My Gravity Reading Has Barely Moved, What Have I Done Wrong?

[SAM11111]

Hello,

I'm brewing a Bulldog Triple Tykes Export Ale. It says everything is in the kit so does not need any extra sugar added. However I did add 500g of spraymalt to increase the abv.

OGR was 1048 and today after two weeks the GR is 1030. So a little over 2% abv.

Airlock was bubbling nicely shortly after I closed the lid on my fermenting vessel. It has been in a dark place with temperature around 22 degrees.

Does anyone know why the GR is not getting closer to 1000?

Thank you.

 

[jdauria]

Was the yeast in the kit also? Did you happen to look at the age of the yeast, date is usually on the yeast package? My assumption is that you pitched a fairly old pack of dry yeast and it was not very viable. Pitch more yeast. GR should not get down to 1000. Attenuation is usually 65-85% depending on the yeast strain, mash schedule if doing all grain, etc... on average, a 1.048 beer would be expected to finish around 1.010 give or take a few points.

 

[VikeMan]

Refractometer or Hydrometer? If the former, you need to enter the original and final brix readings (together) into a refractometer calculator. There are several out there. For a standalone calculator, I recommend this one.

http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/

 

[IslandLizard]

What did you use to measure the (current) gravity?

What yeast did you pitch and how much?
How big is the batch?

 

[SAM11111]

Hi Jdauria,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the yeast came with the kit and no I didn't check the date. I'll do that in future definitely. I do have a pack of extra yeast which I'll add to the vessel now and see what happens. Does it need to be stirred or just spread it on top?

Any idea why it seemed to start off quite well too? I've done a few kits before and it seemed fine.

 

[SAM11111]

Just a normal hydrometer

 

[SAM11111]

What did you use to measure the (current) gravity?

What yeast did you pitch and how much?
How big is the batch?

23l in total and it was just the yeast which came with the kit, no idea what type of yeast exactly

 

[palmtrees]

Hi Jdauria,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the yeast came with the kit and no I didn't check the date. I'll do that in future definitely. I do have a pack of extra yeast which I'll add to the vessel now and see what happens. Does it need to be stirred or just spread it on top?

Any idea why it seemed to start off quite well too? I've done a few kits before and it seemed fine.

Don't stir it in. Just dump it quickly and as gently as possible. You want to minimize the amount of contact your beer has with the air right now. So pop the lid as little as you can, toss the yeast in, and close it up quickly. The yeast will dissolve and settle into the beer just fine.

 

[SAM11111]

Don't stir it in. Just dump it quickly and as gently as possible. You want to minimize the amount of contact your beer has with the air right now. So pop the lid as little as you can, toss the yeast in, and close it up quickly. The yeast will dissolve and settle into the beer just fine.

ok nice one cheers. I'll do that now and give it a few days and take another reading then and see where we're at. Thanks everyone for all the comments, appreciate it.

 

[VikeMan]

It would help if you list the kit's fermentables and their amounts. A kit that advertises an ABV of 5.4% ought to have an OG higher than 1.048, especially with an extra pound of extract added. How confident are you in your hydrometer readings?

 

[SAM11111]

It would help if you list the kit's fermentables and their amounts. A kit that advertises an ABV of 5.4% ought to have an OG higher than 1.048, especially with an extra pound of extract added. How confident are you in your hydrometer readings?

The reading may have been slightly off 1048, but not by much I reckon. Also when I added the spraymalt, I added it just after the hot water was added, it turned clumpy because of the steam, maybe that had an effect. Link below to the beer I'm using.

Also I just added some ale yeast and the airlock started bubbling straight away.

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.u...Special Export,of priming sugar when bottling.

 

[VikeMan]

The reading may have been slightly off 1048, but not by much I reckon. Also when I added the spraymalt, I added it just after the hot water was added, it turned clumpy because of the steam, maybe that had an effect. Link below to the beer I'm using.

Also I just added some ale yeast and the airlock started bubbling straight away.

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.u...Special Export,of priming sugar when bottling.

How much extract did the kit come with? I see it specifies an OG of 1.050. With an extra 500 grams of dry extract into 23 liters, the OG should have come out to about 1.058. Clumpy extract shouldn't have caused an issue, unless it never dissolved.

(Also, the airlock may have started bubbling right away, but yeast don't get to work that fast. I suspect you caused a pressure change after pitching the new yeast.)

 

[SAM11111]

How much extract did the kit come with? I see it specifies an OG of 1.050. With an extra 500 grams of dry extract into 23 liters, the OG should have come out to about 1.058. Clumpy extract shouldn't have caused an issue, unless it never dissolved.

(Also, the airlock may have started bubbling right away, but yeast don't get to work that fast. I suspect you caused a pressure change after pitching the new yeast.)

I don't have the box anymore so can't be sure, but it does say 4kg on the link I sent. It was just one big plastic sack of extract.

The spraymalt was still clumpy when I took the OGR so maybe that's why the reading wasn't closer to 1058.

Also yes the bubbling has slowed down since I first closed the lid.

 

[Birrofilo]

@SAM11111

When you collect a beer sample for the hydrometer, you will have a more precise measurement if you degas your sample.

My method is to put the sample inside a plastic bottle, close the tap, and agitate. Open the tap, let the CO2 get out (you'll hear the hiss), close the tap, agitate vigorously, until you have no more "beer" but only "froth". After a while the froth will have become beer again and you put that into the cylinder.

A non-degassed sample could give you a density reading which is higher than real.

 

[SAM11111]

Thanks for the advice, that sounds like a good idea for testing it, I'll try that on my next batch.

 

[jrgtr42]

Thanks for the advice, that sounds like a good idea for testing it, I'll try that on my next batch.

Honestly that will give you a change of maybe a couple of points, not bring it drastically down.
depending on the age of the extract may affect the fermentability.But most extract brews will settle around 1.020.