Is sg higher at bottom of fermenter?

[conal]

I started a brew house pale ale with a og of 1.052 in a new primary fermenter bucket that has a spigot at the bottom. I thought it would be easy to take a sample to measure sg with my hydrometer. After fermentation began, I measured after a day of great activity and the sg was down to 1.028. Great start, but after day 2 it ha moved to 1.026. It has stayed there a few days since. Am I getting a bad read because I am sampling from the bottom ? Would it be a higher sg down there after a few days of ferm and settling? Suggestions?

 

[feinbera]

Maybe in a fresh-topped-off extract batch, but after several days of fermentation, probably not -- you're probably at about 1.026 all the way through.

A couple questions:

* What temperature are you fermenting at? If you're around/below 60 for an ale yeast (dunno the numbers for a lager, sorry), the yeast might settle out instead of finishing up; you can warm it up to the low 70's or so, then give it a few swirls (swirl the closed fermenter around, don't open it up and stick a spoon/mash paddle/yer finger in!) to get the yeast back into suspension, and fermentation may start up again.

* Was this an all-grain batch, and if so, what was your mash temperature? Anywhere above 155 or so and you're making a lot of unfermentable sugars, in which case, your beer may be done.

* Was your beer well-aerated? Was your yeast relatively fresh? If it's liquid, did you use a starter? Answering "no" to any of these could mean didn't start out with enough healthy yeast in there to finish up fermentation quickly.

 

[conal]

Temp at steady 70, well aerated, fresh yeast. The brew house is bagged microbrew wort with only a clearing agent and yeast to add. There is a good two inches of sediment at the bottom after the first 24 hs. Supposed to be foolproof but I guess I'm special.