wherry kit problems

[Berty]

Hi, am a newbie to the forum and to brewing. I have started a woodfordes wherry kit. Origional gravity of 1.040 / 1.042on friday. I opened a window in the room to keep the temperature around 20celcius but forgot to close it at night. Stupid mistake as the temp went to a low of 15c. Since then i wrapped it in a blanket to bring the temp up to 20c again and stirred the wort to re-oxgenate but fermentaion hasnt restarted. Have i killed the yeast and need to re-pitch or is there anything else i can do? When i stirred it i took a gravity reading of 1.032

 

[ManseMasher]

Take another reading and let us know what you get....

Welcome to the forum by the way!

 

[Berty]

Hi, just took a reading and its now 1.020. So it has gone down again. Can see small bubbles rising to the top but not vigorous enough to make it through the airlock. The lid had risen/bulged a bit aswell.

 

[ManseMasher]

Sounds like all is good then!

 

[Berty]

Thanks for the help. Would you suggest i leave it for extra time than just the 5days it suggests on the box?

 

[Soton]

The general consensus is to leave it two weeks in the fermenter to allow it to clear a bit and also for the yeast to clean up after it self

 

[Berty]

Thanks. Is it usual for the fermentation to be really vigorous and then tail off like it is doing? What final gravity should i leave it until?

 

[Soton]

Thanks. Is it usual for the fermentation to be really vigorous and then tail off like it is doing? What final gravity should i leave it until?

From my experience usual is a not the best word to use with fermentation, it depends on the tempreture, yeast type and yeast age, type of brew ect, but yes yeast dose tend to be more vigorous at the start of fermentation but not always.
I would guess a final reading should be close to 1.008 but I am sure someone here could confirm that as the Wherry kit if quite popular
It's probably best to leave it alone as much as possible, maybe not check it each day but every other day, I have bought a refractometer from China and to use that to only need to take a drop of beer/wort to test it, although if you use a refractometer once your fermentation starts you need a online calculator to work out the actual gravity as the alcohol has to be adjusted for, but it's as simple to work out as just just entering the reading in a box online and pressing the calculate button

 

[Berty]

Thanks for your help