Slow fermentation or there isn’t. Help me plz

[IslandLizard]

The OP, @Mohy, approached me in a conversation about reading his refractometer and wondered whether his batch of beer had finished (or not) and what the alcohol percentage of the beer was. With his consent, I'm posting my answer, for others to see:

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[...] my OG was 1.043.

Enter your OG number (1.043) into the first field of the Brewer's Friend calculator.
Use the drop down toward the right, to select SG, not Brix, as shown in the picture below.

After 14 days of fermenting, I opened the lid if the carboy and checked my FG by using my refractometer, and it showed 1.019 as an FG

The uncorrected "FG" as it shows on your refractometer is 1.019 (= 4.8 Brix).*
Enter this "FG" number into the second field of the calculator. Must be entered as the Brix value (not SG).

As such, (entries highlighted in yellow):

From the calculator, your real FG is 1.005 and your Alcohol (by volume), or ABV, is 5.1% (highlighted in green).
This FG could be verified with a hydrometer.

In conclusion, your beer should be done:

• 1.005 is low enough for it to be done
• It's been 14 days of fermentation, and quite warm at that. Long enough for it to be done

Normally you would take a 2nd reading, 3 days later, to see if gravity has dropped any more. If no change, then it's ready to bottle.
I would doubt it's going to drop anymore, so I would bottle it.

* BTW, you can read the Brix value directly on your refractometer, the Brix scale is on the left, SG scale on the right.
Or use an SG to Brix converter, such as this one:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/brix-converter/

 

[Mohy]

The OP, @Mohy, approached me in a conversation about reading his refractometer and wondered whether his batch of beer had finished (or not) and what the alcohol percentage of the beer was. With his consent, I'm posting my answer, for others to see:

---

Enter your OG number (1.043) into the first field of the Brewer's Friend calculator.
Use the drop down toward the right, to select SG, not Brix, as shown in the picture below.


The uncorrected "FG" as it shows on your refractometer is 1.019 (= 4.8 Brix).*
Enter this "FG" number into the second field of the calculator. Must be entered as the Brix value (not SG).

As such, (entries highlighted in yellow):
View attachment 773655

From the calculator, your real FG is 1.005 and your Alcohol (by volume), or ABV, is 5.1% (highlighted in green).
This FG could be verified with a hydrometer.

In conclusion, your beer should be done:

• 1.005 is low enough for it to be done
• It's been 14 days of fermentation, and quite warm at that. Long enough for it to be done

Normally you would take a 2nd reading, 3 days later, to see if gravity has dropped any more. If no change, then it's ready to bottle.
I would doubt it's going to drop anymore, so I would bottle it.

* BTW, you can read the Brix value directly on your refractometer, the Brix scale is on the left, SG scale on the right.
Or use an SG to Brix converter, such as this one:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/brix-converter/

Exactly.

I checked after 14 days by using a refractometer and the reading was 1.019.

I was worried that the fermentation has not finished, and needed to buy hydrometer ASAP to know where I was at.

But it turned out that I was doing well and still I can know my FG by using a refractometer.

Thank you very much IslandLizard for your helpful information about how to check your FG by using refractometer.

 

[Toxxyc]

Well, I believe i did it very well. Took the 6 row barley form the bakery and followed the instructions on youtube from cleaning, moistening, drying, cleaning again then roasting.

I live in Between Egypt and Iran, my country is the big one I suggest you check it on the map

It’s very helpful to have you ppl around helping me and my poor nice friends that deserve a beer in every weekend, and specially if each of us has been super respected and responsible to his 4 wives during the weekdays, then he must has a beer by me as a reward

I'd love to see pictures of this. Also, roasting can easily kill enzymes, so keep that in mind!