odd gravity readings

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Cheeto

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Well lets start this off right this is my first batch
I bought the $200 home brew "deluxe" kit with all the bells and whistles
I must say cleaning the carboys was a pain in the A$$

but I am one week in to this batch and I have transfered to the secondary
fermenter after 4 days ( I now know that it is not really needed , thanks to all for your great information to the other members of this site,) none the less I took a gravity reading during the transfer

I started with a .035 ( .036-.040) was what the label stated on the can of malt extract the wort didn't taste very good

here is where I made my first mistake...
I didn't strain the wort before pitching the yeast (nottingham)
second mistake...
the wort temp was about 90 deg when I pitched, oops
it took about 24 hours before I saw any real action
then it went wild, thank that person that figured out the blow-off tube idea!!!!!!
by the 4th day there was a crust so great that I had to call my local HBS,
they told me to go ahead and transfer it to the second carboy if not I might get an explosion from the crust plugging the blow-off tube.
So I did at that time I pulled off a sample for tasting and to read the gravity
.022 was the reading, again it was not very tasty

here is where I am going to need a bit of help

the HBS told me to add 1TBS of cane/beet sugar :confused: to the carboy
(was this good info?)

Then all activity stopped 0 bubbles in 15min. :confused:

so I called the HBS again they said that I could add a bit of corn sugar to try to wake it up

and I did (1TBS in 6oz warm water )

here it is about 5 hours later I still see no action so I pulled another sample for a gravity reading, and it is .024,

I am wondering if there is any info some you SKILlED Brewers could offer, other than leave it alone

I will say that the beer tastes really good right now


Thank you
 
What is current temperature of your brew? Nottingham generally ferments out pretty fast but now that you have moved it off the yeast it may take longer for it to finish. You could try twisting ( not sloshing ) the carboy to get some of the yeast back into suspension and possibly warm it up if it is below 65 but no higher than 70.

Did you ferment in a bucket or carboy? I only ask because it is rather hard to clog a carboy blowoff tube. Also make sure when you handle the carboys your hands are dry and the carboy is dry. It's much safer that way.
 
Cheeto1977 said:
the temp has stayed pretty constant at about 68deg
and all of the work has been in 5 gallon carboys
Are you fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy? That's a bit small. I use a 1.25 tube in the carboy opening, fits tight and works well.

Temperature sounds good. Try twisting and see if that does anything.
 
I've noticed when adding sugar to a batch during fermentation that lots of CO2 comes out of suspension over the next minute or two. I'm betting it's still fermenting, it'll just be a couple hours before the beer is saturated and begins to exhale CO2 again. And please do some reading, and don't ask for advice from your HBS again. They told you to do some strange stuff here IMHO.
 
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