Any advice Much Appreciated

sparrow3

Hi All,

A complete homebrew novice here and was wondering if anyone out there could give me a bit of advice.

I made my first 2 home brews 8 days ago - Coopers Pale Ale and Woodlawns Admiral.

I have been storing them in a spare bedroom under a study table. Tested the brew with a hydrometer last night and the current alcohol percentage is only 2.6 % - should be +4% for both

My question is : is it too cold in the room for the yeast to ferment ( i know the optimal temp for fermenting is 18-20 degrees).

Should i wrap the barrels in a blanket for a day or two to try and get temp up.

Im sure these are silly questions but a complete novice and would appreciate any advice

thanks

BeerNut

sparrow3 wrote: »

is it too cold in the room for the yeast to ferment ( i know the optimal temp for fermenting is 18-20 degrees).

And the temperature in the room is..?

Also, are you calibrarting your hydrometer readings against the beer temperature?

sparrow3

Hi Beernut,

thansk for the reply

No idea what temp in the room is.

No, i havent been calibrating the hydrometer reading against the beer temp

what would you recommend

BeerNut

sparrow3 wrote: »

what would you recommend

I recommend finding out what temperature the room is. That way you'll know if it's too cold for fermentation. Sounds unlikely, though, this time of year.

You need to take the temperature of the beer when you take a hydrometer reading and if it's a few degrees either side of 20C, adjust the reading wih this, adjusted to 20C.

Leave it for another week or so and take a gravity reading every couple of days. If the gravity keeps falling, you're fine. If it has stalled, try gently stirring up the yeast from the bottom of the bucket with a sanitised paddle.

sparrow3

thanks , much appreciated

homebrew.ie

i would also ask is there still any activity in the brew? ie bubbles rising from the bottom it is posible that you have a stuck fermentation.

which brew is on at the moment?

sparrow3

both brew's are on at the moment - coopers pale ale and the woodlawns admiral.

So i checked the room temperature and the temperature of the brew and its 18 degrees.

Used beernut's link to recalibrate but no significant change. No activity since i tested it on wednesday

Could it be (as beernut and homebrew.ie suggest) that the fermentation is stuck and can i remidy it by simply stiring the brew up .

thanks for all the advice to date and any future suggestions

homebrew.ie

yes try stiring it up but if that dosent work you might try a restart yeast and maby bring the temp up to 20 if you can

sparrow3

thanks for that homebrew.ie

sparrow3

So just to update you on my progress with the 2 brews.

stirred up the brews and added the restart yeast mix . I have had it in a room that is about 18 degrees for the last 6 days.

Anyway, just tested the brew with the hydrometer and the reading is 3.3 % which is up from the 2.6% reading a week ago but still below the 4.6% level which it should be

am i doing something wrong here. Should i just start a fresh?

i started this brew 3 weeks ago so taking infinitely longer than the recommended 6 days to ferment

help please !!

Donny5

Well, I wouldn't worry about the length of time, and certainly don't chuck it. I'd wait until the hydrometer readings stabilise and bottle. You'll definitely get beer and the time in the fermenter won't have caused any problems. What does the beer taste like now?

sparrow3

Donny5 wrote: »

Well, I wouldn't worry about the length of time, and certainly don't chuck it. I'd wait until the hydrometer readings stabilise and bottle. You'll definitely get beer and the time in the fermenter won't have caused any problems. What does the beer taste like now?

havent tasted it yet.

has anyone else had this issue of fermentation taking 3 weeks plus ?

_blank_

sparrow3 wrote: »

havent tasted it yet.

has anyone else had this issue of fermentation taking 3 weeks plus ?

Six days is a pretty short time for fermenting, and almost any Home Brewing experts - of which I am not one - will tell you to basically ignore the packet instructions, and ferment for at least 2 weeks, possibly more.

Stir the brew up again and see what happens. You said that originally the room was 18 degrees, and someone suggested you up the temperature to 20, but I don't think you did this? Try doing it and see what happens. Your thermostat could be a degree or two off, that wouldn't be unusual, and what's reading as 18, could be 16 in reality.

How much sugar did you add to the brew? It could be all fermented out if you added less that you should have.

Donny5

There's also the possibility that one or more of your hydrometer readings was off. It's particularly easy to get a bad reading for the OG if there's some unmixed sugars in the wort.