So, two weeks ago I started my first beer, the Sweet Stout kit (extract version)from AHS. The wort prep went fine and I actually wound up with a higher OG than indicated - 1.060 vs. 1.057. When the wort was cooled to ~80 degrees I pitched a vial of White Labs London Ale yeast which had been warming to room temp for about 48 hours - too long I think and no starter. After 24 hours I had good airlock activity and it tapered off around day 3, no problem. At day 5 I took a gravity reading - 1.022 , taste was good but a bit sweet. The instructions with the kit indicated FG should be about 1.012 so I let it keep going another couple days. At day 7 I took another gravity reading, also 1.022, so I did some research and decided that my best bet would be to rouse the yeast and transfer everything to secondary. The transfer went fine, except for spraying some beer all over the bathroom towards the end. I plugged the carboy with a clean airlock, wrapped it with a towel (bathroom has a window), filled the tub a third of the way up with cold water, and dropped a floating thermometer in the tub. I was able to keep the temperature at a steady 70 degrees although I found out a week later that the thermometer was reading ~8 degrees too warm, so it was really about 62 degrees. Yesterday I took another gravity reading, still 1.022 so I did some more research and decided the best course of action would be to rehydrate and pitch a packet of Nottingham yellow to get the gravity down. 26 hours later and there is no airlock activity, I can't see any suspended yeast (but it's a really dark beer) and the gravity reading is still 1.022.
So, the APV is currently about 5% by my math and the beer is drinkable but I'm wondering what happened? Is the instruction sheet with the beer wrong and everything went fine? The only big mistake I can see that I made was failure to properly aerate the wort after cooling. After smelling and multiple tastes, I don't think it's infected - my sanitazion procedures are pretty decent I think.
If I transfer this beer onto priming sugar in my bottling bucket, is it going to remain flat in the bottle or will the yeast reactivate to process the simple sugar?
Thanks,
Chris
So, the APV is currently about 5% by my math and the beer is drinkable but I'm wondering what happened? Is the instruction sheet with the beer wrong and everything went fine? The only big mistake I can see that I made was failure to properly aerate the wort after cooling. After smelling and multiple tastes, I don't think it's infected - my sanitazion procedures are pretty decent I think.
If I transfer this beer onto priming sugar in my bottling bucket, is it going to remain flat in the bottle or will the yeast reactivate to process the simple sugar?
Thanks,
Chris