to pitch or not to pitch

[Shepton]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and am hoping to get a bit of advice from more experienced brewers.
I brewed a Wilco 'Hoppy Copper' basic kit but used 1Kg of beer enhancer and 500g of hopped light spray malt. I aerated the wort well and rehydrated the yeast before pitching. The OG was 1.046 and within 12 hours the brew was bubbling well. The next day the airlock had stopped bubbling.
On day 4 I syphoned the brew into a second (sterile) fv to leave behind the yeast residue at the bottom. The sg was 1.014.
Unlike previous brews I had very little yeast residue at the bottom of the 1st fv.
I left the brew in stable temperature of 20 deg C
At day 10 I sprinkled 50g of hop pellets onto the brew and took another hydro reading. The SG was still 1.014 and the brew tasted a little sweet.
My question is this - should I pitch some more yeast to see if the SG will go down a bit further or add a bit of priming sugar and bottle it now? My worry about the latter is that if the yeast is dead I don't want to end up with 40 pints of flat, sweet beer.

 

[clibit]

The yeast won't be dead. But day 4 is still early days. Leave it another week at least. Do nothing, just wait.

 

[Shepton]

But day 4 is still early days.

Day 4 was when I racked to another fv - its now day19

 

[clibit]

Sorry I didn't read your post properly. In my experience it's very tricky to get an FG down lower once it's got this far. And you have achieved 70% attenuation, which means 70% of the original gravity has been removed, which is not unusual for an Englsih ale yeast strain. The yeast isn't dead, it's just given up and gone dormant. It will wake up when you add priming sugar.

 

[Covrich]

I do not think I ever got much lower than 1014 with kit beers and kit yeasts. I think what you have is normal, I would bottle / keg it whenever you're ready.. It will prime up fine.

 

[Shepton]

Thanks very much for the advise.
I will do as you both suggest and bottle it tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out:thumb:

 

[LarryF]

Shepton I save the kit yeasts for brewing 8L batches of fruit punch or cider. If you're in Wilko then grab a couple of their Gervin beer yeasts, use one of them and leave it to ferment for two weeks in the FV. That'll get you the best out of your kit, I've just done two Wilko kits back to back just to see if I can get a decent beer out of them, the Hoppy Copper being one of them, I get to try my first one a week tomorrow. I used beer enhancer, honey and East Kent Golding hops with it.

 

[Shepton]

A bit late but..... the results were very good. I think the instructions with a lot of these kits give unrealistic time scales. Patience seems to be the key. I bottled 22days after brew day (gravity was stable at 1.012) using 85g of priming sugar. Then left it to condition for 4-5 weeks.

 

[ericmark]

The point is you have added

1Kg of beer enhancer and 500g of hopped light spray malt

not simple sugar. With simple sugar end s.g. would likely be 1.010 or lower but with 1 kg of spray dried malt plus brewing sugar you will get more body to the brew with less of the ingredients fermenting. This is what Coopers think it should be.
Australian Pale Ale 1kg Brew Enhancer 2 start sg 1.038 finish sg 1.008
Canadian Blonde 1kg Brew Enhancer 2 start sg 1.038 finish sg1.008
English Bitter 500g Light Dry Malt start sg 1.031 finish sg1.006
European Lager 1kg Brew Enhancer 3 start sg 1.038 finish sg1.010
Irish Stout Brew 1kg Brew Enhancer 3 start sg 1.038 finish sg1.010
Mexican Cerveza 1kg Brew Enhancer 2 1.038 finish sg 1.008
I did the English bitter used a medium spray dried malt not Coopers, it was fermented in a brewing fridge so spot on temperature and it went to 1.010 not the 1.006 the instructions say.