Repitch or bottle?

[amcclai7]

I posted about this problem a while ago and now my options are down to 2 and I would love some advice.

I am brewing a watermelon wheat beer. The primary fermentation went great. I thawed my frozen watermelon and added it and there have been no bubbles in the airlock whatsoever for about a week now. I have tried rousing the yeast and still nothing. Its possible it is fermenting but escaping through a leaky seal, but idk. The primary fermentation bubbled in the same bucket. It is also possible that my fully thawed but still chilly watermelon shocked the yeast, again idk.

Finally, I can't really check the gravity so see if the watermelon fermented b/c the watermelon isnt really supposed to change it. I've read several articles that say that while the fruit adds sugar and therefore alcohol, it also adds water which balances it out to the orginal F.G., and to really put the nail in the coffin, I dropped and broke my hyrdometer so I wouldn't have anything to compare the gravity to even if I went out and bought one right now.

So my final question is this. Would it be a better bet to repitch (are there any problems that might occur with repitching, flavor or otherwise, if the ferementation has already taken place?) OR just bottle but possibly risk having them explode if there is still an excess of sugar in the bottle. Should I possibly bottle them with a bit less priming sugar to be safe and then accept a slightly less carbonated beer if that turns out to be the case?

Suggestions, ideas, reccomendations, etc. are all welcomed.

 

[JLW]

I posted about this problem a while ago and now my options are down to 2 and I would love some advice.

I am brewing a watermelon wheat beer. The primary fermentation went great. I thawed my frozen watermelon and added it and there have been no bubbles in the airlock whatsoever for about a week now. I have tried rousing the yeast and still nothing. Its possible it is fermenting but escaping through a leaky seal, but idk. The primary fermentation bubbled in the same bucket. It is also possible that my fully thawed but still chilly watermelon shocked the yeast, again idk.

Finally, I can't really check the gravity so see if the watermelon fermented b/c the watermelon isnt really supposed to change it. I've read several articles that say that while the fruit adds sugar and therefore alcohol, it also adds water which balances it out to the orginal F.G., and to really put the nail in the coffin, I dropped and broke my hyrdometer so I wouldn't have anything to compare the gravity to even if I went out and bought one right now.

So my final question is this. Would it be a better bet to repitch (are there any problems that might occur with repitching, flavor or otherwise, if the ferementation has already taken place?) OR just bottle but possibly risk having them explode if there is still an excess of sugar in the bottle. Should I possibly bottle them with a bit less priming sugar to be safe and then accept a slightly less carbonated beer if that turns out to be the case?

Suggestions, ideas, reccomendations, etc. are all welcomed.

"You say primary fermemntation went great", what was the gravity reading you took after primary? You may very well be at terminal gravity and wouldn;t necesarily see any signs of fermentation. Additionally, it may be fermenting just at a very slow pace. The only real way to know is through hydrometer readings.

 

[eastoak]

the only thing that matters is what the gravity is now. if it's 1040-1020 then it might not be ready to bottle, if it's 1009-1014 then it might be, i don't know what your grain bill was like. when you add fruit to a finished beer i would not expect to see bubbles so that would not mean much to me. check the gravity with a hydrometer and go from there, again, it does not really matter if you don't know what the gravity was before in terms of bottling.

 

[pericles]

Adding sugars, regardless of the additional water, provides additional fermentable material for the yeast to ferment. Unless the primary fermentation took so long that the yeast died, or created a beer that was so alcoholic or acidic that the yeast died, then they're definitely going to chew through the new fructose you've added.

That said, there's VERY little sugar in watermelon, on a per-pound basis. If you aren't seeing additional signs of fermentation, that's normal.

Instead of being concerned about whether the beer has completed fermentation, I'd be more concerned about whether the watermelon flavor has really meshed with the beer. Give it two weeks, then bottle.

 

[amcclai7]

Awesome, thanks for all the suggestions! I will give it a little while and then bottle. I will of course buy a new hyrdometer between now and then and check my gravity and make sure its close to expected before I do.

I've only ever done one other fruit beer, in which, I used mangoes in the exact same way as here. It bubbled like crazy but perhaps mangoes have a much higher sugar to weight ratio. I was also using a different type of yeast.

 

[amcclai7]

(Status Update)
Thanks everyone for all the help.

I wasn't able to make it to the LBHS to replace my broken hydrometer but I gave the beer a while and decided to bottle. It tastes great! The watermelon has meshed wonderfully with the wheat and is not overpowering. Hopefully it was done fermenting and I will not have a bunch of gushers. I took the watermelon out, gave it a couple extra days, and then bottled in hopes of preventing that.