missed incomplete fermentation

[Talon_Ted]

''pride goeth before a fall''.

having recently returned to ag home brewing i have enjoyed a remarkably trouble free run . however i have made my first foolish mistake on batch 14. it was fermenting at the start of the cold weather and to keep the peace i was using a brew belt and keeping it in the hall rather than somwhere a little warmer. i like to keep my fermentation on the slow side so i periodically switched off the belt.

after 4 days i assumed that it had finished and didn't check with a hydrometer. i then transferred it to the shed for maturation and 10 days later split it into cornies. i usually taste my brews all the way through but didn't with this one. the result is that i have got a slightly sweet and cloudy beer.

do i put it back in the fermenter, warm it up and see what happens? should i re-pitch it with yeast? should i add some sugar?

the brew is my 'red boar' which is 3kg pale malt, 1kg crystal, 0.5kg maize, 0.5kg sugar, 100gm northern brewer, safale yeast. fermented at 23 litres and watered down to 26 in the cornies.

i would be most grateful for your advice!

mark

 

[phettebs]

My first question would be what is the gravity at now and what would you expect it to finish at? If you are kegging it, which it sounds like you are, then you won't have to worry about bottle bombs. The question then becomes can you tolerate the "slightly sweet" beer that you have now?

If you can, then I'd just roll with it and call it a lesson learned. If it's cloyingly sweet and undrinkable, then you might have to consider adding yeast again or attempting to rouse what yeast is left.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

-baz

 

[Talon_Ted]

baz

the gravity is currently 1022. i don't know what it should be as i haven't needed to use the hydrometer since i restarted. i suppose i will have to use it from now on! what do you or others, think it should be based on my recipe above.

my current batch is still fermenting, albeit slowly, after 7 days so i think the extremely cold weather has slowed that one too.

i have an old fridge, in which i used to chill my cornies when it worked, which i will convert to a fermenting cabinet. that should take the guess work out of it.

mark

 

[Sean_Mc]

Just ran the recipe through the calculator Ted and its giving a final gravity of around 1014

 

[Talon_Ted]

sean

thanks for that info it's very helpful.

do you think i should just give it time and let it sort itself out or should i interfere?



mark

 

[Sean_Mc]

Think I'd leave it in the warm and see if the yeasties wake up, give it a couple of days. If no sign of joy I'd rehydrate some yeast and pitch giving a gentle stir.

Hope it turns out okay for you Mark :pray:

 

[phettebs]

slow to the party here but +1 to what Sean says.

 

[Talon_Ted]

sean

i have left it in a warm spot and am relieved to report that there has been a considerable improvement in both clarity and taste. gravity has fallen too. while certainly not the best i have produced it is ok.

thanks to all of you for your help.

mark