Fermentation over at 3 days?

[rhino001]

I have recently purchased a coopers diy beer kit and have got a coopers lager fermenting. There was visible signs of fermentation after 3 days, but since then my gravity readings have stayed the same each day. My OG was 1032 and it has plateaued at 1015 and not changed for 3 days. This is a little concerning because this puts the alc content at only about 2.8%. My fermenter has been at a pretty constant temp of 19 degrees Celsius. The Krausen has since disappeared. I would have thought the fermentation would take about 10 days, and alc content would be up around 4%? Any suggestions / help is welcomed.

 

[Ogri]

There are quite a few possibilities but, first of all, just let the brew carry on for another couple of weeks on the yeast cake. The initial, vigorous fermentation phase can sometimes be over in a few days but there will still be a lot of the whole process taking place, even if not visibly so.

For such a low starting gravity I'd expect a much lower finishing gravity. Could be that you didn't manage to get the extract evenly mixed into suspension so the hydrometer sample you measured would be the slightly lower gravity figure you mention. That being the case the fermentation process will make sure all the available, fermentable, sugars are converted and you'll have the beer that the kit was designed to make, unless you used a larger volume of water than the kit requires.

You said it's a lager kit you are brewing which, if using a proper lager yeast and fermenting at lager temperatures, should take considerably longer than you report. 19 deg C is way too high to be fermenting with lager yeast. If the yeast you are using is in fact an ale yeast the second half of the top paragraph would be applicable.

Don't sweat it too much, I'm sure it'll turn into a perfectly potable and satisfying brew.

 

[rhino001]

Thanks Ogri appreciate it.

yeah im thinking i might not have mixed it enough, beginners error since it was my very first brew. Yeah ive read in other posts about the coopers strange instructions, the kit came with a lager beer kit with yeast included, but the instructions in the beer kit say it should be between 21 degrees C and 28 degrees C, and they say the process of fermentation will take about a week and then 3 weeks more after bottling. So who knows. I want to get into partial extract brewing pretty quickly to get into the real stuff anyway. But we shall wait and see with this one!

Appreciate your help.