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If fermentation is happening, and you have no air/gas leaks in the fermenter the water in the airlock should be uneven. You might find that it almost evens up when fermentation has finished. The reason why it wont be even when you top it up after youv'e lost water out of it is that it is fermenting and the co2 coming out of the wort is pushing the water to the "out" side of the airlock. That's a good sign. I'll just add, NEVER put your'r hydrometer in the fermenter to take a reading, the less you open the fermenter the better, never open it unless you have to, ie: to add another yeast or to bottle, or to rack and so on

ok cool.thanx for the info...........i'm loving this homebrewing game,there is alot to learn but its great.!!!!

Hey there guys, quick few questions...

Have a brew down that is:

1 can Morgan's Royal Oak Amber Ale
1kg Morgan's Dark Crystal LME
200g Crystal grain steeped 20min
Williamette Hop bag steeped 15min...
19L fill (wanted a richer, fuller bodied beer and that's what the HBS told me to do)

I used both yeast from the kit and a pack of Saflager S23 (not expired). Stupidly, and being relatively new to the game I completely forgot to take an OG but after 9 days my FG is 1.016...fermenter has been kept in a constant state of about 16-17 degrees.

After reading up I proceeded to take a few steps to ensure fermentation had not prematurely stopped, as I believe the FG should be lower then this by now?

Firstly I rotated the beer a little on the base to stir things up (taking care not to slosh) which seems to have done little. Second I attempted heating the room and the brew up to about 20 degrees and this seemed to result in some renewed bubbling...but I have suspicions it may just be the wort and gas expanding? I would assume that fermentation would not re-assume till at least a couple of hours in raised heat? That and I thought Saflager would easily have fermented in 16-17 (I know this isn't ideal temp for Saflager either)

I purposely used S23 saflager to cope with the less then ideal temperatures for the kit ale yeast although i'm perplexed as to why it's only at 1.016 after a 9 day period with both yeasts being in there. Am I being just impatient? Should I wait it out to 2 weeks, or maintain readings and just wait till I get several similar and bottle regardless the FG?

Thanks for the help...

And one more thing...can anyone estimate the OG of this brew?

1016 is not unreasonable for that brew. if it holds the same for a couple days, it's ready.

Please start a new thread for questions like these. Please.

Chi wrote:And one more thing...can anyone estimate the OG of this brew?

http://www.brewcraft.com.au/wawcs019616 ... lator.html

my brew has been down for nearly 4 weeks & still has not stopped bubling. it has slowed but not stopped. i have put down a mex cerveza with a saflager yeast & brewblend 15. i have keep the temp around 15 deg.
is this now too long?
any sugestions? i have not opened the feremter to take anSG reading as yet. thats tomorrow...

krave wrote:my brew has been down for nearly 4 weeks & still has not stopped bubling. it has slowed but not stopped. i have put down a mex cerveza with a saflager yeast & brewblend 15. i have keep the temp around 15 deg.
is this now too long?
any sugestions? i have not opened the feremter to take anSG reading as yet. thats tomorrow...

I'd say your brew is done. The bubbling is CO² coming out of solution.
Let us know what your SG reading is tomorrow, but I'm sure you'll be OK to bottle / keg.

warra48 wrote:

krave wrote:my brew has been down for nearly 4 weeks & still has not stopped bubling. it has slowed but not stopped. i have put down a mex cerveza with a saflager yeast & brewblend 15. i have keep the temp around 15 deg.
is this now too long?
any sugestions? i have not opened the feremter to take anSG reading as yet. thats tomorrow...

I'd say your brew is done. The bubbling is CO² coming out of solution.
Let us know what your SG reading is tomorrow, but I'm sure you'll be OK to bottle / keg.

FG 1008 so well & truly brewed. thanks for your advise. much appreciated. bottled today & another down. cheers.

Hi all,

I got a heap of advice on my latest brew in This Thread and ended up making the following on Sunday night:
200g crystal grain steeped and rinsed
1.2 kg LDME
8.5 g Northern Brewer hop pellets (boiled with malt for 45 mins)
1.5 kg can Black Rock East India Pale Ale added near end of boil
500 g dextrose near end of boil
12 g teabag Goldings hop pellets @ flameout

SG 1048

1 sachet Munton's Gold yeast added to straight to fermenter @ 22 degrees C.

