Yet Another Is It Ready To Bottle Yet?

[semp_vector]

I have recently done a Castlemaine Lager and it has a SG of 1020 and has been fermenting for 3 weeks. It has been bubbling but I'm not too sure whether to bottle it or not. I never found out what the origional SG was. I used Coopers Brew Enchancer if that helps.

 

[Screwtop]

I have recently done a Castlemaine Lager and it has a SG of 1020 and has been fermenting for 3 weeks. It has been bubbling but I'm not too sure whether to bottle it or not. I never found out what the origional SG was. I used Coopers Brew Enchancer if that helps.

Should really tell you to do a search but. Take SG readings each day, same reading 3 days running it's finished, bottle it no matter what the SG. FG is determined mostly by how fermentable your wort is, that depends on the composition of the wort, that is, what it consists of and how fermentable the sugars are that it contains. Search re the above and you will learn.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[deegee]

Brendon, I'm a bit surprised that you haven't had a t least a couple more replies to your post, and from gurus who know more about this than I do.
But since you have had so few ....... here's my two cents worth.

1020 seems to be a rather high FG for a can and a kilo of BE, so I'd be wary of bottling it at that figure, for fear of making bottle bombs.

It could be that the yeast you used is just not capable of bringing it down any more, or it could be that it has gone to sleep on the job, and will start working again if it is woken up - eg - by bottling.

You could try rousing the yeast and restarting your ferment by :-

1. Gently swirl the fermenter in a circular motion to stir up the contents and get the yeast off the bottom and back into suspension.

2. Warm the brew up a few degrees with a heat pad or by moving it to a warmer location. ( But don't let it get too high - say 24 C tops )

3. Pitch another sachet of yeast, of a similar type (ale ?), but maybe a different brand.

Or any combination, or all of the above.

In your situation,I would try at least one or two of these things before I bottled, and if the FG was still high, I'd go fairly lightly with the priming.

If you want to read up on some good info here on site - try a search on the word "stuck" but select "search titles only". If you search all forums/threads you will get way too many hits.
You could also select just the Kits and Extracts Forum (AG brews tend to finish higher than kits)

Hope this helps at least a little. Cheers, Deegee.

P.S. If none of the above gets it re-started take Screwy's advice and bottle it after three days at the same SG.

 

[semp_vector]

Well I just tested gravity again and its 18, I did bottle some in a plastic bottle and the pressure was really high. On opening the bottle it did spew out beer.

 

[wambesi]

I did one of these as my 2nd or 3rd brew and had a similar experience although it was a little higher (cant remember exactly and lost my records - damn laptops and kitchen bench heights...)

It had a real vigorous ferment for the first few days then just stopped, everything I tried did nothing, ended up bottling it. After 4 weeks tried it and it was pretty vile, after another few months tried some more and still bad so all the longies went down the drain to make way for a better brew.

Not sure what was the culprit but I havn't touched a castlemaine can again.