I have a curious gallon of wort in my basement that I can't seem to ferment and was hoping someone might know why...Here's my story.
The other day I threw together a small 2 gallon batch just to use up the last of some leftover grain and hops. I did it on the fly, but I would say it was 2 row with about 5% caramunich and even less carapils. The OG was 1.043 and I hopped it with bravo and centennial to about 35 IBU's. I split it into two one gallon jugs and pitched half a pack of Nottingham into one and half a vial of San Diego super into the other, fermented at 61 degrees ambient temp (again just using up ingredients before they go bad).
About 10 days later, the Notty jug was down to 1.011 and the SDSY jug hadn't lost a point. I read those with a refractometer (correcting for alcohol presence), and confirmed with my hydrometer. The SDSY was a week short of its "best by" date, so I hoped it was just bad and tossed in a new pack of S-05 . Two more weeks down the road and still 1.043 . I gave it a good swirl and increased the temp 5 degrees just to see if I could kickstart something, but no go. All in all, it's been 6 weeks, and I even bought a brand new hydrometer to make sure I wasn't crazy ( and it still tastes like wort). I'm completely fine dumping this (I've already drank the first jug) but now I'm just curious as to why half of the batch wouldn't ferment. I know I over pitched both times, but I don't think that would cause this. Part of me just wants to try one more pitch maybe with Notty, so I can see some fermentation before I dump it (I guess I just need a win this week.)
The other day I threw together a small 2 gallon batch just to use up the last of some leftover grain and hops. I did it on the fly, but I would say it was 2 row with about 5% caramunich and even less carapils. The OG was 1.043 and I hopped it with bravo and centennial to about 35 IBU's. I split it into two one gallon jugs and pitched half a pack of Nottingham into one and half a vial of San Diego super into the other, fermented at 61 degrees ambient temp (again just using up ingredients before they go bad).
About 10 days later, the Notty jug was down to 1.011 and the SDSY jug hadn't lost a point. I read those with a refractometer (correcting for alcohol presence), and confirmed with my hydrometer. The SDSY was a week short of its "best by" date, so I hoped it was just bad and tossed in a new pack of S-05 . Two more weeks down the road and still 1.043 . I gave it a good swirl and increased the temp 5 degrees just to see if I could kickstart something, but no go. All in all, it's been 6 weeks, and I even bought a brand new hydrometer to make sure I wasn't crazy ( and it still tastes like wort). I'm completely fine dumping this (I've already drank the first jug) but now I'm just curious as to why half of the batch wouldn't ferment. I know I over pitched both times, but I don't think that would cause this. Part of me just wants to try one more pitch maybe with Notty, so I can see some fermentation before I dump it (I guess I just need a win this week.)
