I recently brewed my first batch of beer which was a brewers best RIS kit. The kit had been sitting around for about a year and a half. I brewed it two weeks ago now. The kit came with nottingham dry yeast, before pitching i rehydrated per the instructions on the packet in 90-100F water 30min prior to brew and pitched it at the same temp as the wort. Now, after two weeks, i took a gravity reading and the beer is at 1.030, starting was 1.074, which doesn't seem like a very good attenuation rate. The air lock hasn't had any movement (glass carboy) in a while, i tried giving the carboy a little shake to stir the yeast back up but am still not getting any airlock activity. As far as aerating the wort before pitching, i transferred the wort to the carboy by pouring from the kettle through a funnel which whipped quite a bit of air into the beer, i didn't bother to shake the carboy beyond this but looking back maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea. The things i was wondering about where:
Could the low attenuation be caused by the yeast being over a year old?
Will pitching another packet of yeast help things out?
I have read around of people using aquarium pumps to aerate their beer, does anybody have experience with this? Am i right in assuming that there might be the potential for infection with this method, pumping external air throught the wart. Or, is there some kind of filter?
Could the low attenuation be caused by the yeast being over a year old?
Will pitching another packet of yeast help things out?
I have read around of people using aquarium pumps to aerate their beer, does anybody have experience with this? Am i right in assuming that there might be the potential for infection with this method, pumping external air throught the wart. Or, is there some kind of filter?