Super slow fermentation. Whats wrong???

I have posted 2.5 weeks ago roughly about my ginger ale. I put the dry yeast in cold water before pitching because i wasn't thinking and thought i killed the yeast because of no bubble in air lock. I was told to wait it out. I have checked at 1.5 weeks and got a hydrometer reading of 1.060. I also forgot to get a reading at the start but was told that it was likely 1.072 based on the recipe i posted. I checked it in 2 weeks and got 1.060 again I decided to pitch some more yeast. First yeast was champagne yeast this second one I did a regular ale yeast. (problem?) So now its about 2.5 to 3 weeks later and the air lock bubbles were getting slower yet, so i decided to move it to a secondary to check out what was going on inside (impatient. I wanted to brew some regular beer.) After putting it into the secondary I noticed almost no sediment on the bottom of the primary (should this be?) There was some bubbling, i'm guessing it was fermenting still. What would be the reason for this? It still taste very sweet. Did i slow the fermentation even more by moving it to a secondary? Please just need some advice and help. I'm really frustrated, this is why i gave up the first time. Here is the recipe if it helps.

8lbs cane sugar
5 gallons water
7 oz ginger
7 lemons
3 limes

boil water and sugar 20 minutes with ginger
add lemon and lime juice and zest
cool to 80f

pitch champagne yeast

P.S. when I checked the hydrometer reading today while putting to the secondary it had gone down to 1.050.

Well, I'm no expert here, but I have heard that most of the time the little yeasties aren't dead but for some reason or another were not activated. What temperature did you have the fermentation taking place at? How long does it typically take for these kinds of yeasties to start munching? Champagne yeast may take a while to ferment as well, know knows.

If you found something that works and the beer is fermenting, then that's good and I assume it will be fine.

The temp is around 68f i have it inside.

Never rack to secondary until you've met your final gravity target (at least close to it).

I think the problem here is that all your fermentables are cane sugar.

I got the recipe from book it said 1-2 weeks and it called for all cane sugar as well

You might have more luck posting this in the wine forum, where they have more experience with recipes like this but there are a couple of problems with this recipe.

first all of the lemon and lime juice have acidified the 'must' and fermentation would be tricky at best. Some people have success way overpitching (ie pitching on a cake from a healthy fermentation to power through the acid), but just throwing a packet of yeast will generally not do the job.

second there is no nutrients for the yeast mentioned, and unless you are using grape or grain (or extracts from either) you need to add nutrients to allow your yeast to reproduce. Again pitching on the cake from a healthy fermentation is sometimes used to get around this problem.

Saving this batch will be tricky as it would take time to build up a starter of champagne yeast and acclimate it to the acidity, but next time you might want to consider adding nutrients (like dap), and yeast energizer at the start of fermentation, and hold of on the lemon and limes until after the yeast are trucking along.

Good luck

BrewBoy19 said:

I got the recipe from book it said 1-2 weeks and it called for all cane sugar as well

Click to expand...

what book?

BrewBoy19 said:

I got the recipe from book it said 1-2 weeks and it called for all cane sugar as well

Click to expand...

What book?

Anybody spend some time in lock-up and can help this dude out? Seriously though, I'm guessing its either too low of a ph from the citrus, or lack of nutrients for the yeast. At this point, I'd probably dump it, but you might have some luck adding some yeast nutrient, hitting it with fresh yeast, and oxygenating it.

You need to add both yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. You will need to make an addition every couple of days for maybe a week to keep the yeasts working. Once you get active fermentation you may need to make an addition of both every twenty points gravity moves down.

I transfered the mixture and mixed it up heavily and now it seems to be bubbling a lot more. I'm just a little concerned since the alcohol content is so low for so lond and the lemon and lime zest was left inside the primary; when I transfered it i noticed some white coating on the zest (mold) should I be worried about anything like this? I would rather dump it and start over than get sick. But like I said; now it looks to be fermenting pretty decently.

Personally, I ordinarilly don't advocate dumping regularly, and unless you need the space I might wait this one out. Realistically, I do not hold out a lot of hope for this batch, so if dumping this out is what is keeping you from trying again, I think you might want to consider trying again. After all, so far you're only out a little ginger, some lemons and some sugar.

Best of luck in whatever you chose.