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The never ending saga continues!!! I'm am so fed up with this brew! I have tried a restart, and a week later I'm still getting readings of 1019... is this too high to bottle? I can't afford to waste any more time on this brew, will bottle or ditch Saturday morning. Please, what is the best course of action? what would you do?

What recipe are you brewing to, and what was your starting gravity? You may have a stuck beer, or you may just have a bunch of unfermentables lingering.

On a similar note: I've just bottled a stout that stopped at 1018. Two weeks @ 18C in primary, and no drop in SG for at least six days. Should be good.

I brewed an ESB about 6 weeks ago, with an OG of 1052. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to drop below 1021. It's been in the bottle for 3 weeks, and all seems to be good.

You'll need to tell us the fermentables, what yeast you used, and the volume of the brew.

You can always bottle as normal but use one or two PET bottles mixed in with the proper bottles. Then you can check carbonation by squeezing them. If they feel too carbonated you can set a course of action to deal with the glass ones - tip them or uncap to release pressure then recap.

My current brews finish out with FGs of 1.030-1.040 due something in the funky liquid malt that I can get.

It's a Wander Draught, yeast under the lid... Coopers Brew Enhancer 1. Two weeks later attempted a restart, half a cup of ordinary sugar and a yeast I got from the Brew shop. Didn't note packet... I am getting consecutive readings of 1018. I am perplexed and really want to get on to another brew, this ones shitting me!

You are certain the hydrometer is calibrated at the wort temp? That does sound pretty high for that recipe assuming you made it up to 23L.

I agree with that bloke in China,

aurelius121ad wrote:You can always bottle as normal but use one or two PET bottles mixed in with the proper bottles. Then you can check carbonation by squeezing them. If they feel too carbonated you can set a course of action to deal with the glass ones - tip them or uncap to release pressure then recap.

My current brews finish out with FGs of 1.030-1.040 due something in the funky liquid malt that I can get.

fg 1040?
Can you give us an example of what you`re brewing to get that?

Probably pine tar.

This is going way off topic... maybe this could be split?

ryan wrote:

aurelius121ad wrote:
My current brews finish out with FGs of 1.030-1.040 due something in the funky liquid malt that I can get.

fg 1040?
Can you give us an example of what you`re brewing to get that?

Chris wrote:
Probably pine tar.

No, it isnt pine tar but I am still disappointed I jumped the gun on my Coopers Bitter with pine needles earlier this year. It turned out drinkable but nothing to write home about. Could have been better if I would have known what spring growth pine needles look like. By trying not to miss out I harvested too early and got last years growth! But since then I have been buying hops from abroad and brewing with locally made liquid malt and havnt really bothered

Here's a recipe from Beersmith for my first non kit brew of a brew that started at 1140 and finished at 1045. It turned out OK, easily drinkable but too bitter and not enough hops flavor/aroma, not over sweet either. It doesn have a bit of a yeasty flavor so next purchase I am going to try buying some high flocculating yeasts. And the next brew is going to get racked to see if that helps with the yeast and sediment.

Batch Size: 18.00 L
1500.00 gm Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract
1500.00 gm Rice Extract Syrup (13.8 EBC) Extract
25.00 gm Newport [11.00%] (60 min) Hops 37.6 IBU
15.00 gm Ahtanum [6.00%] (25 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
15.00 gm Ahtanum [6.00%] (15 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
10.00 gm Ahtanum [6.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
400.00 gm Brown Sugar, Dark (98.5 EBC) Sugar 11.8 %
Fermentis - SafBrew S-33 yeast
Brewed at 18-24* (summers here are humid!) for 14-15 days.

As I have said in the past the malt I get here says it is a combination of rice and barely malt on the label. The person selling it doesnt know the percentage so I just throw 50/50 in Beersmith. The brown sugar is to add some color, this malt gives me an incredibly light wort.

After these hydro readings I have just stopped taking hydro readings. There just doesnt seem to be a point using this malt. 1140 to 1045 produces an estimated 12.6% ABV, the brew is nowhere near that strong. It tastes like roughly 6% which you'd expect from the ingredients.

They hydrometer I use doesnt have any problems either. It produced expected OG and FG readings when I used Coopers kits in the past and sits at 0 when measuring water.

The malt is clear before going into the boil but once boiled, the wort is completely opaque and it never clears up even after bottling, aging, and sitting in the fridge for a while. The sediment in the bottle is high as well, as I said I want to try racking and see what that does for me.

An Aussie friend here who brews braggots, cysers, ciders, ginger ales, green tea brews, etc (with varied results) said the malt was culinary malt and tastes like malt him mom used to make him sandwiches with. I have no brewing experience or experience with malt abroad so I have no idea how this stuff measures up to the liquid malt you guys get.

If you used say 3kg. Aust. liquid malt and 4oog. brown sugar in 18litres you would probably have an o.g. around 1060 , fg around 1015....... I think
Why you are getting the figures you are is beyond my comprehension.
But then, so are a lot of other things

ryan wrote: Why you are getting the figures you are is beyond my comprehension.

Me too... that why I stopped taking the gravity readings. As I said above there just isnt a point.

I also completely agree with your OG and FG estimations so I am blaming my peculiar results on the malt. But the beer is turning out tasking OK and improving with each batch so I cant complain all too much.

aurelius121ad

Sorry to tell you mate but you are doing something very VERY wrong to come up with these readings.

Dont blame the malts, you are either misreading your hydro, its broken or a combo of both. Or, you are reading a sample which hasnt been mixed properly.

Punched into beersmith i get 1.056 - 1.014 giving you 5.8% abv.

drsmurto, the high initial reading (compared with relatively a LOT lower final reading) may have a lot to do with the opaque particles increasing the density, then settling out (somewhat). aurelius, perhaps try a reading after letting it sit for a day without yeast - if it's already dropped, that could be why.

A few particles arent going to make a hydro jump that much, its a reading of the specific gravity of the solution, which is related to the density. Particles DO mess with refractometer readings a hell of a lot but never seen anything like this in a hydro sample.

Unless he is taking a reading of the liquid malt?????

With all due respect, I am absolutely positive I am taking my readings correctly and the wort is mixed properly.

Before I used this malt and was using Coopers kits and glucose I was getting normal hydro readings, both OG and FG.

And I am not reading the malt. This stuff is so thick that would be impossible. In a non scientific comparison is if closer in consistency to Taffy than it is to Honey. I have to heat it up to get it out of the container and it is still incredibly thick. The stuff will not pour at all, it has to be spooned out!

I like the idea of letting it sit unpitched and taking different readings. I buy the extract in 250g cups so I could easily make up a small experiment wort.

So you are claiming to have something with a higher sugar content (and hence specific gravity) than pure sugar...

I tried some rice malt from the supermarket recently. I decided that it has a MUCH higher dry weight than liquid brewing malt, it is like very cold honey in texture.

Perhaps the malt has a much lower percentage of fermentable sugars, and will never drop below these high readings. This is feasible as it might not be designed for brewing at all. But that would theoretically taste very sweet.

drsmurto wrote:So you are claiming to have something with a higher sugar content (and hence specific gravity) than pure sugar...

Batten down
Batten down
The good Dr. has gone into interrogation mode