Fermentation Stopped Early - What to do...

[eohlin]

Hi...I'm very new to brewing, and have my first problem I think. Not sure what to do, hoping I can get some advise please.

I brewed a German Altbier on 3/29 - was a clone of Alaskan Amber I found on the web. It's an all grain brew, done in a grainfather.

I mashed at 152 for 90 minutes, then a 10 minute mash out at 167.

I sparged at 167/170 - based on what others that made this recommended.

I cooled to 64...as beer was going into fermenter, I added the yeast when the fermenter was about half full, then used the wort to mix and make sure all the yeast was wet. Not sure this is correct - but watched others do this on youtube.

I will say - I did not re-hydrate the yeast and I didn't really do anything special to aerate the wort either - I think both were a mistake, but not sure.

The Yeast was Salfale K-97.

So...here's the problem - OG was 1.056 if I did it right!!

After 10 days in the fermenter - gravity is around 1.027 as read on a refractometer. I did double check the calibration. I think my target is 1.013 for a 5.7% ABV. I fermented in a cool area of my basement - I think the temp in the fermenter for the first week was around 60 degrees. The fermentation started within 24 hours and was very active for the first week.

I'm not sure what to do...the wort is still pretty sweet.

Did I screw up the mash? Did I screw up the yeast?

Can I rack to a secondary fermenter and re-pitch yeast?

Any other thoughts / advise to fix what I have and not make the same mistake again?

Thanks,
Eric

 

[doug293cz]

Classic noob mistake (I made it too.) Refractometers are affected by the presence of alcohol (they read high), so you need to do a correction calculation to get a reasonably accurate SG reading after the start of fermentation. You also need to know the OG in order to do the correction. The consensus best refractometer correction calculator is this one.

Brew on