Help.....Possible dead yeast problem

[Nikitos]

Hello everyone.
So am new to the whole brewing thing. And I live in a place where i don't have access to much equipment or engridients.
To cut a long story short.
I started my fist ever batch of apple cider. Fresh squeezed apple juice and a bit of sugar.
I started with 1.085 sg so now a month later in my second fermentation am stuck at 1.020.
It's been stuck there for a week.
So I presume that the alcohol content is too high for my yeast. (I used regular dry yeast).
Which means if I bottle it now I will likely not gonna get a fermentation in the bottle when adding more sugar.
My question is is all hope lost. Or if I dilute the batch with water before bottling it could still be saved.

 

[lumpher]

Add some yeast energizer, warm it up, add sugar water to help dry it out... but under no circumstances would I add water. What is "regular dry yeast"? Is that bread yeast from the grocery store?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Checking gravity with hydrometer or refractometer? If using refractometer you need to calculate the actual gravity as alcohol skews the reading.

 

[Nikitos]

Checking gravity with hydrometer or refractometer? If using refractometer you need to calculate the actual gravity as alcohol skews the reading.

I use a refractometer and an online calculator for that

 

[Nikitos]

Add some yeast energizer, warm it up, add sugar water to help dry it out... but under no circumstances would I add water. What is "regular dry yeast"? Is that bread yeast from the grocery store?

Yes the grocery store yeast.
What can work as a yeast energizer. I mean apart from the actual thing .

 

[DBhomebrew]

I use a refractometer and an online calculator for that

Just to confirm, you use a final gravity calculator? It requires you to input  both original and final gravity readings in Brix?

Double checking this as ~1.020 is the typical false FG one usually has with a refractometer.

 

[Nikitos]

Yes I put both graveties in the calculator.
And to be honest the refractometer I use shows Gravity aswell i tested with a converter and the numbers were right.
What I did now was throwing some raisins in the carboy am gonna wait a few days to see if there is any reaction. Since raisins should act like a nutrient for the yeast if not am gonna put my cross. Cross my fingers and bottle . Hoping it won't go boom.

 

[DBhomebrew]

And to be honest the refractometer I use shows Gravity aswell i tested with a converter and the numbers were right.

That may be true pre-fermentation, but once there's some ethanol in the mix the refractometer is going to give a false reading. For beverages of average OG, that high reading will be ~1.020-1.030.

My question isn't if you used a calculator on both OG and FG. It's whether you used a FG calculator that requires both actual OG and perceived FG to arrive at actual FG.

Part I vs Part II in this link. For FG, you have to use Part II.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

 

[DBhomebrew]

FWIW, I just played with the calculator. Using an OG of 20.5Bx (1.085) and perceived FG of 5Bx (1.020), the calculator spits out an actual FG of 0.983 and an ABV of 13%.

Those numbers are exactly what one might expect from cider and sugar.

 

[Nikitos]

1 minute ago
This is what I get. And if am not mistaken it mean am good to bottle am I

 

[DBhomebrew]

1 minute ago
This is what I get. And if am not mistaken it mean am good to bottle am I

There you go!

 

[Nikitos]

Thanks for ur help...
I have 2 more batches fermenting. One of which has now yeast at. Using the natural bacteria on the apples. Honestly the color looks better and the taste is much better aswell ...it should be ready for botteling in a week or so.