Ginger beer isn't fermenting.

Hi, myself and a few friends have gotten into home brewing, and our first batch turned out fine, but just yesterday we made up a draught and a ginger beer, we wanted more alcohol content in them and had a few suggestions. One was to just not fill the fermenter as full, another was to put in this enzyme thing that makes more sugar convert to alcohol, and the other suggestion was just more sugar.

We made up the draught as normal and added the enzyme, and now, about 18hrs later it's fermenting fine. With the ginger beer though, we added another 500 grams of sugar and filled the fermenter up to about 22L instead of 23L, and right now it's sitting there dead silent, no fermentation.

So what do you think the problem is? Also, is more sugar going to spoil the taste, or lead to exploding bottles or some other problem?


Cheers.

An extra 500 grams shouldn't be a problem. What recipe did you use for the ginger beer?

Was just a ginger beer cyrup out of the can, Beermakers was the brand, just basically followed the instructions, dissolve it all with the sugar, top it up to 23L, get the right temp, then just let it go.

The only things we didn't do exact to the recipe was the extra 500g of sugar, and it said to put the yeast and nutrient in a cup of luke warm water for a while before putting it in with the brew, whereas we just chucked it in after we topped it up, temp was ok, so i don't know why it's not fermenting.

Moshiach said:

, so i don't know why it's not fermenting.

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Patience is the key. It's only been 18 hours, what's the rush?

Well now it's been 24hrs. Is this unusual?

What kind of yeast was it, and what is the temperature the fermenter is at right now?

No idea what the yeast was, came with it, 5g.

And it's about 22-23°C.

I would be concerned at 72 hours, 5g isn't much yeast.

Did the yeast come with the can? If so I've always read to buy a fresh pack of yeast and chuck the one under the extract lid. You don't know how old it is and it probably hasn't been stored under the best conditions.
If you don't get activity soon go get another pack of yeast and re-pitch. Good luck!