Hello all,
Three weeks ago I racked my White House Honey Ale into my secondary 5g carboy. The recipe I'm using says to ferment the beer for 14 days in the secondary, and you should get a FG of 1.015. My SG was 1.063, which was exactly what the recipe had written down. Prior to racking it to the carboy, it sat in my primary for about a week.
After two weeks in the secondary, I made the rookie mistake of thinking it was finished, and dissolved all my corn starch in water, sanitized my bottles, and was ready to go - until I took a sample and realized it wasn't finished (it was at 1.022 or 1.024, I forget). It also still tasted somewhat sweet, like the sugars hadn't completed finished fermenting. Today, a week later, I took another reading - 1.021. Although it tasted less sweet, it was also somewhat sour, like perhaps the sugars were in the middle of fermentation, but I'm not positive about that.
My house is kept at 65 degrees, and the carboy has been sitting on a chair in the corner in between heaters. After the initial two weeks in the carboy, I called my local homebrew shop and explained the situation, and was told I should lightly stir the beer to try to get the yeast active again, and to perhaps put a blanket over it -- so I did both of those things.
Any suggestions? I'm not sure if the FG is gonna drop any more if it only dropped .001 over a week.. should I just go ahead and bottle it and hope for the best? My sanitized bottles have been sitting on the counter for a week with paper towels draped over the necks..
Oh, I should also mention that I made two successful batches of beer before this, and they both came out amazing, so I'm not sure if it could have been a technical error on my part or what.
Three weeks ago I racked my White House Honey Ale into my secondary 5g carboy. The recipe I'm using says to ferment the beer for 14 days in the secondary, and you should get a FG of 1.015. My SG was 1.063, which was exactly what the recipe had written down. Prior to racking it to the carboy, it sat in my primary for about a week.
After two weeks in the secondary, I made the rookie mistake of thinking it was finished, and dissolved all my corn starch in water, sanitized my bottles, and was ready to go - until I took a sample and realized it wasn't finished (it was at 1.022 or 1.024, I forget). It also still tasted somewhat sweet, like the sugars hadn't completed finished fermenting. Today, a week later, I took another reading - 1.021. Although it tasted less sweet, it was also somewhat sour, like perhaps the sugars were in the middle of fermentation, but I'm not positive about that.
My house is kept at 65 degrees, and the carboy has been sitting on a chair in the corner in between heaters. After the initial two weeks in the carboy, I called my local homebrew shop and explained the situation, and was told I should lightly stir the beer to try to get the yeast active again, and to perhaps put a blanket over it -- so I did both of those things.
Any suggestions? I'm not sure if the FG is gonna drop any more if it only dropped .001 over a week.. should I just go ahead and bottle it and hope for the best? My sanitized bottles have been sitting on the counter for a week with paper towels draped over the necks..
Oh, I should also mention that I made two successful batches of beer before this, and they both came out amazing, so I'm not sure if it could have been a technical error on my part or what.
)) hasn't been added to the beer yet -- it's sitting in my fridge while I let the beer try to ferment a bit more.
