Newbie- Little change from OG to FG

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l2yangop

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I bought my first kit recently and am worried I've done something wrong. It was the irish red ale form Midwest. Today is day 9 in the bucket and the OG when i pitched the yeast was 1.04, today it is 1.02. I realize it may need more time but it has not bubbled the airlock since day 2. Should I be worried. The temp in the house has been around 75 degrees. Is that possibly too warm? Should I stir it or add simple sugar perhaps? Or am i just being paranoid?
 
Probably a little warm for the yeast.

Try to cool it off to avoid off flavors and ignore it for a week or so.
Cheers.
 
I put it in a potentially cooler room. Anything else I can do or just wait it out?
 
This was an all extract kit. Most likely your OG reading is wrong and was probably whatever the kit listed to be. This is typical with new brewers as they do not get a thorough mix of wort and top off water and get an off reading, no worries:)

If it is at 9 days and has not moved past 1.020 then it's probably done. This too is a common occurrence as there are many less fermentable sugars in LME/DME and extract batches can typically stop here.

Contributing to this phenomenon is lack of starter/rehydrating yeast, underpitching, poor aeration, improper fermentation temperatures creating stressed yeast. If you take another reading in a day and it's the same, it's done.

Fermenting at 75 degrees was way too warm but moving it now won't make a difference. Because there are most likely off flavors attributed to this batch IMO you give the vessel a little shake to possibly rouse the yeast into activity and leave it be for 2 more weeks and allow the yeast to clean up some of those off flavors, then package.
 
This was an all extract kit. Most likely your OG reading is wrong and was probably whatever the kit listed to be. This is typical with new brewers as they do not get a thorough mix of wort and top off water and get an off reading, no worries:)

If it is at 9 days and has not moved past 1.020 then it's probably done. This too is a common occurrence as there are many less fermentable sugars in LME/DME and extract batches can typically stop here.

Contributing to this phenomenon is lack of starter/rehydrating yeast, underpitching, poor aeration, improper fermentation temperatures creating stressed yeast. If you take another reading in a day and it's the same, it's done.

Fermenting at 75 degrees was way too warm but moving it now won't make a difference. Because there are most likely off flavors attributed to this batch IMO you give the vessel a little shake to possibly rouse the yeast into activity and leave it be for 2 more weeks and allow the yeast to clean up some of those off flavors, then package.

Thanks for your response. I don’t have a basement and my house temp is about 75 degrees all the time except summer. How does everyone else ferment their beer at room temp? I can’t be the only person who’s room temp is 75 can I? What is an ideal fermentation temp? I gave it a swirl or two last night and closed off the vents to a spare room so it is now about 71/72 degrees. I will let it sit another week or so and then bottle.
 
65-68F is better suited to most ale yeasts. But US-05 can stay clean tasting at 72F ime. It could take as much as 3 weeks to get down to FG & clean up/settle out clear or slightly misty. The yeast finish the sugars to get down to FG. Then feed on fermentation by products to "clean up". They start to settle out as they finish doing this.
Then time in the bottles will also help clean up some more of these off flavors. But if you have a lot of off flavors,it may not clean up all of them. But the average bit yes.
 
Get a big tub. Fill with water. Put fermentor in tub. Rotate frozen water bottles to keep your fermentor cool.
 

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