Home brew gravity hasn't moved in 2 weeks but FG is not reached

[austin.byrne]

Hi All, I started an all grain brew about 4 weeks ago. It is a 1 gallon brew with an OG of 1.020 and the first week of fermentation went well. However it seems to have stopped fermenting the SG has been at 1.002 for the last 2 weeks. The brew guide I followed did not specify a FG but I assume it should be around 0.985 to be 4.5% ABV as it is an American IPA. I added 1/4 packet of yeast to the brew at the start which a pitch calc told me should be planety. Do you think the yeast is all used up? Should I add more yeast at this stage? Cheers.

 

[Notlaw]

Hi All, I started an all grain brew about 4 weeks ago. It is a 1 gallon brew with an OG of 1.020 and the first week of fermentation went well. However it seems to have stopped fermenting the SG has been at 1.002 for the last 2 weeks. The brew guide I followed did not specify a FG but I assume it should be around 0.985 to be 4.5% ABV as it is an American IPA. I added 1/4 packet of yeast to the brew at the start which a pitch calc told me should be planety. Do you think the yeast is all used up? Should I add more yeast at this stage? Cheers.

I'm new to this myself, but 1.020 seems low for an OG. Every recipe I've played around with has an OG of at least 1.040. What recipe did you use?

 

[MickDundee]

Take what I'm about to say with a degree of scepticism as I've not yet done my first AG brew!

I thought it was scientifically impossible for your gravity to go below 1.00 as that's the gravity of water?

If you wanted a beer of 4.5% you needed a higher starting gravity so either need to improve your efficiency or add more grain.

 

[BreadMurderer]

OK, first off (if your gravities are correct) I'd say your OG is very low for an IPA, very low.

Second off your beer is done, with a FG so close to water (1.000).

I think your mash/boil was a fair bit off as these values are very low for any beer really. Might need to look/revise your brew process.

Your beer is finished - get it bottled - might not be that great though...

 

[austin.byrne]

Hi All, cheers for the responses. I thought the OG was low myself. I have attached a pic of the recipe (ignore my sons scribbles). This recipe was for a larger brew but the shop I got it from told me to divide the ingredients by 5. Disappointing, I must be doing something wrong in the mash and boil process. Will it still prime when I add sugars in the bottle? Cheers.

 

[Notlaw]

Hi All, cheers for the responses. I thought the OG was low myself. I have attached a pic of the recipe (ignore my sons scribbles). This recipe was for a larger brew but the shop I got it from told me to divide the ingredients by 5. Disappointing, I must be doing something wrong in the mash and boil process. Will it still prime when I add sugars in the bottle? Cheers.

I can't see the picture. Is your Dropbox private? Try hosting it on something like tinypic so we can view it.

 

[wheazy_joe]

Take what I'm about to say with a degree of scepticism as I've not yet done my first AG brew!

I thought it was scientifically impossible for your gravity to go below 1.00 as that's the gravity of water?

If you wanted a beer of 4.5% you needed a higher starting gravity so either need to improve your efficiency or add more grain.

I think you can get below 1.000 because alcohol is lighter than water. I think some ciders go below 1.000 because they don't really have any residual unfermentibes (is that a word?) that you get in beer. Same with white wine I think.

Might be talking utter rubbish right enough.

 

[Leon103]

Yes you can get below 1.000

Are you using the hydrometer correctly?

 

[Covrich]

As a side note I would test your hydrometer in water at 20ºc or room temp to make sure its 1.000

 

[austin.byrne]

Apologies, here's the pic
pic

 

[Notlaw]

There's a lot of mixed use of UoM in that recipe. It goes from celsius to fahrenheit in the same sentence!

 

[Notlaw]

Did you use the same volumes as indicated or are the numbers to the left of the hop schedule to reflect a smaller batch size?

 

[MickDundee]

That recipe seems to jump between Celsius and Fahrenheit a lot, could this be a badly converted American recipe? I also know American and British gallons are different but I'm not sure if that would have an effect too?

 

[jenivida]

One quick note, are you taking the FG with a refractometer?
if so the reading will be higher than it actually is. This threw me off for my first few brews. The alcohol screws up the light refraction.

there are online calculators to get the correct FG like this one

http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/refractometer-calculator/

 

[Dutto]

That recipe seems to jump between Celsius and Fahrenheit a lot, could this be a badly converted American recipe? I also know American and British gallons are different but I'm not sure if that would have an effect too?

A major difference and a major effect. :thumb:

There are 16 ounces to a US pint and 20 ounces to a UK pint BUT they both have 8 pints to the gallon!

A US gallon therefore contains 8 pounds (128 ounces) of water and a UK contains 10 pounds (160 ounces) of water ...

... an increase of 25%! :thumb:

 

[Herb]

A major difference and a major effect. :thumb:

There are 16 ounces to a US pint and 20 ounces to a UK pint BUT they both have 8 pints to the gallon!

A US gallon therefore contains 8 pounds (128 ounces) of water and a UK contains 10 pounds (160 ounces) of water ...

... an increase of 25%! :thumb:

But it's OK cos all the liquid measurements in the recipe are in litres (not liters). :)

 

[Dutto]

But it's OK cos all the liquid measurements in the recipe are in litres (not liters). :)

Not me! :nono:

I even use metres instead of meters when I'm walking! :lol: :lol:

 

[terrym]

Apologies, here's the pic
pic

Have you ever used one of the recipe calculators to estimate what your OG and FG should have been, based on the quantities you used in your brew ?
I use this http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/ and find it matches well with what I do.
When you have done that you will at least be able to compare the theory with what you believe you have got. If they are way out of line then you could have mashing issues as you have said, or hydrometer problems, i.e. the reading is out, or for some reason you are not reading it correctly.

 

[Sandimas]

I guess that recipe is a 23L / 5gal brew and you divided everything by 5 to give you 1gal for a demijohn. Plugging it into brewing software, your OG should have been around 1047 not 1020 - sounds like something went seriously wrong with your mash: how careful were you with temperatures, timings etc?

 

[austin.byrne]

Cheers everyone for your responses. I used a hydrometer not a refractometer. I will check the gravity of my water too. I think it was the mash that went or boil that went wrong, I used an ice bath with running cold water to cool the wart in the large pot I used for the mash and boil. It took about 15 minutes, is that too long? Would it have an impact? Yes the recipe is abit scatty maybe I should try a different one with similar ingedients. I think it is a basic variant on this one http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/28546/sierra-nevada-pale-ale-clone