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Hi all, I am an experienced beer/mead/cider brewer, but I am making an alcoholic ginger beer at the moment for the first time and having some strange occurrences. The recipe is taken from a recent BYO magazine.
In the primary fermentation, there is 5 gallons of water with a tablespoon of molasses and 4 lbs of table sugar, which was boiled together with a tablespoon of yeast nutrient (lemon/lime/ginger is added at bottling). I chilled, put into the fermentor, and pitched a packet of S-05. Okay here is where things get weird.
After about a week, I took a hydrometer sample, and it seemed to be fermenting slow, and against my better judgment, perhaps, I said 'screw it' and pitched some cider yeast (S. bayanus), because I wanted a fast fermentation and thought that a little extra yeast should make it finish fast. Fast forward to two weeks: I take another hydrometer sample and the sample is still high in gravity, or so it appears. I then notice the the solution is extremely bubbly. I swirl the hydrometer many times (maybe over the course of 5 minutes), and the gravity is finally showing to be around 1.008, which is good I suppose. So, I have two questions:
1) Why is is so bubbly? Of course there is always some CO2 in the solution, but in my years of brewing I have never had to swirl the hydrometer so much. I have now been putting the sample in a mason jar, closing the lid, and degassing the solution like in o-chem with a seperatory funnel, and then measuring afterwards.
2) The recipe says that the FG should be in the neighborhood of 0.995, yet as of today (~20 days after pitching), the FG is 1.005, and has been for a couple of days. Is it finished, and if so, why is it so different than the recipe? My OG was almost the exact same as the recipe (I had 1.040, recipe said 1.038). The recipe also called for a fast 10-day fermentation, but my recipe took considerably longer, even with added yeast!
In the primary fermentation, there is 5 gallons of water with a tablespoon of molasses and 4 lbs of table sugar, which was boiled together with a tablespoon of yeast nutrient (lemon/lime/ginger is added at bottling). I chilled, put into the fermentor, and pitched a packet of S-05. Okay here is where things get weird.
After about a week, I took a hydrometer sample, and it seemed to be fermenting slow, and against my better judgment, perhaps, I said 'screw it' and pitched some cider yeast (S. bayanus), because I wanted a fast fermentation and thought that a little extra yeast should make it finish fast. Fast forward to two weeks: I take another hydrometer sample and the sample is still high in gravity, or so it appears. I then notice the the solution is extremely bubbly. I swirl the hydrometer many times (maybe over the course of 5 minutes), and the gravity is finally showing to be around 1.008, which is good I suppose. So, I have two questions:
1) Why is is so bubbly? Of course there is always some CO2 in the solution, but in my years of brewing I have never had to swirl the hydrometer so much. I have now been putting the sample in a mason jar, closing the lid, and degassing the solution like in o-chem with a seperatory funnel, and then measuring afterwards.
2) The recipe says that the FG should be in the neighborhood of 0.995, yet as of today (~20 days after pitching), the FG is 1.005, and has been for a couple of days. Is it finished, and if so, why is it so different than the recipe? My OG was almost the exact same as the recipe (I had 1.040, recipe said 1.038). The recipe also called for a fast 10-day fermentation, but my recipe took considerably longer, even with added yeast!
