Suspect Sg Reading On Morgans Blue Moutain Lager

[Wadey]

Hi All.

My Morgans Blue Mountain Lager was put down last Wednesday night (6 Oct), happened to the be hot day in Brisbane 28, and it went hard for a day and half at 27C on thermomter, now its dropped to 22C thanks to this crap weather we are having. Anyway taken two SG readings, one yesterday at 1020 and today at 1020.

Just after some opions, do you think its ready, or leave it a couple more days as the yeast may have become a little inactive. Home brew store said final SG should be aroudn 1011 so I was concerned about bottling seeing that its not at this range yet.

Ingrediants were:

Mograins Blue Mountain Lager
1 kg Ultra Brew
Hallertau Hops
100g Larger Booster.


Thoughts?

 

[waggastew]

Definitely a little high. Mine finished around 1012. Most of my ferments take at least 2 weeks to get to FG so wait a week and remeasure

 

[drtomc]

Did you use the kit yeast? I'm not sure, but it may well be an ale yeast, not a true lager yeast.

Some yeasts don't like temperature drops and crash out, dropping to the bottom of the fermenter and going into hibernation. If the gravity doesn't drop in the next few days, it may be stuck, in which case you could swirl it round a bit but tilting the fermenter slightly and rolling it around on the edge. This will push some yeast back in to suspension which often helps get it going again.

Keeping a stable temperature is a great way to boost the quality of your beers. I wrap my fermenter up in a couple of blankets, and sit it on a heat mat with a thermpstat to help insulate it from ambient temperature fluctuations, and if you read around, you'll find people do all kinds of stuff with doonas, old fridges, and who knows what. With my simple set up, I don't even attempt lagers, and stick to ales.

The ultimate beer for warm weather brewing would have to be Saison, which people frequently start in the low to mid 20s (e.g. 22-24), then ramp up to as much as 32. And the gravity can go from 1.060 or more down to 1.005 or there abouts, though it can take 6 weeks to get there. All good stuff to look forward to, but for now, I'd suggest doing your best to keep the temperature stable, and waiting.

HTH,

T.

 

[mwd]

Big temperature swings are not good for yeast fermentations.

22-27C is too high for most ale yeasts and way too high for normal lager yeasts.

Try to keep your ferment temp between 18-20C if using ale yeasts.

Don't even bother doing lagers in the tropics without a good fridge and temperature controller unless you like freezing bottles of water for two or three weeks.

 

[Wadey]

Hi Folks.

Took another reading today and got 1018, so dropped by 2. Spoke to home brew shop and he said give the vat a swirl to wake up the dormant yeast, is that a good idea?

He also said dont expect too much from this brew due to the temps that it has been exposed to, oh well, there goes $28 down the tube.

Cheers.

Shaun

 

[drtomc]

Give it time. It won't be the best beer ever, but it'll be better than mega swill.

 

[Wadey]

Thanks mate.

Sorry, should have read your ealier post re giving it a swirl.

Yep, I will wait it out and see how the SG goes over the next few days. I gave it a swirl anyway, looks like air lock activity has come back, burping every 3 and half minutes, pretty slow.

S