Home brewing (from kit that supplied malt, yeast and hops) - stuck fermentation

Sounds like you have *way* overdone it. I've never once measured the starting - or indeed any - temperature when brewing. And never had a bad batch.

btw it's "sanitise" not sterilise. You don't need any more than a light rinse if you've followed the instructions.

One thing I do know is that beginners tend to be terribly fiddly and struggle to leave the brew without constant peeking and prodding (admittedly is is a fascinating process).

One thing that jumped out - by omission - is where are you keeping the barrel and what is the temperature profile like ? Depending on where you've located it, it can vary by 10C easily and that tends to slow fermentation down. Heating mats/belts (prefer mats) are useful to maintain a steady temperature - the yeast likes that !

Worst comes to the worst you've only wasted £10-15 on a kit.

You may wish to look at a dedicated homebrew forum.

When I say I've never had a bad batch, i have on occasion seemed to have wine not ferment completely (or so I deduced) and it was too sweet for my palate. Friends (claimed they) enjoyed it, so not a total waste. But it put me off 5 gallon kits, because that is a lot of wine if you don't like the taste. Although annoyingly you only get the really good kits in 5 gallon.

Long time since I made wine or beer, but back in those days "stuck" fermentations were a recognised thing. More with wine than beer, iirc. There must surely be lots of advice on the net? What's your background temperature? Has it slowed right down because of a cold snap?

The generic instructions for the brewing equipment (fermentation vessel, keg etc) and also the specific instructions for the beer both say "measure the SG at the start (should be about 1040, then after 5-7 days measure again; fermentation is complete when SG is down to 1015 [beer kit instructions] or

The instructions use the term "sterilise", and provide a powder containing sodium dichloroisocyanurate - a chlorine bleach/disinfectant - to be dissolved in water. And they mention sterlising and washing well after anything that comes in contact with the wort when measuring SG or (later) when siphoning beer from fermentation vessel to keg/bottles.

It's kept in an unheated north-facing room (door closed from heated part of house) which seems to be a fairly constant 18-20 degrees - I've checked 9 AM, 5 PM, and 11 PM. Outside temp has been around 15-25 degrees. Whenever I've checked temp it's been around 20 according to the LCD thermometer strip on the side of the vessel.

Sure. It's very early days and I'm still learning.

I'll check again once 7 days are up - late tomorrow (Tuesday).

I tried a couple that didn't seem too polluted by spam and had a few recent threads, but no-one has responded.

To the best of my knowledge, the temp (unheated room of house, door closed to rest of house) has been around 18-20 - certainly whenever I've checked it. No far short of temp in heated part of house - heating has not been coming on much and has generally been around 22-24 (thermostat set to 20).

Advice on web has been vigorous agitation, adding more yeast, heating up a sample of wort to a little below 25 and adding yeast to get that going, in the hope that when poured back in it will kick the rest of the wort into action again. All sounds fairly invasive, and my instinct is to do as little rather than as much as I need.

Having done it for years, I can assure you that the instructions are more for completeness than a religious text :)

If you stray into a forum you will be roundly told that it's "sanitise". "Sterilise" has a specific meaning involving autoclaves, radiation and whatever. Pedantic, perhaps. But ultimately brewing is probably the most complex biochemistry you can get involved in. Precision can't hurt.

Well, a few more days won't hurt. Did you put a lid and airlock on ? They aren't essential, but personally I love the bubbling ...

That's the spirit !!!! (No pun intended.)

The other possibility, is if you have a local home brew store (LHB in forumspeak). Sadly the two nearest me are now defunct and unlikely to be replaced. But when they were open they were invaluable for tips and that

Do you have a swizzle (degassing) stick ? Generally they're useful for driving the CO2 off after fermentation which helps clearing. But I was told you can also use them when making up the brew to ensure everything is really mixed in well.

degassing stick :)

hmmm - at the expense of flavour ...

which assumes it is a stuck fermentation ...

I hope there's a next time, and if there is I really would not be so concerned about starting temperatures, as long as they are above 18ish so as not to shock the yeast. In fact you can start a little below, as long as the ambient temperature will eventually bring it to around the 22-24 mark. Alternatively, just get a heating mat and let it do the work.

Someone else brewing it says that happened to theirs

Yes. So far I've not actually seen the airlock produce a bubble. I'd assumed that the lid was not fitting sufficiently gas-tightly that CO2 had to escape through the airlock, and was instead able to come out of the slight gap where the groove in the lid meets the bucket. I'd always thought that a lid was essential to keep out flies and any bacteria that they carry - until I saw a brewery (either Theakstons or Black Sheep - one or the other in Masham) where they fermented in open-top vessels.

The smell of beer in that room after fermentation started smelled like a Dublin pub at closing time - the lovely aroma of Guinness - but it is a lot less noticeable now, which one of the reasons why I wondered if fermentation was winding down.

Yes - a plastic rod with a flexible paddle on the end. That was essential for trying to dissolve the tar-like gloop (presumably malt) in the two large cans that were part of the beer kit. That will be why the instructions said to stand the cans in hot water for half an hour before opening (to make it less viscous) and the dissolve it in boiling water in the vessel before topping up with cold water to the 20 litre mark.

As a matter of interest, what is the best method for persuading the head on the beer to collapse in the testing cylinder so it's actually possible to read the hygrometer without the line being obscured by several mm of bubbles? They say "spin the hygrometer shaft until no more bubbles stick to it" but that assumes that there aren't loads more ready and waiting to adhere to it ;-)

Foam on top causing the hydrometer to sit too high?

From your last post a taste test may indicate that you may have a very sweet weak (2.5% ABV) beer.

The tradition would be to drop a dead rat into a vat of fermenting beer ? when the rat had completely dissolved, fermentation was complete. A dead mouse may be better suited to quantity of beer that ten OP is brewing :)

Hmm. It's possible. I do have great difficulty getting rid of enough foam to be able to *see* the meniscus and the scale, but I wait until almost all the bubbles have burst. Maybe I'll wait longer until I can't see any bubbles, if they might be affecting the SG reading.

In a taste test, I can't detect *any* alcohol :-( I wasn't sure how much alcohol is produced in secondary fermentation in the keg. I presume the reason that sugar (half teaspoon per pint) is added to the keg is because it ferments to alcohol. Goodness know where I'm going to find *anywhere* that is a "cool place" (defined by the company that sold me the equipment as "15 deg or below") for the 14 days that the keg must stand after the initial 2 days in a "warm place" (20-25 degrees: easy to find).

The kit claims 4.7% ABV.

Drop of earwax ?

NY explained :

It could be the sterilising solution stopped it, I use one which doesn't affect the yeast. If it has stalled, no harm in stirring it up and praying it restarts.

I had one fail earlier in the year, a five gallon of red wine. Nothing I did got it going and it just developed green mold on top. As soon as I saw that, I just chucked it out and scrubbed.

Jethro_uk has brought this to us :

I use a gadget which reports the SG, temperature etc. via wifi, which floats in the barrel, an iSpindel.

In winter I use a heating panel which the FV sits on, contolled by a temperature sensor stuck on the side of the FV.

AS I said, you can go OTT :)

I just put the FV on a mat and that is that. Never had a problem.

A lot of the twiddles are around delivering a consistent taste over time which is important commercially. But really the tiny nuances from brew to brew are one reason why DIYing it is so much fun.

just my 2d worth. fermentation stops when sugar runs out and/or yeast dies. Usually yeast dies because its poisoned itself with alcohol. But other micro organisms may compete with and kill it.

I like cold light beers, so bottled with a tsp sugar for secondary fermentation.

Calories ...