Sg Not Dropping!

[verynewtohomebrew]

Hey all sorry to a pain in the arse and ask questions every 5 mins but Im worried about my 'baby'

My starting sg was 1.038 (malthouse bitter,hallertau tea bag and saaz teabag and beer ultra) i racked and SG had dropped to 1.011 but now after 10 days I have no drop do I have a stuck furment??

should I keep waiting or just bottle and hope they can hold the extra pressure due to extra sugar in the wort??? :huh:

this may seem like a pretty simple brew but its my first brew with anything other than a can and kilo supermarket brew. B)

Anyway thanks in advance

 

[verynewtohomebrew]

ps temp was constant 22C also with heaps of airation before and after pitching yeast which was done in a starter of cooled wort which got before mixing with cooled water - i used a simple quick boil method

 

[kook]

I'd say its done

 

[PostModern]

Seconded.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

yup, very likely done

an all extract batch will usually attenuate 75%, 1/4 of 38 is 9.5, pretty close to what you got. I have no idea what beer ultra is so have no idea how it would affect FG.

Why did you rack b4 ferment was finished? If you leave the beer in primary and think it is underattenuated you can always stir the yeast sitting on the bottom of the fermenter back up into the beer again, which usually helps it drop another point or two.

If you are still worried, bottle without priming and give the bottles 3 weeks to condition up







Jovial Monk

 

[verynewtohomebrew]

well after consideration of all the racking related posts i decided that racking at 75% of primary was the average point most ppl suggested so i decided to use that though i went away for a couple of days and got home to find it dropped to 1.011 which by my calcs was finished so i racked, but i expected that the sg would still drop, but maybe its ok so ill bottle and still prime and see how things go but i will back off the priming sugar to around 3/4 (ill bulk prime) so as to not risk exploding bottles

thanks guys i was just a little worried about my baby because as u know my first brew which contains more than water and sugar!!!

mike

p.s. if this post makes no sense excuse me - best mates 21st bday today so few home brews down the hatch!!

 

[Wozza]

I'd say it was done, too.

But what I would do at this point is rack to a sealed jerry and leave it for a couple of weeks to settle out further - ideally in the fridge, and then bottle. If it doesn't go into the fridge, crack the top every week or so just in case there's a point or two of fermenting still to go.

Also check out any of the posts on Cold Conditioning. The vast majority seem to believe that its good for helping to clear the beer and also helps the flavour. I split a brew a few weeks back and put half into CC and half just sitting alongside the fridge. They'll both be ready to sup in about 2 or 3 weeks and I can do a comparison between the two. I'll post the results then...

 

[Guest Lurker]

I tried the same thing Wozza. It was hard to compare flavour directly, because the half I bottled obviously had a higher level of carbonation than the half that was cold conditioned a month and recently bottled. But the difference in clarity was amazing. Compared to other brews, I would have described the bottled half as having dropped its sediment and being clear. Until I compared them with the cold conditioned half, which was amazingly sparkly clear.

The plan was then to put some of the bottled version in the frisge for a month, and see what cold conditioning in the bottle did. But I drank them all. So I don't know.

 

[Trough Lolly]

At 1011, you're done.

I agree with Jovial Monk - leave the primary alone for at least 5 days to finish before racking to the secondary for further conditioning. Extract brews don't have to be moved at the 3/4 mark of the primary - all you're doing is adding more sediment to the bottom of the secondary fermenter because the wort has not fully attenuated, and, you risk not allowing the wort to complete it's fermentation before kegging/bottling.

Whether to rack at the end of the primary phase or at an earlier time is another thread on it's own - for what it's worth, I prefer to rack after primary has completed (at least 5-10 days after pitching the yeast depending on the brew) so I can take the wort off the yeast cake and slap it into cold conditioning for at least 2-3 weeks and let the wort settle / clarify and develop character in bulk rather than waiting in the bottle or keg for that maturing to occur.

If you have a wort still bubbling in secondary, you have minute particles still circulating up and down in the wort and that will work against the goal you may have of trying to clarify the beer as well as improve the taste and mouthfeel.

IMHO - You can't rush crystal clear, well developed beer...

JM - I think he was referring to the 1Kg Country Brewer Ultra Brew boosters (500gDME / 250g Maltodextrin / 250g Dextrose) in the original post.

My $0.05 worth...

Cheers,

TL