What went wrong? FG: 1.012 - 1.014...

[mikefranciotti]

But I just did a gravity reading after 4 weeks in the primary & it's reading 1.20!

I forgot to take an OG reading which pisses me off but what the hell happened? This batch may have sucked a little bit of vodka in it but after 4 weeks, I was about ready to bottle.

Do I hold off a week or so and check gravity then? Unfortunately I have no idea what I started at. All I know is I took a sniff of the bucket and it burned my nose...

True Brew kit, Nut Brown Ale.
Beginning Gavity: 1.049 - 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.012 - 1.014
HBU's: 12.1

This is/was my third batch, and the first two came out great.

 

[Aleforge]

What yeast strain did you use?

 

[McKBrew]

Possibly a stuck fermentation.

What type of yeast did you use and did you make a starter?

 

[brewmasterpa]

1.20 on your hydrometer???? are you making a utopia clone??? i think you read that wrong. you sure it didnt read 1.020?? if you only attenuated down 55-60%, either thats all your yeasties were hungry for, or you got old yeast that had low viability. its too late to repitch, i would let it go in the primary for another 7 days, but give it a light swirl first. do not shake, just swirl. then go to the secondary for 7 days and take another reading. you should be fine.

 

[mikefranciotti]

It's a True Brew extract kit. It came with Munton's ale yeast, I did not make a starter.

Edit, wow I feel like an idiot... I just looked at the hydrometer again and i misread. It's at 1.02.

Now it's still higher than it's supposed to be AND it smells extremely strong. I'll rack to secondary now, let it sit for a few more days, check the gravity and if unchanged, I'll bottle.

 

[McKBrew]

It's high, but sometimes extract beers finish that way. Other than one occasion, I don't think any of my extract brewers ever finished below 1.016.

I've bottled at 1.020 before when the FG didn't change for a few days.

 

[mikefranciotti]

I'm going to give it a few days. The beer smells so strong it literally burned my nostrils... I was really looking forward to this one so I'll ride it out and see what happens.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

The smell is likely your first big whiff of carbon dioxide. It has a singing feeling and wierd smell. It is covering your beer and is a good thing.

 

[mikefranciotti]

good point! Maybe I'll just bottle tonight then...

 

[IrregularPulse]

1020 is a common curse especailly with extract batches from what I've gathered from this site. i wouldn't call it a problem. If this starts to become the norm look into yeast starters, your fermentation temps and what yeast your using.

 

[brewmasterpa]

you really shouldnt make a starter with dry yeast though as you can actually harm viability that way. starters with liquid yeast are almost a necessity. i think youre probably ok with what youve got though.