Beer has gone to sleep!

mozza

Hi all, I've had a simply lager kit brewing for ten days. It's be next to my radiator and has maintained 22 degrees throughout. But for the past 3 or 4 days the gravity has stopped changing at 1.020. My original gravity was 1.040 so no problems there. I had a peek inside and there is some yeast activity. I have given it a couple of stirs to try and speed up the yeast but today it's still the same. Is this common, and should I just wait and see or should I add some new yeast? Any thoughts would be appreciated, Cheers, Sam

marko

Hi mozza,

Is there still foam on the top? what kind of activity is it?

1.020 isnt to bad. It is common that its hard to achieve the reading in the instructions, sometimes it just won't go any lower. As long as its a consistent reading over a couple of days it should be ok to bottle.

mozza

Hi marko,

There is loads of foam/ crusted foam on the surface and you have to move it out of the way to see the beer. There are signs of fermentation (the typical little bubbles) but the readings are not changing. I'll take another reading in a minute...

mozza

pretty much the same again, but it may have dropped to 1.018. Could just be the way I'm looking at the hydrometer though!

marko

Sounds like its just taking its time, which is a good thing. In my opinion i think its better to keep it a the lower end of temperature range and let it ferment slowly, my best batches have been the slow fermenting ones. Let us know how you get on.

mozza

That's good to hear mate, thanks for the help! Ill let you know in a few days how she's getting on!

mozza

1.014 this morning, very relieved that its woken up as its for my dad this batch! It's now around 3.5% roughly and it's still fermenting so I'm hoping after another couple of days it will hit the 4% mark and I can keg it. Must say I've never had a kit take this long to primary ferment before!

mozza

1.010 today and still it's fermenting... Surely she's gonna stop soon! It's been 15 days!

HBO_Staff

Can't be far off now and it is getting nice and low, it should be producing a great lager!

mozza

Transferred it to the keg on Friday. Stayed at 4% which is a nice strength. Ill review the kit in a couple months once its ready!