It got to yesterday (Monday) morning with absolutely no signs of fermentation, so I went back to the HB shop where I bought the yeast last week and got another sachet. Took a gravity reading yesterday night and there was no change, so I rehydrated the yeast this time and pitched it, temp still 22 degrees C. Still no signs of fermentation this morning.

Any ideas, please guys?! I'm getting worried about infection/off flavours, etc, now! Is it possible that the 2 yeast sachets I've been sold are both dead? They were in date, and they're kept in the fridge @ the HB shop, but who knows, maybe they were stored badly at some point?

I'm reluctant to buy another sachet of the same stuff, and won't have time today anyway. The only yeast I have left is the Black Rock IPA kit yeast. Should I just throw that in?

Cheers!

It would seem unusual that you have 2 dud yeasts. The answer probably lies elsewhere.

I take it the brew is still at 22 degrees? Given its your third brew (I think?) what did you observe at this stage in the other 2?
(Depending upon your set up you don't always get bubbling, gas can easily escape elsewhere). I wouldn't panic just yet, it may be fermenting, just a bit slower than you are used to if you are managing to keep this brew a bit cooler.

My advise for now, watch the SG.

Cheers

This is indeed my third brew, and the first where I have made attempts to control the temperature (partially submerged fermenter and cold wet towell wrapped around it). Temp has not been above 24c, have managed to keep it mainly at 22 c. The other 2 were bubbling away pretty vigorously within 8 hours (temps with those were 25 to 28 c).

SG completely unchanged on Monday night.

It was still doing literally NOTHING by Tue night - 48 hours since yeast first pitched - no krausen, no condensation, surface of wort completely flat and undisturbed. I confess I didn't take an SG reading then and was just freaking out and threw the kit yeast in

Today the SG is around 1040 - definate change. Still no condensation, but krausen is appearing. There was evidence of pressure building inside: the airlock water levels were different, but not actively bubbling. I lifted the fermenter out of the bath to take a sample for the reading and the agitation had an instant effect - now bubbling regularly!

I agree it would seem unlikely to get 2 dud yeast sachets - but it seems plausible to me that if the issue was bad storage somewhere in the chain, it could affect a whole batch in the HB shop.
Other factors I can think of that may have had an effect: I didn't aerate the wort enough when pouring into the fermenter, and also, to keep the temps down as much as possible, I put 2 bottles of frozen water (thoroughly cleaned and sanitised on the outside) straight into the wort in the fermenter (seems unlikely to me that this could have made any difference).

Now that I have bubbling, my main concern is that I may have acquired some infection during the inactive period. The wort smells extremely sweet, almost but not quite sickly sweet - not really hoppy like it did at first. I drank the sample I took today it didn't taste infected (not sure exactly what I'm looking for though).

Anyone who can help me on this I will HUG and be forever thankful.
I put down a Bfw alcoholic ginger beer around 5 weeks ago. I used a no 15 brewkit and an extra half a bag of dextrose.

It took like 4 DAYS but the airlock finally started to bubble. (very weird ya?)

The lady in my local brew shop told me that this particular ginger beer can take up to 8 weeks to brew up.

So.......a few days ago it stopped bubbling, I took the SG and its only at 1.020 (where is was two weeks ago when it stalled and I stirred it to get the yeast going again) In those two weeks, the airlock has still been going so I thought it was still fermenting....you would think the SG would have changed a bit though hey?

So I thought STUFF THIS and transferred it to a clean and sterilised push top fermenter thinking the screw top one was maybe the problem.....its not doing jack. It does have condensation on the lid.

This stuff likes to be really warm so I've got it on a heat pad.

So what do you blokes reckon I do.....wait? and keep wasting beer checking if its done?

Do you reckon I stuffed it by adding too much sugar and the yeast in the kit couldn't hack it? Should I get some more yeast.....and if I do, will this make my brew taste YUCKO?

HHHHHEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!

