Constant high gravity

[LondonBrew]

Hi there,

Well I started brewing beer in my garage in April 2016. So far I have brewed one Coopers Mexican style beer, one Woodefords Wherry and one European Style Lager.

To date none of the beers have hit their stated ABV all with high final gravity and I'm struggling to find out why.

Just some details on the condition, all equipment is sanitised using a VWP style steriliser. This includes the bungs, spoons everything.
The beer is brewed in the garage with temperature ranges between 18 - 22 degrees C.

I did make some mistakes with my first Mexican beer, I put the can of malt into the 5 gallon FV added the water to the 23 litre mark and realised I should have added the brewers sugar with the malt... OK I added the sugar at the end and stirred it added the yeast and stirred vigorously in the yeast… I stirred the wort as I added the water in 2 litre intervals.

Coopers Mexican Beer

• 1kg Coopers beer enhancer
• OG 1.038 (adj 1.039) Pitched 24 degrees
• After four days it seemed finished, 1.016 day 4 same, day 5 same, day 6 same. Gave the full 7 recommended days it hadn’t moved from 1.016
• FG 1.016 @ 21 degrees
• Abv 2.9%

Drinkable but not amazing, very weak and light.

Wherry

To see if I could increase the ABV I mixed the wort with less water.
This time I sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort and let it settle into the wort.

• 36 pint wort rather than 40 pint
• Kit contains the sugar
• OG 1.045 pitched at 25 degrees
• 8 days later…
• Bottled on 10th day FG 1.016 @ 19 degrees (2 days consistent reading)
• Abv 3.7%

Tasty and as expected good head. Shame on the ABV.

Coopers International (Currently Brewing today 30/06/2016

Mixed sugar and malt together at the start. Mixing thoroughly to 23 litres.
I sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort and let it settle in. Yeast pitched at 21 degrees.

• 40 pint recommended
• 1 KG Coopers Brew enhance 1 + 80 gms of brewers sugar (to see if this would help improve abv)
• OG 1.038 @ 21 degrees
• 5 days later 1.021 @ 19 degrees
• 8 days later 1.019 @ 18 degrees
• 9 days later 1.019 @18 degrees

Took action today by sterilising a long spoon and gently stirred the beer. Moving through the sediment on the bottom. Careful not to stir too vigerously for fear of introducing oxygen. More a lazy motion through the beer. I have attached my heating belt to raise the temperature.

But at this rate it won’t surpass 2.76% ABV.

What am I doing wrong? OK I know the 1st attempt I should have added the sugar at the start!

But why isn’t the ABV reaching the started levels. Is there anything you could recommend?

The FV does puff out, but I have seen the airlock bubbling furiously, I fact I have never seen it bubble once, but I don’t stare it all day to check. The lid is securely attached and I don’t generally disturb the FV.

Any help would be appreciated, I have read all about this problem on the internet and im sure there are loads of posts like this on this very forum, but I wanted to explain what I was doing just incase the specific temperatures that im recording could be the cause.

I welcome any thoughts! Thanks

 

[Passmeglass]

Hi London Brew
It sounds like you are doing everything right.
You are a lot more maticulous than me as I have literally thrown all the ingredients in to the brew in and let it go.
It normally needs some heat during the winter months but even if your temp drops and fermenting stops it can always be restarted with a little heat.
What water are you using and what do you use to measure your SG?

Our water is soft in the North and even though people say "It's grim up North" it's good for brewing beer!
Maybe try to leave the ferment longer and don't pay attention to the time scales recommended.
Remember, they brew lager in caves with very little or no heat.

 

[Spapro]

Doesn't sound like you are doing an awful lot wrong.

A pinch of yeast nutrient added to the wort while making up with water, before pitching the yeast, really helps the yeast get off to a really good start in its early, reproducing stages.
Any homebrew yeast nutrient will do for brewing beer, I use 'wine yeast nutrient' (I think) just from Wilkos.

