Hi all, I'm brewing my second batch of homebrew, a Coopers Amber Ale this time. I started the batch last Sunday but the yeast failed to activate so I bought a second packet and pitched it a couple of days ago. Within 12 hours I saw some signs of fermentation, like krausen and a bubbling overflow tube. It was a really warm day and I was worried about the effects of the heat so I moved the Fv into my bath where it was cooler, around 18 degrees celcius. After coming home that evening I noticed that there were no signs of fermentation, as if it stopped abruptly. The temperature has since been hovering between 18 and 20 degrees. Did I disrupt fermentation when I moved it to the bath or is it still going with no clear signs? I haven't opened the batch to have a look yet as i don't want to risk contamination. Any advice would be appreciated on the way forward. Cheers!
Fermentation stopped abruptly: amber ale
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kev211
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Good move on not opening the batch. Its probably still fermenting. Sounds like you're using a bucket to ferment in ya? Those are notorious for not sealing completely so it may just be escaping around the lid. Air lock action shouldnt be used as an indication of fermentation. Let it sit for a few more days and do a gravity check.
But it looks like you're on the right track. Smart move putting it in the bath too
But it looks like you're on the right track. Smart move putting it in the bath too
Ya, using a bucket. So do you think my temp is good? I've since taken it out the bath thinking I needled to raise the temp to 20 but I could take it back down to 18 if that would result in a smoother flavor. Thanks so much for your help!Good move on not opening the batch. Its probably still fermenting. Sounds like you're using a bucket to ferment in ya? Those are notorious for not sealing completely so it may just be escaping around the lid. Air lock action shouldnt be used as an indication of fermentation. Let it sit for a few more days and do a gravity check.
But it looks like you're on the right track. Smart move putting it in the bath too
kev211
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Nah you're probably fine. you only need it to be down near 18 during high krausen. After that you can let it rise back up so the yeast can clean up the diacetyl
I agree with kev, check your gravity with hydrometer. Thats the only sure way to know if its working. Some fermentations are more vigorous than others so relying on signs of activity is sometimes difficult. It is quite possible it finished quickly also, since it sounds like you had lots of yeast in there.
Just keep checking that gravity every couple days and if its going down its still working.
Also don't worry too much about opening and contamination. As long as you are sanitizing what you are sticking in the beer you should be fine. If you followed a good cleaning sanitizing procedure to begin with, you should be fine as it will be very difficult to contaminate simply by opening the top. If you are paranoid just crack it enough to suck out some wort for gravity reading and close right away.
Good luck, hope this works out for you!
Just keep checking that gravity every couple days and if its going down its still working.
Also don't worry too much about opening and contamination. As long as you are sanitizing what you are sticking in the beer you should be fine. If you followed a good cleaning sanitizing procedure to begin with, you should be fine as it will be very difficult to contaminate simply by opening the top. If you are paranoid just crack it enough to suck out some wort for gravity reading and close right away.
Good luck, hope this works out for you!
Hey guys, it's been about 9 days since fermentation started and I thought I would take hydrometer readings to see how the brew is getting on. Turns out the ABV is lower than anticipated. My OG was 1.040 and FG 1.016. That gives an ABV of 3.1%. Much less than the package stated ABV of 5.5%. I did accidentally add sugar (without dissolving in water) during the early stages, which may have affected it. I don't know. I plan to leave it for another 5 or 6 days before bottling. Anything I can do to increase the ABV at this stage? What about giving the bucket a shake to reactivate the yeast?
ChelisHubby
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It looks like you might have missed your water amounts up I am assuming you are using extracts. if you are doing all grain brewing then maybe your tempatures and water amounts are suspect. It is not unusual for extracts to finish at 10.16 to 10.12 but your OG was very low which make me think maybe you missed a volume by a fair amount. you can add a simple sugar and water to your beer and bring it up some in the alcohol but you don't want more the say 12 ounces or so as it will develop some cider flavors. I would add 8 ounces of sugars to it af the gravity doesn't lower more in the next day or so. you should have a nice beer when you are done after 3 weeks of ferment ion time but it might only be 4%. If you shake the bucket, try instead to gently swirl the liquid without causing bubbles. with a Clean Spoon.!
Thanks chelis! So I have 2 more questions :1) Can I use white or brown sugar and will this have the desired effect of increasing ABV. And 2) how long can I expect fermentation to last once I add the sugar? Can I roughly expect to bottle next weekend if I add the sugar today?It looks like you might have missed your water amounts up I am assuming you are using extracts. if you are doing all grain brewing then maybe your tempatures and water amounts are suspect. It is not unusual for extracts to finish at 10.16 to 10.12 but your OG was very low which make me think maybe you missed a volume by a fair amount. you can add a simple sugar and water to your beer and bring it up some in the alcohol but you don't want more the say 12 ounces or so as it will develop some cider flavors. I would add 8 ounces of sugars to it af the gravity doesn't lower more in the next day or so. you should have a nice beer when you are done after 3 weeks of ferment ion time but it might only be 4%. If you shake the bucket, try instead to gently swirl the liquid without causing bubbles. with a Clean Spoon.!
Brown sugar can impart a bit of flavour on the brew so white is probably better. I would expect it to take a few days to process extra sugar, but use the gravity readings to know when it is done.
Before you add the sugar though, how does it taste? I have had a couple of very tasty 3.9% Coopers brews and some pretty average 5% brews. If it tastes ok and you don't have a little girl bladder then leave it alone and chalk it up to learning for next time.
Before you add the sugar though, how does it taste? I have had a couple of very tasty 3.9% Coopers brews and some pretty average 5% brews. If it tastes ok and you don't have a little girl bladder then leave it alone and chalk it up to learning for next time.
For your beer to get to 5% it needed to have started at closer to 1.050. Then the beer ferments down to 1.010 or so. The unformentables that take up the .010 are what make your beer taste like beer. When I made my first beer I made an error and it turned out very low ABV. I just drank it and did better the next batch. No regerts.
Like I said, I wouldn't personally add anything to it if your only concern is ABV, assuming the beer tastes ok (hard to tell at this point I know, but it should taste like flat beer with no harsh / sour / hot alcohol / buttery / other flavours).
But if you are set on adding sugar, boil the sugar in maybe 200ml water or whatever minimal amount you need to dissolve the sugar. Boil it for a few mins to kill bugs in the water/sugar, you don't need to go over the top here. If the point is to increase ABV then adding too much water is going to work against you.
Don't stress too much if the brew isn't going completely to plan - this happens all the time. Often if you just leave things alone and give them some time they come out a lot better than you expect.
CraptainWirtz
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It's also very likely that your wort wasn't completely evenly mixed with your topoff water when you took your sample for the OG reading, so your sample was more dilute than the rest of the wort. If you put all the extract in and came close to the right topoff volume, your OG was probably pretty close to what the recipe said. Personally, I wouldn't add sugar at this point if it tastes good.
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