Silly Fg

[theredone]

just had another brew stick at 1.020

this is the 3rd batch that has done this. with the first 2 i put it down to not being boiled and mixed together while bioling for a bouple of mins. but this last one was and its stuck again. i actually opend the lid briefly and gave the trub a quick stick up incase there were any fermentables stuck down there but it didnt do anything. another reading this morn and its at same thing. it doesnt bother me that much as one of the 1st ones to do this was actually quite nice, its just realy annoying that i dont know whats going on

this recipe was Tony's LCBA. the only thing done differently was i used saaz instead of b saaz. and when i took my og before pitching it was at 1.047 so i added another 100g of dex and gave it a quick stir(this may be the prob?), og was then the targeted 1.048, pitched and away she went for about 3-4 days at 18 degrees

 

[breadenhound]

What yeast are you using? Are you tossing the yeast in dry or are you making a starter first? I personally have found that if I just add the yeast straight out of the packet it is never ferments that vigorously, but if I make a starter the night before it goes off like a rocket! B)

 

[zabond]

what ingredients/litres/yeast?personally I dont recomend opening ferm for any reason[to easy to get nasties]a gentle swirl of the ferm to get the yeasties moving usually works,there are many reasons for a high FG-unfermentables[malt grains]low attn yeasts,some start off fast then slow to a crawl,I'd up the temp to 20*, leave it another few days then check fg if its still stable over three days then its ready

 

[bullfrog]

At this point of fermentation, it's not going to hurt your brew too much by upping the heat a bit. I'd go with what has been said above and swirl the fermenter a bit (avoid splashing) to re-suspend your yeasties and upping your heat a few degrees.

 

[theredone]

yeah im letting it rise to about 22 atm

yeast im using is reused (2nd gen) us-05. so yeah it had only been grabbed about an hour and half b4 pitching and was bubbling away in my pet bottle prior to pitching, thus the whole batch took off within about half hour of pitching. the other 2 times have just been dry packet yeast

 

[stuart13]

What reading does your hydrometer give sitting in water at around 20c? Your OG looks OK, so I presume this is not the problem...

 

[theredone]

1004 sitting in tap water atm

at a guess i would say thats at about 20-22degrees

 

[bullfrog]

How much of the 2nd gen US-05 did you pitch? I don't think you'd have too much difficulty with under-pitching if your OG was only 1.047, but it might be something to look at.

 

[kelbygreen]

your hydrometer is out it should sit at 1.000 in tap water around 20deg

 

[bullfrog]

your hydrometer is out it should sit at 1.000 in tap water around 20deg

Not necessarily. Not all hydrometers are calibrated to 20 degrees. Theredone, can you see any indication on your hydrometer to say what temperature it is calibrated to?

 

[theredone]

i had a half full (750 pet) bottle of boiled and cooled water/bit of LME. so once i bottle all the good stuff off of a previous brew i just put a heap of the trub into the pet and put airlock on top. filled to about 3/4 full with trub so was about 150ml of good stuff in there id say.

 

[bullfrog]

Doesn't look like an under pitch to me. Your low attenuation/stall is coming from somewhere else.

 

[theredone]

i cant see anything that says what it is callibrated to. first time i had these problems i checked in tap water and it was sitting at spot on 1.000 but these were much hotter days, so water may have been around 26-28.

checked for visible cracks and **** cant find any.

is it possible that there is somthing in my tap water? cause it does kinda taiste **** compared to the last house(the one where it sat at 1.000 at 26-28c)

 

[MarkBastard]

Your hydrometre is most likely calibrated at 15 degrees or 20 degrees.

A few degrees difference doesn't change your hydro reading that much, certainly not 4 points.

Try and measure 18 degrees water and if it's not around 1.00 give or take a point your hydro is probably out.

At a guess only I'd say your SG is currently 1.015 and could still drop a few points with a swirl and higher ambient.

 

[theredone]

hydrometer says 20c on the side of it so id say maybe its out or maybe my water is ********* so yeah ill just leave the batch for a little longer

 

[manticle]

So if it's 4 points out you're probably really 1016?

Is it an all extract brew (apart from that bit of dex)? or a kit with loads of malt or maltodextrin?

 

[theredone]

recipe was 3kg LME light and 300g of dex.

 

[manticle]

1016 wouldn't be ridiculous in that case.

Do the usual stuck ferment thingies but don't be surprised if it stays there and buy a new hydrometer.