homebrewandbeer.com

Hey

I started my first home brew the other day and used Coopers Pale Ale + Coopers Brew Enhancer 2. All was bubbling along fine for a few days, now it has stopped dead there was a day where it was as warm as 26c could this have killed my home brew?

when I try a reading on my hydrometer it doesnt float it just drops dead to the bottom of the tube

that above post was me, for some reason it didnt post under my username. Regardless of me logging in.

I just thought I would provide more details to assist you in a decision

Type of Product: Coopers Pale Ale
Date of Brewing: 23/09/2005
Volume of water: 23 L
Type/Amount of sugars added: Coopers BrewEnhancer2
Temp of wort before adding yeast: 21c
Original Gravity: 1039

Final gravity: 1020

It's probably finished fermenting mate. What's your FG reading?

I just did another reading and its at
1012 FG

Sorry insomnia you snuck that last one in while I was replying.
Your FG looks a little high to be finished (would expect about 1.010) but I've had some funny readings before. I'd check the FG again and if it hasn't changed over two days bottle it.

Cheers,
Jay

Once again snuck another sneaky one in. 1.012 sounds fine. Bottle her.
Cheers,
Jay.

Hmmmm, well i've never had the hydrometer stay at the bottom. Sure you didn't have to many wobbly pops

She hydrometer seems to be sitting on 1012 at the moment and the beer cooled down to 16 degrees c overnight (someone unplugged the heater, grrrr)

Should I say goodbye to this home brew and start again?

26 degrees won't kill your yeast. Cooper's yeast is supposed to survive up to 40 degrees (but I would hesisitate to drink the resulting "beer ").

A FG of 1012 is maybe a little high, but ok - it's probably done but check again in 24hrs before bottling.

Tony

Now I could be wrong but if it were me, I have done before. put it in a warmer place , give it a big stir, leave for a few days, check again if still same bottle anyway, couldn't hurt. Never through it out

Alright I will give it a bit longer, because its only bordering on 6 days now.

Could I have f---ed my fermentation process by letting it get down to 14-16 degrees overnight?

Usually cold temps don't kill yeast. hot ones do. warm it up. see what happens

bobbioli wrote:Usually cold temps don't kill yeast. hot ones do. warm it up. see what happens

It's warming back up now.. and it seems to be sitting around 1011 now! All hope may not be lost!

Insomnia,

Congratulations on becoming member No.400!

26C will not kill Cooper's yeast, and allowing the brew to cool too far just means the yeast becomes inactive. As you've seen, once it warms up again fermentation begins again.

Pretty much everyone here agrees that you should never chuck out a homebrew unless you've tasted it and it is disgusting. It's very hard to stuff it up, even if fermentation stops and starts, the lid is not on properly, you found a dead rat floating in your brew, etc. (Well, maybe the last scenario might pose a problem, but you get my drift?)

Lastly, when you take an SG reading, don't forget to give the hydrometer a spin to remove any bubbles that will otherwise give you a false high reading.

Cheers,

Oliver

Glad to be part of the site!

Thanks for that information Oliver, that really cleared up my last bit of doubt that I had in mind.

That is just what I needed to hear!

I shall let you know how I go!

*goes to start sterilizing bottles*


P.S. Keep up those great beer reviews, some of them are a great laugh. Especially the comments about Crown Lager.

Oliver wrote:Insomnia,

Congratulations on becoming member No.400! ...

Doh! After I did the clean-out of members who had registered but not activated their account, you dropped back to 362. Sorry about that

Cheers,

Oliver

Nice Oliver, Nice

And here he was thinking he won that three tier brewery system you have been promising

And as far as that beer goes, It will be awesome, you have nothing to worry about.

Dogger

does that mean we have to wait again for the t-shirts

insomnia wrote:She hydrometer seems to be sitting on 1012 at the moment and the beer cooled down to 16 degrees c overnight (someone unplugged the heater, grrrr)

Should I say goodbye to this home brew and start again?

Insomnia, as far as i understand, the Coopers PA, comes with a combination Ale and Lager yeast. The cooler temp will not harm your brew in any way, maybe the Lager yeast kicked in for a bit, but i gather that the Ale yeast wouldve still been fermenting at that temperature, albeit a little slower.

Dont you dare chuck it out !! Get two grav readings the same, bottle and then enjoy it.

Edit Whoops, just looked at the date of this post. Im a bit slow with my reply, couldnt help adding my 5 cents worth though.