Festival - summer glory advice

[shd]

Also not sure if this is relevant, but I’ve just checked the box and it looks like the BBE date is 08 2024

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thanks for the reply again
Yes, my hydrometer looks to be fine (see attached photo)
I’ll have a look at some of the links you shared And pop the lid off and take a photo

If an airlock has run out of water, is that a possible way for what You have described to happen ?

I’ve had to top up the airlock a couple of times as it looked low, but I assume mistakenly pouring a minor amount of tapwater into the brew by accident wouldn’t cause this would it ?

A bit hard to tell from the picture but it looks to me like the hydrometer is reading less than 1.000 with water in it?

Also, what are you using to hold the sample? It looks to me like it might be the packaging tube for the hydrometer, which is causing it to stick to the sides which would skew the readings. If this is the case, you would be better off with something like this: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/plastic-trial-jar/

The airlock should really be filled with sanitiser rather than tap water. Your airlock should not be sucking water/sanitiser back into the fermenter though so there is a low risk of this causing infection compared to other things but it can't be completely ruled out.

Also not sure if this is relevant, but I’ve just checked the box and it looks like the BBE date is 08 2024

I don't think that would matter, but must admit I'm not familiar enough with kits to know if this would have an impact on the final gravity.