AG#2 and it'a all gone wrong!

[Superdiscobreakin]

Hi all, happy new year.
Over the Christmas break armed with what I'd learn't from AG#1 I fired up the kit and brewed again.
This time the Adnams Explorer clone from GW.
The brew day went pretty well, i was aiming for 19L and finished with 18L basically because I didn't take into account the dead space in the boiler.
I hit my OG so I thought i was on to a winner. I pitched the yeast and then we went away for a few days, and this is where the problems start.
I left the fermenting brew in the spare room as is the warmest in the house, when we're at home it is usually circa 20C, however, standard practice when away is to minimise the heating to protect pipes from freezing. On return the temp of the room was down at 16C. I checked the gravity and it was only at 1020 when i was meant to be hitting 1009!
The brew is fermented in a platic bucket with lid with a hole drilled in the top for the airlock via a rubber grommet. I noticed the grommet had split allowing air access to the brew. I corrected this, roused the yeast and hoped i'd got away with it and for no further problems.
The brew was destined for the keg this time so after getting a consistent (disappointing) reading of 1017 follwoing rousing the yeast, last night i siphoned it off to the keg. Over Christmas my folks stayed with us with their dog, some how despite my efforts to keep the area clean and sanitised I found a dog hair in the fermenter.
My question is therefore, based on the above, should i just ditch the brew, forget about it and move on to the next? or in peoples wider experience is it salvagable?
Cheers

 

[Rolfster]

It might have all gone wrong, but it it might turn out great!

If you chuck it you will never know.

FYI the carbon dioxide made while fermenting is more dense than oxygen, so it will stay on the wort causing a 'blanket' and protecting it. So the split is not a problem.

Did you also rasie the temperature of the FV as well as rousing the yeast?
My only worry is that it might not have finished fermenting, and you may have been to hasty kegging. How did it taste?

I am on AG#9 and have made some howling mistakes and still ended up with good beer!

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Never, ever ditch a brew until its bottled/kegged and conditioned. After this time and its not right, then bin it. Although hygiene is paramount, you can get away with a lot of things

 

[Superdiscobreakin]

cheers both
Yes temperature raised with rousing. I took a consistent reading of 1017 over a couple of days so I figured it had competed plus it had been in the primary for 10 days. I think the gravity is more to do with my aeriation and pitching, i.e. I need to aeriate more and make a starter soluation rather than direct pitch of dried yeast in to the wort.
I did taste it and whilst it didn't taste off or infected it wasn't great.
I will continue to condition in the keg. Whilst i think about it I forgot to prime the keg...it's one mistake after another with this batch...do i need to prime, if so can I add the priming mixture to the keg?
AG#3 needs to be a good one as I need something goo for all my efforts!

 

[Dads_Ale]

It must be something to do with the weather as my Christmas AG4 bitter did exactly the same. Should have gone down to 1010 but stopped at 1017.
At the time it didn't taste off but wasn't brilliant either. Still I wasn't going to give up on it so added about 100g priming sugar, put 12l in a small poly barrel and bottled the rest (about 15l). I have been keeping an eye on the bottles to make sure the pressure is not building up too much (open a bottle every two or three days).
The bottles have cleared nicely and are starting to get into condition and the taste is improving. I'm not expecting too much as the abv will only be about 3%. I will leave the barrel for several weeks before testing.

I also looked back through my brewing process as to why this happened with this brew and not the others:
Point 1 - I was a bit lax with the mash temp and it was probably up to 69. (new probe thermometers should help here) and the PH was a bit high.
Point 2 - Under pitching the yeast. I only added one sachet to 27l and it should have been closer to two.

Both of the above points will be rectified with the newt brew.

 

[pittsy]

cheers both
Yes temperature raised with rousing. I took a consistent reading of 1017 over a couple of days so I figured it had competed plus it had been in the primary for 10 days. I think the gravity is more to do with my aeriation and pitching, i.e. I need to aeriate more and make a starter soluation rather than direct pitch of dried yeast in to the wort.
I did taste it and whilst it didn't taste off or infected it wasn't great.
I will continue to condition in the keg. Whilst i think about it I forgot to prime the keg...it's one mistake after another with this batch...do i need to prime, if so can I add the priming mixture to the keg?
AG#3 needs to be a good one as I need something goo for all my efforts!

When did you keg the beer , you mentioned not priming and also possibly not finishing fully , if you check the keg and it has pressure then it won't need priming and it is finishing off ( if so you may need to release pressure) Moving a brew from a vessel to another can help or kick start it off again .

 

[the_bing]

and there's me thinking hair of the dog is a good thing



sorry :whistle:

 

[evanvine]

I have been keeping an eye on the bottles to make sure the pressure is not building up too much (open a bottle every two or three days).

I fill a 500ml PET to act as a monitor, you can feel the conditioning by the bottle's "hardness".