Also, may be worth thinking about some kind of temp control - maybe the temp in the garage is dropping a bit low overnight some nights, this can cause a stuck fermentation which is very difficult to kick start once its happened.

Most kits I brewed before moving to all grain did finish around the 1010 - 1012 mark so you are not far away.

Here is an example of some cheap temp control a few of us on here use. FV sat in a waterbath using an ikea storage container with a cheap aquarium heater (100w) to stop the temp falling before the set temp - usually 18-20°C).

Yeast nutrient and temp control would be my 2 areas to suggest using:

 

[Dutto]

Daft questions of the day.:thumb:

Have you checked the accuracy of your hydrometer? :whistle:

and

Are you reading it correctly?​

 

[Bigjas]

Daft questions of the day.:thumb:

Have you checked the accuracy of your hydrometer? :whistle:​

and​

Are you reading it correctly?​

This was my thought too. You seem to be doing everything correctly so I would check your hydrometer. I think that if its a newish one then it should read 1.000 in water at 20°c.

Jas

 

[johnnyboy1965]

^^^^ These 2 posts. Your doing everything right.

 

[The Idiot]

Two things I remember from my kit days.
1: Throw away the yeast and use a decent dried one.
2: Fermentation takes at least three weeks.

 

[BeerisGOD]

As The Idiot says,

sounds like youve been under pitching. my first few batches were all weak and couldnt work out why, until i read threads on a load of sites saying 5-6gram packs just wouldnt cut a 23l batch. if i had brewed short the kit yeast may have been ok but ive been getting much beeter ABV from 10g/11.5g packs (gervin/US-04,2 x coopers packs).

 

[strange-steve]

Listen to The Idiot, chuck the kit yeast and buy a pack of decent yeast.

 

[Covrich]

+1 for replacing theyeast

I would also advise a good proper aeration.. lack of aeration leads to poor yeast health and performance

 

[stigman]

Get some air into it before pitching your yeast. Beat it like it owes you money.

 

[LondonBrew]

Spapro , That's very impressive setup, maybe something for when I get some more space. Great idea!

 

[LondonBrew]

Thank you all for your advice, I have actually done a couple of things and followed your advice.

The Hydometer is Stevenson Reeves and I all seems OK with its calibration. I'm confident the Hydrometer is working correctly. It floats at 0 in water. I’m reading it at the line the liquor crosses the hydrometer, not at the level through the tube.

Spapro , that heating setup you have made is very impressive, perhaps something for when I have a bit more space. I think temperature could be playing a part and have bought a thermostat for the heating band for the time being.

CURRENT BREW (EUROPEAN LAGER)
I went to my local homebrew shop and spoke to the chap who runs it (very nice gentleman) who was stumped. I showed him my records.
He said the current gravity of my European Lager seemed high.1.016. He gave me some champagne yeast which I rehydrated and added to the beer.

The beer was fizzy prior to adding the Champagne yeast, then almost immediately after adding it became flat.
I left it another two days and took another reading. It was only 1.015 and still flat…

With not a lot of activity I decided to bottle it, adding 110gms of corn sugar to my bottle vessel and syphoning the flat beer from the FV into it.
Do you think the beer will remain flat?

NEW BREW
When I was at the shop I decided to pick up a Coopers Ale kit and as you have all advised, ditched their yeast and bought some Safale s-04 Dry Ale Yeast.

Today I’m going to start up this brew, using an electric whisk, I plan to aerate the wort. Rehydrate this Safale yeast and use 1KG of brewers sugar.
I will let you know how I get on. I’m enjoying this hobby, spent most of yesterday building some crates for my bottles. Detailed calculations where required to fit my Kilner 750ml bottles. I just wish I could brew something with a bit of potency and now worry I have just spent 1 hour bottling up flat beer.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Your beer should be flat when bottling, if its fizzy then it hasnt fermented out properly. Adding more yeast might bring the FG down, but not after 2 days.
Your be will carbonize when the suspended yeast comes into contact with the sugar. This will take at least 2 weeks at approx 22oC. Then move to a cool place for 8 weeks, or until clear.