Hi everyone. I'm having trouble with high SG. IE, it won't come down. The brew has been in for 25 days now at an average temp of 26 degree c, the water trap has stopped bubbling and it won't decrease in SG. In fact I think it has risen!!
It is and kit brew and instead of brew sugar I use liquid malt.
Any tips? Do I put more yeast in?
Cheers GregWA Perth West Oz.
On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 20:34:17 +0800, "GregWA" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:
for 25 days now at an average temp of 26 degree c, the water trap has stopped bubbling and it won't decrease in SG. In fact I think it has risen!!
First - set Outlook Express for a line length of about 70, so everyone can read your posts.
Second - turn off HTML. This is a text news group. HTML does funny things to some news readers.
Now, then:
You want the temperature of the wort (brew) to be closer to 20 degrees, but the higher temperature shouldn't stop fermentation.
What kind of beer are you making? Lager? Ale? Dark? Light? These things have an effect on what should be happening.
What was the SG before fermentation started? What is it now?
What kind of kit? Make? Liquid or dry malt? Hops or hopped liquid malt? Liquid or dry yeast?
What was your procedure? What did you sanitize and how did you sanitize it? Did you do a full boil or did you do a partial boil and add cold water? List it one step at a time. You may have done something wrong.
Using sugar just thins the beer out - it just raises the alcohol level. Using malt will make a beer "fuller", and probably (depending on the malt) more flavorful.
Possibly. There are a number of possibilities. If it's stuck, just agitating it could get it started again. Or it might be infected. Or the yeast might have been too old. Or probably a number of things I'm not thinking of.
Answer the above questions and I'm sure I or someone else will have some suggestions.
Probably your problem is using malt instead of sugar. Many extracts are high in unfermentable dextrins and pretty much require the use of sugar, since it's 100% fermentable and thins out the body. Don't fall for the old myth to always repalce the sugar with malt. Up to about 20% of your fermentables, sugar will havae no negative effects and may even be beneficialt. It depends a lot on the praticular nbrand of malt extract that you use. For instance, if you use John Bull or Laaglander, use of sugar is pretty much required.
--------->Denny
But many brands of extract are so high in unfermentables that you have to use suagr...the extarcts are formulated for it.
I think it's an unfermentable wort and no amount of extra yeast will help. It is what it is at this point.
------->Denny
What is the SG? It might not get any lower than 1.018 or so if it is all extract. Extract contains varying degrees of unfermentable sugars. For a medium to high original gravity beer, a final SG of 1.018 won't hurt anything, it will just be more filling and a tad bit on the sweet side. If you need the SG to go lower (e.g., for a low-calorie pilsner), then add one or two Beano tablets. Beano is an enzyme tablet that people usually take when they have gas, but it also works to break down sugars in beer, believe it or not. You should be able to find Beano or something similar at your local drug store.
Good luck!
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