From Sall

missyisobel wrote:Anyone who can help me on this I will HUG and be forever thankful.
I put down a Bfw alcoholic ginger beer around 5 weeks ago. I used a no 15 brewkit and an extra half a bag of dextrose.

It took like 4 DAYS but the airlock finally started to bubble. (very weird ya?)

The wierdometer didn't show much so keep going! It would be helpful if you could confirm the yeast you used - I'll assume you used sachet from the kit...

missyisobel wrote:The lady in my local brew shop told me that this particular ginger beer can take up to 8 weeks to brew up.

So.......a few days ago it stopped bubbling, I took the SG and its only at 1.020 (where is was two weeks ago when it stalled and I stirred it to get the yeast going again) In those two weeks, the airlock has still been going so I thought it was still fermenting....you would think the SG would have changed a bit though hey?

The yeast may have been old and you ended up with a long lag / low cell count. It's quite possible that the yeast has given up the ghost and all you're seeing is CO2 coming out of solution through the airlock.

missyisobel wrote:So I thought STUFF THIS and transferred it to a clean and sterilised push top fermenter thinking the screw top one was maybe the problem.....its not doing jack. It does have condensation on the lid.

This stuff likes to be really warm so I've got it on a heat pad.

So what do you blokes reckon I do.....wait? and keep wasting beer checking if its done?

Do you reckon I stuffed it by adding too much sugar and the yeast in the kit couldn't hack it? Should I get some more yeast.....and if I do, will this make my brew taste YUCKO?

HHHHHEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!

From Sall

Ok, you've kept things sanitary which is a good thing. Have you taken a sample and tasted it? I think your batch is done - the yeast would have dropped the gravity a few more points after rousing, if it had the ability to further ferment the available sugars. According to your info, it hasn't so I'd say bottle and don't go too hard with the priming sugars.

Cheers,
TL

Well i know its been said many times b4 on this thread but this site is SUPER!! thanks to all involved.

Just made my first batch about 3 days ago, I was getting no bubbles out of the air lock, then I tightened the lid and shaboom bubbles.
my question is this:
The frequency of the bubbles is about one bubble every 13 - 15 seconds, This seems kinda long to me, is this normal or have i probably killed some of my yeast somehow? Any advice as to the proper frequency of bubbling through the air lock would be great.
Cheers

Don't worry about the bubbles.

Use a hydrometer to tell you when you brew is ready to bottle or keg.

cliffo

Hi all. Couple of questions about my bew.

Saturday mornign i put down a brewcraft mexican cerveza, 1kg of dex and used the packet yeast.
Pitched at 26c.
Not much bubble action, so i think i have a leak, however, i got some strange sg readings today.

When i pitched it read at 1040, spot on i though, then today, my reading was 1005. Tastes like yeasty beer, and the beer was foamy into the test tube. Not much foaming on top either, and i had to open the lid because when i pushed the air lock down to make sure it was sealed ok, the grommet pushe through the lid.

An SG of 1005 says to me that the yeast has devoured most of the fermentables. What temperature did you brew at, because that is really fast.

G' day,

Having a bit of an issue with a canadian blonde (Coopers)+ Coopers brew enhancer No.1, Pitched on the 20-1-10. All went well for a start, O.G=1034, A little lower than I expected, but what the hey, On the 24th S.G was 1010 so I hit it with finings as per instructions. The S.G has now stopped dead at 1010! WTF!?....Is this normal? I would have thought 1003-1004 would have been closer to F.G for this recipie.

Itried stiring the brew up to wake up this sleepy yeast, to no avail. Will I have to pitch another yeast?

Wort= 27c when pitched, 23 litres total, constant 23c brew temp.

Thanx, MadMick!

Ps. neglected to record yeast batch!

madmick wrote:...The S.G has now stopped dead at 1010! WTF!?....Is this normal?

Quite reasonable. It's been stable for a few days, you should be good to bottle.

Cheers,
Greg

Thanx Greg,

Just made a cup full, (2 tble spoons of dextrose mixxed in freshly boiled water), of fermenable sugars and put that in and gave it another good stir, I'll see how that goes over the next 24-48 hours, then bottle!

Cheers for your help M8!

Madmick.