Brew stopped fermenting.

Hic

I made a batch of John Bull Lager with Coopers enhancer no 1 laster Saturday. The OG was 1038. I noticed on Tuesday evening that it appeared to have stopped fermenting so I took a reading which was 1016. I check again on Wednesday and there was no change, still 1016. I decided to give it a gentle stir to see if I could get it going again, I tried not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. Took another reading this morning and it is still at 1016. Is there anything I can do to get it moving again? Alternatively is it OK to bottle like this or should I just cut my losses and throw it away?

thanks.

HBO_Staff

It does still sound a little high, depending on what volume you made it to, give it a stir and leave it somewhere warm, ideally 20 degrees C or a few degrees more to help the yeast and give it a few more days to see if it will drop any lower. The warmer temperature is a big help if it is cooler at the moment. With it being bottled it is a good idea to be certain it has stopped to be sure it doesn't build up too much pressure in the bottles, let us know how you get on

Hic

Thanks for your reply.

When you say give it a stir, should I stir up the sediment at the bottom?  It has generally been around 19-20 degrees C so I may turn on he heater tray and get it a little higher.

thanks again. 

HBO_Staff

We would give it a good stir, don't worry the sediment will settle again, and if you could add some more heat that would be good and help it, let us know how it goes

Hic

Just to update.

Despite all my efforts I never got the FG to go below 1016.  I bottled it up and will see how it tastes in a few weeks.

Interestingly, last week I made another batch of John Bull Lager with Coopers enhancer no 1, so the same recipe, guess what, OG 1038 and now it has stopped fermenting again at 1016.  I did use Coopers enhancer no 1 once in the past and that time the brew finished higher than expected at 1010.   Cant be a coincidence?

HBO_Staff

Cheers for the update, it does sound like you have repeat of a similar thing there, with brew enhancer it does dissolve easily, perhaps the non-fermentable sugars are keeping it a little higher than if you'd used say brewing sugar, it would be interesting to know the results with brewing sugar rather than enhancer. In these situations when the brew just wont go any lower and the temperature etc, has been right, you just have to move on to bottling and it will turn out well as it is pretty low, sometimes they just wont reduce the reading down, the priming sugar will dissolve and secondary ferment which will also increase the alcohol content a bit more too 

Hic

I have yet to bottle the second batch, would there be any benefit in say adding 0.5kg of brewing sugar to it and giving it a mix and leaving it for another couple of days.  Would this ruin it?  It's just that the ABV will be quite low otherwise.

HBO_Staff

If you want to increase the strength, adding some more sugar will do it, it may make it slightly sweeter if you add too much, but then leave it to ferment out and finish before bottling. Ideally keep it warm to ensure it ferments fairly quickly, and give it a stir to re-suspend the yeast and get it working on the sugars

Hic

Great, thank very much for the advice.