Stopped fermenting at og 1030

[Signoredv]

Hello from Sweden,

Have done an IPA and have questions about FG. Measured OG to 1070, and now it seems like it stopped at 1030. Fermentation seemed a bit bad from the beginning (no bubbles in the fermenter) but thought it leaked air so that was OK.
Anyway, it has been 1030 since last Saturday (almost 5 days). What do you do in this case? I don't think it tastes particularly sweet, but it feels like it's not finished fermenting, or what do you think?
I am a beginner so have not been through this before.

Should I Bottle This? Or should I wait, or maybe pour some dry yeast and give it a few days more?

What would you do? I have tried to whisk around the yeast at the bottom a little but it gave no effect.

 

[MHB]

Hi welcome aboard
Your right to be concerned, but without a lot more information no one can give you an answer that is more than a guess.

Where did the wort come from, Kit, Extract or All Grain. A kit or extract brew will attenuate more than the 57% you have achieved. If it was an AG brew and you mashed way too hot (>72oC) you may have made a very unfermentable wort.

What type of yeast, how much did you pitch, what temperature... Was the yeast fresh and healthy, did you aerate the wort.

Probably a few other possibilities but answers to those would cover most of the common causes of your problem.
You could take a small sample (say your hydrometer tube) and put in a shed load of good dry yeast (say a teaspoon full) and see if the gravity drops, it should do so in 24 hours, that would tell you if its the wort being unfermentable or the yeast conking out for some other reason.

If you are adding more yeast to the main brew, best if its rehydrated and working (what we call an active starter), so get the yeast pumping in a small amount of wort, don't add to the brew until they are close to the same temperature.
Mark

 

[Signoredv]

Hi welcome aboard
Your right to be concerned, but without a lot more information no one can give you an answer that is more than a guess.

Where did the wort come from, Kit, Extract or All Grain. A kit or extract brew will attenuate more than the 57% you have achieved. If it was an AG brew and you mashed way too hot (>72oC) you may have made a very unfermentable wort.

What type of yeast, how much did you pitch, what temperature... Was the yeast fresh and healthy, did you aerate the wort.

Probably a few other possibilities but answers to those would cover most of the common causes of your problem.
You could take a small sample (say your hydrometer tube) and put in a shed load of good dry yeast (say a teaspoon full) and see if the gravity drops, it should do so in 24 hours, that would tell you if its the wort being unfermentable or the yeast conking out for some other reason.

If you are adding more yeast to the main brew, best if its rehydrated and working (what we call an active starter), so get the yeast pumping in a small amount of wort, don't add to the brew until they are close to the same temperature.
Mark

Hi! Thanks for your answer.
The wort came from all grain, and I used a dry yeast (english ale). I think i might have used too little yeast, but im not sure.

Anyway, I took a sample and put it into my hydrometer tube and gave it like 2 grams of dry yeast. It's been 19 hours now and FG hasnt moved, still 1030.

I think the beer taste OK... does this mean I can bottle it?

 

[MHB]

Probably safe to bottle, good idea to keep an eye on the bottles for a couple of weeks just to be sure they aren't going too far.
Another good idea would be to look at how you are measuring your mash temperature, odds on that's where the high FG is coming from.
Mark

 

[Jack of all biers]

Mark is spot on as always. A lesson I learnt is check your thermometer. I had a few brews that weren't going the way I had planned OG and FG wise and found after testing my thermometer against others and boiling (100C) and ice slurry water (0C) that it was 6C out at mash temps! This was the cause of all my brew issues and was solved with a new thermometer that was accurate. Hit my numbers far more frequently.