Muntons Ipa

[gerald]

muntons 1.8kg tin of IPA + a brew craft brew enhancer 20 (500gram malt + 250gram dex and 250 corn syrup i think)

OG was 1042,

pitched yeast at 24 25

fermented at around 20-21 the entire time.

was done a few days ago - no action in the airlock and the same gravity reading 2 days ago as it is today. BUT

the gravity now is 1016?

doesnt seem like a big drop hey.

Depending on the calculator i use i get different readings etc... as to what it should and shouldnt be and how much alc is in there. I dont mind if its only got 4% but dropping bellow that is kind of irritating.

i gave the fermenter a nice big shake to get the yeast back into it when it seemed to be slowing down, and the temp when i check the gravity is 20*C

is it possible to shake a fermenter tooo much?? i did give it a good swirl.

there isnt heaps of fermentables in it, and it was made to 23L, but yeah, time to bottle yet?

thanks guys
gerald

 

[kabooby]

I wouldn't shake it to much. Just swirl it. You dont wont to get air into the beer, you just want to resuspend the yeast.

When I used to do kits I always had trouble getting my FG down. Probably down to the yeast and the contents of the kit I think. What yeast did you use?

Kabooby

 

[gerald]

i just used the yeast that came with the kit.

i gave it a fair big swirl guess i wont be doing that again, just a wee lil one next time

recon i should bottle it?

 

[maltedhopalong]

Hey Gerald,

One thing I know is that most of the time, you have more time than you think you do. Don't worry too much, far more brews are spoiled by hastiness than patience. I personally think your fermentation is stuck. Never mind the alcohol content, the SG is to tell you when all the sugars have been fermented out. If you bottle now and you have a stuck fermentation with residual sugars in the brew, you bottles might not carbonate at all (dead yeast) or they might blow up ("sleeping" yeast)!!!

Have a look at this thread: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=21235 where I got myself in a similar situation just last week. My situation is a little different to yours in that i wasn't sure what FG i was looking for, and in my case, the yeast was finished, but the comments should help you understand a little more about what's going on (non fermentables, how yeast behaves etc.) and some potential ways of testing (adding dex or yeast etc.).

 

[RobboMC]

The on-line brewcraft calculator gives an FG of 1014 for this receipe. The corn sugar gives 4 extra points over the same amount of dex. With the Muntons kit also NOT containing any dex or barley sugars and being 100% malt, it's possible that 1016 may be as low as this brew will go. Since it's been at 20-21 deg chances are it probably didn't get stuck. The extra 2 points of FG is also possible from a variation in the % of components in the brew enhancer, a slight extra amount of corn syrup will add to the FG.

Leave it for 10-12 days after you staretd it and measure FG again.

If you want higher %abv from these kits, add less water. I do a very nice Muntons Yorkshire bitter using only 19 litres, coming out at 4.7% abv.

By the way, Gerald, why did you add a dex and corn syrup mix to such a good kit. The Muntons kits are 100% all malt, surely this calls for adding nothing but malt? Using Muntons kits is your chance to make beer that is free of anything but the 4 magic ingredients, malt, hops, yeast and water, as that TV ad goes.