Wooeforde's Wherry - problem

[King Rattus]

I am fairly new to brewing and although I have had some success with brewing from the grain and the malt, I prefer to stick to packs on the whole. I have brewed Wherry once before with no problems but on this occasion, I brewed as normal, pitched the yeast, let it ferment in my kitchen where it is relatively warm for a week and then syphoned it into a pressure barrel. After a further week, I moved it to the cellar. This is what I usually do and it has hitherto always worked fine. Unfortunately, my beer tastes tart and as though it has not finished fermenting. I have attempted to awaken the yeast and have now pitched some more yeast. This has had no effect.

Admittedly, at no point did I take a hydrometer reading which I know that I should have done. However, all my equipment was properly sterilised and the beer does not appear to be infected. It doesn't tast 'off' as such and there is no tell-tale residue.

What have I done wrong? Bad luck, poor method or some obvious error?

 

[Jaffa]

Does the barrel have a vent, I normally leave my kits 10 - 14 days in the fv before i transfer in to the barrel. I'm no expert but pitching more yeast wont make much difference, if there is no sugar left the yeast will just drop to the bottom eventually, take a sample and see what the gravity is..

If your barrel isnt vented the Co2 has no where to escape so eventually I imagine fermentation will stall.

I have read that taste will improve in some cases as the beer conditions, but if you still have sugar in the mix you need to get rid of it, a gravity reading will tell you if there is sugar around. If you put in a kilo of sugar OG would of been around 1.040 ish and after fermentation should of come down to about 1.014, and you would want about 3 consecutive reading of 1.014 to be sure the sugar has all gone.


I'm very new to this so my experience is limited, these are just my thoughts