Dump it?

Here is my current depressing situation: I first started Friday the 3rd. I noticed that it never bubbled in the fermentor. With the advise of several here I added more yeast on Friday afternoon. Walker was nice enough to send me some yeast, alltho' I didn't end up using it because I found some in Rochester MN when I went to play in the State pool tourney. Nice store by the way. Anyway, its been a few more days and still nothing. I bought one of those hydrometers at the store and I came up with a reading of 1.016. Not sure if this means anything without the original reading? I also noticed that when I stirred in the yeast the 2nd time that there was alot of sludge on the bottom. Does this mean that it actually fermented? Maybe it just leaked out the lid and not through the airlock? The lid doesn't seem all that tight. I also bought a nice bucket with a tight lid at the store for my next try.

With a FG of 1.016 I'd say it fermented out, especially seeing that you had sludge on the bottom before your second pitch. I'd say taste the beer and if it tastes like beer and isn't especially sweet, throw it in the secondary for a while, prime and bottle! Good luck!

sounds like it might have fermented... post the recipe and someone can estimate an OG... what does it taste like? i definitely wouldn't dump it at this point.

1.016...I'll bet it fermented w/o you noticing. A couple of things...did you have water in the airlock? And like you suspected, a loose lid would also allow CO2 to escape w/o signs. I'd rack it to a secondary and see what happens.

Taste it!!

really sweet = little to no fermentation
beerish = good
vomitous = bad

Hey... did you actually get that yeast in the mail!?

I just realized Fri night that I only put a $0.37 stamp on the package, and the current rate is actually $0.39, according to my wife. I expected to get it back the day after I sent it, but it never was returned so I had my fingers crossed that the US POstal Service wouldbe nice to my stupid butt.

Sounds like your beer fermented fine. Take that yeast I sent you and save it for the next time!

-walker

I was expecting the yeast you sent to come today. I tasted the beer and it tastes pretty good. I found the recipe and it says Beginning Gravity 1.052 - 1.054 and final Gravity at 1.012 -1.014 so 1.016 is pretty close. When you get the sample for the reading, do you just get it from the top? Which I did, or should I get it from the middle or bottom? I'm going to start steralizing stuff now to prepare to rack to secondary. Turtle: Yes I did have water in the airlock. Good question tho' considering who you are working with here.

I bought some C-Brite -Chlorine bases no-rinse sanitizer. Do you know If I need to soak everything for a certain amount of time? It looks like sanitizing the siphon will be tough because it's soo long. Maybe in the bathtub?

The final gravity can be taken anywhere. The fermentation process mixes things up quite well. If you do partial boil extract batches and don't mix things competely you can get bad readings.

Could have been a bad seal on the fermenter or a slow start followed by an over-night ferment.

I'd say it's beer!

All sounds like first brew nerves mworkman! Relax and look forward to a homebrew - you've done okay so far!!!

Nice work Walker too......

Don't forget to compensate for temp. when you take a hydrometer reading.

how does the temp effect it? I didn't take a first reading at all. The second was 1.016 which was close to what the final gravity on the recipe said it would be..

there's a good chart here

hydrometer/temperature conversion

Sounds like you did o.k. I would bet it was a loose lid. Doesn't have to be too loose for you to lose a LOT of CO2. Bottle it, let it age and then drink it!!
_______________
Timmy