A question about gravity

[CheshireCBR]

So I started me first bitter kit off just over two weeks ago, in fact it was two weeks last thurs so it has been on for 16 days, so on wed I did a gravity reading after 13 days and it was reading 1.012, just taken another reading today as I was going to bottle it tonight and it is still at 1.012 but in the instructions it says that it should go down to 1.006 so my question is, is it finished or is it stuck? And if so what should I do with it to get it to finish,

On the plus side everything is clean and ready to sort it out

 

[Vossy1]

What was the original gravity CBR? Conventional wisdom is 2 readings the same over 24 or 48 hours and it's done, but if it's finished high it may be stuck. If it is stuck you could,
gently stir/rouse the yeast from the bottom with a sanitised spoon, try not to introduce air whilst doing it and/or raise the temp to encourage the yeast to get going again.

 

[CheshireCBR]

OG was 1.035 and it has been sat at a steady 19 degrees throughout the fermentation, problem I have is the FV that its in is one of the bucket type and the lid never seals properly st there is never any air trap activity, that dosnt bother me but at times like this it would have been nice to know when it was still producing Co2

 

[Vossy1]

I get that to be 3%abv when you want 3.8%, quite a difference!
Give it a gentle rouse

 

[CheshireCBR]

Will try and give it a gentle stir and then tape the lid down and see what it dose, but yer 3% is a bit too low :lol:

 

[Vossy1]

:lol: did you give it a good thrashing to get oxygen into it at the start CBR, that's a good suspect for lack of finishing with a kit as nutrient or lack of isn't usually an issue :hmm:

EDIT...I say thrashing as you have a CBR

 

[CheshireCBR]

Always give the CBR a goid thrashing at the start but all with in speed limits of corse

Yer gave it a really good stir to mix the wort and the sugar together then for this one I used bottled water (wanted the bottles ad DJ's ) so they were pored in which aerated it quite well too, have given it a good stir trying not to get any air into it, then have sealed the top with tape so will give it a few days then take another gravity reading and see what it says then.

Cheers for your help mate

 

[CheshireCBR]

so I gave it a bit of a sture on sat and then sealed it back up, then left it until today some 4 days later to see if the gravity had dropped and but it is still at 1.012 so any other ideas on how I can get it to drop any lower or am I stuck with it at this level?

and the next question is, with the yeast stopping where it has will it still prime up in the bottles?

but on the bright side it is lovely and clear from the sample I took

 

[ScottM]

Did you change any of the ingredients from the base instructions? Ie DME instead of sugar or anything? Putting partially unfermentables in place of sugar (100% fermentable) will always increase the FG a little bit. In this case it would appear to be a little stuck though, was the OG on par with what the instructions reckoned?

With regards to the bottling, the yeast might just not fancy what's in your brew at the moment. When you add 100% sugar that should get them going again. To lower the gravity you could try pitching another yeast, not sure if that's the way to go though. If it's clear and tastes good then I would probably just have it as is and treat it as a session beer :)

 

[CheshireCBR]

I did use a medium malt extract when I did it where as in the instructions it just says to add sugar but that was the only alteration from the instructions. oh and it didnt say anything about OG it just gave a FG but then it also said that a hydrometer was an optional piece of kit

the other thing is it looks like this on the top like I said this is my first bitter so dont know if this is right :lol:

 

[ScottM]

I did use a medium malt extract when I did it where as in the instructions it just says to add sugar but that was the only alteration from the instructions. oh and it didnt say anything about OG it just gave a FG but then it also said that a hydrometer was an optional piece of kit

the other thing is it looks like this on the top like I said this is my first bitter so dont know if this is right :lol:

Never done a bitter before, no idea if it's meant to have dandruff or not

The medium malt extract will make a bit of a difference to be fair. If you give me a minute I'll run it through my calculators and see what difference it makes to the FG. Being that sugar is 100% fermentable and medium DME is around 75, that gives you 25% more unfermentables that will contribute to the FG.

Oh, how much did you add? Was it 500g of medium DME and 500g of sugar... or something else?

Cheers

 

[CheshireCBR]

no it was just the 1kg bag of MME instead of the sugar

 

[ScottM]

I make that a finish of 1.009, the same kit brewed with sugar only would see 1.006.

OG should have been 1.036
FG should be 1.009
Giving 3.59%

It's stopped a little bit early but not as bad as it appeared at first.

 

[CheshireCBR]

cool, cheers for that, the og was 1.035 but it could quite easy been me miss reading it :lol: right I will get on with bottleing it tomorrow now

 

[rpt]

That looks fine to me.

 

[CheshireCBR]

Cheers just not use to having so much floating after fermentation :lol: