Typical beginner question....

Or I guess I should say typical beginner worries....

I brewed my first batch last Friday, it had very vigorous fermentation the first 2-3 days (had to use a blow off tube), then tapered off to about 1 "burp" from the lock every 25 seconds or so. The thing is it is still going off at just about every 25 seconds like clock work a week later.

The temps have stayed around 70F the whole week and there is no longer a krausen on the beer, there is some stuck to the top of the carboy, but it has not formed a new one since it had its last blow off.

I took an hydrometer reading yesterday and it is sitting right at 1.030 (1.031 with temp corrections).

The FG of the recipe is supposed to be around 1.015, 15 points is a long way, so I have to ask the question....

Is my fermentation stuck?

Recipe called for Nottingham yeast, if that will help....

Edit: I stole a sip from the hydrometer tube when I took the SG reading, it tasted good, smelled great, but was super sweet.

Take another gravity reading in a couple of days. That will tell you if it is still fermenting or not. What was teh gravity before you r fermentation started?

You will need to get it below 1.030 for sure, that's too sweet for a normal ABV beer. If another hydrometer reading shows no change in a few days you should probably by another pack of dry yeast and pitch it, swirl it, and keep it at 70F

A viloent fermentation can cause the yeast to get stuck up with the krausen wall. Give your fermenter enough of a gentle swirl to knock that yeasty goo back down into the beer.

Be careful not to aerate the beer.

I think you're yeast has simply beached itself on the walls. This is more typical of Wit Yeasts, but it may be possible with nottingham as well.

how long has it been fermenting all together?

It sounds okay to me. You want to wait at least two weeks anyway. Be patient! Go get a 12 pack or two of Sam Adams and start collecting bottles. Sounds like you only have three weeks left of buying beer that someone else has made.

Thanks for the tips.

I brewed last Friday, so it's been going for a week.

I will give a gentle swirl and take another hydrometer reading tomorrow.

I was planning on racking to secondary this weekend, but I have no problems letting it sit for another week in Primary.

Again thanks for the help!

No change this morning, so I went ahead and pitched another packet of Nottingham.

After an hour or so it is already starting to bubble about every 10 seconds or so, hopefully this will get me to 1.015ish.

When you swirl around to get your yeast back into the beer (or just to rouse what you have), you don't have to be too gentle if you're dealing with the primary. Aeration isn't much of a concern, since the headspace of your fermenter should be filled with CO2 that your yeast produced during their initial party.

You don't want to make a mess, though!


TL

Update, I spent yesterday afternoon exploring downtown Indianapolis, when I came back there appeared to be no activity again. I swirled the bottle around a bit (grabbed it by the red carboy handle and gave it a few twists) and managed to keep it from shaking around too much. It still had me worried abit last night when I turned in.

This morning there is a small layer of bubbles, not what I'd call a krausen, but the airlock is bubbling erratically so I guess I'll just wait.

Is there any kind of outside contamination that will stop a fermentation so drastically?

I also wonder if maybe I did not aerate wort enough when I put it in the primary. Looking at my notes my OG was 1.020, a number I threw out once I realized I topped off the carboy with water (preboiled) right before I took the OG.

Should I give it a good shake or is that layer of bubbles a good sign?

Not a good start overall.....

Anyways I'll give it until next Friday or so.

heya Whiskey....1st, be real careful handling a full carboy with the neck handle, they are meant for empty carboys and the whole neck can depart your carboy, not pleasant.
Trust your hydrometer, not the bubbles. The brew can continue to offgas the absorbed C02 for a long time, suggesting continued fermentation falsly.
A few details on your wort would help the troubl shooting (recipe, even brand of LME if that was used

Thanks for the warning! It's a 6 gallon better bottle though, so I guess the worst case scenario is I separate my back!

Yeah my hydrometer reading is what started the this debacle. The "bubbling" slowed down after 4 days or so after 2 days of very vigorous activity. I had read of the CO2 release, so I waited until last Friday to take the FG.

Here is the recipe...

Sweet Stout.

6.6 Lbs Light Extract (I used Briess Light DME)
1.5 Lbs. 40 L Crystal Malt
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt
8.0 oz Roasted Barley
4.0 oz Malto-Dextrin powder
8.0 oz Lactose
7.0 HBU's Northern Brewer hops (60 minute boil)
1.0 tsp. Irish Moss (20 minutes)
5 g Nottingham Yeast (rehydrated in preboiled 90F water)

The instructions stated to ferment at 65F, do to hardware, space restrictions I was able to keep it at about 70-72F.

First 2 days of fermentation had very active krausen and I used a blow off tube, however I i was out of town overnight, and when I returned found that the blow off bowl (filled with star-san) was full of wort and the blow off tube had popped out of the solution. It was still over the bowl, as I had laid a lid over the bowl, just not below the surface of the solution. There was some wort in the tube and I made sure not to let it slide back into the Primary when I removed the blow off.

I used a SS turkey baster, that I had soaked in star-san for a few minutes to get the sample for the FG. I spun the hydrometer when I put it in the tube, and rechecked from several different angles and it read 1.030 (sample was at 73.3F so I guess 1.031). It read exactly the same yesterday.

On a side note, my LHBS was out of #10 stoppers so I bought two red rubber boot looking things that slide over the neck of the Better Bottle. I do not recall seeing them before, but they seem to seal well.

The layer of bubbles and bubbling airlock is a good sign. Fermentation begins and proceeds like a snowball. At first, nothing. Then, a little something. Then, BOOM! I expect you will see some major changes over the next several hours and really see something going by tomorrow morning.


TL

No change as of yet. The bubbles that were on top are getting less, and the airlock activity has all but resided.

I'm going to get an another Hydrometer reading tomorrow, if it's still sitting at 1.031 I'm probably going to call this one a loss.

Alright pulled a sample and again the reading is 1.031. I now find this extremely odd seeing that I re-pitched yeast 3 days ago. I decided to let the hydrometer tube sit for a few minutes, after I noticed a fine layer of bubbles rolling up the side of the tube.

20 minutes later the bubbles are still rolling up almost as if there is mild carbonation happening.

Tasted the sample and it tastes pretty good, green but good. It's sweet, but with 4 oz of maltp-dextrin and 8 oz of lactose I was expecting that.

So instead of pitching the batch I'm going to go ahead and rack to secondary and let it sit for another week or so. Then I'll go from there.

On a side note just to rule out a bad hydrometer I filled the test tube with 69F distilled water, it read an even 1.000.....

Spoke with the LHBS about the issue (should have done that a few days ago seeing it's their recipe!), and they advised higher then normal OG reading would come from the amount of Maltodextrin and Lactose. They said that the Malto-Dextrin itself would add about .01 to the FG (they pulled this from a book, can't remeber which one...) So I think this batch is going to be ok, going to throw into the secondary.....

Edit: they said they would amend the recipe to reflect this.....

your FG should still be much lower...it may drop a few points when you put it into secondary, but still...it's far too high right now...i wouldn't throw it into secondary until it drops.

Yeah, but after no change after re-pitching yeast 4 days ago, it's all I really have to go on at this point.

I already racked it into the secondary and there should be more then enough head room if it decides to suddenly start to ferment again, I lost about 3/4 of a gallon trying to not rack the 1 1/2" of trub I had on the bottom.

On a side note, thanks for everyones input, and assistance with trouble shooting.

I'm going to start a Chocolate Porter today, so wish me luck!

I am going throught the exact same thing with my Listermann sweet stout. After a week it stuck at 1.30 after a very vigorous ferment. A let it sit for another week and it dropped to about 1.27. I racked it to a secondary a week ago and Ill let it sit another week, should be ready to bottle by then.