal. But I would presume, without lactose, 1006-1010.

If you are in real doubt, prime 1 pet bottle as per normal, then leave it in a warm place (25*ish) to carbonate quickly, and check it's progress. Whilst thats happening, rouse the yeast in the main batch, and give it a bit more time....at 25C, the bottle should be carbed fairly quick, try it after 4-5 days. If it's ridiculously carbed after such a short period, then the main batch isn't finished, continue to rouse the yeast and check the sg, which should fall. If, however, the sample has a good carb level, or is undercarbed, then the main batch is going to be fine to bottle.

 

[ben.h.anderson]

Thanks a lot. I'll try doing the bottle this weekend.

 

[bum]

Would the same amount of artificial sweeteners in a smaller batch size effect the FG, too?

Ben, let us known how it turns out. So far I've been pretty disappointed with a Cooper's GB tin and a GB I made from scratch and would love to hear that this easy looking K&B turned out good. I'm pretty sure you're not gonna notice too much difference with 3 tsps of ginger though. Good luck with it!