I racked my first beer to secondary today. The OG was 1.052. I checked gravity after one week it was 1.024. I let it go another week in primary thinking it’d come down at least a few points but today before racking a took another reading and it was still 1.024.
I used dry danstar winsor ale yeast. maintained temp 66-68 the whole 2 weeks. Im bummed the alcohol will only be around 3.7 % But on the plus the sample tastes/smells good so im guessing its not due to infection.
Just wondering if anyone knows why this happened or what i should do for next time.
An infection would have the exact opposite effect and would take more time to appear. Post the recipe (or kit) and maybe we can better help with an answer. My first instinct would be to say it’s an extract recipe with a lot of unfermentables, but I’m just speculating.
I’d guess the same. I had trouble getting beers using extract to attenuate fully, seemed darker LME was particularly difficult. Even when I knew I was pitching plenty of yeast and aerating well they didn’t seem to get as low as I might have hoped. Beer tasted fine though so I stopped worrying about it. :cheers:
Got temps down to pitching temps with Wort chiller. siphoned to carboy then rocked the carboy around for a while for maybe 2-3 minues total shaking with a few breaks in between.
Dry yeast is fairly foolproof, and with extract you don’t have any mash fermentability issue, so my guess is that 2-3 minutes of shaking with a full wort boil just isn’t enough aeration. When I do a partial boil and pour through a sanitized strainer, and then top off with a spray hose. When I do a full wort boil I use Oxygen.
I’d recommend as an easy solution (props to Denny for this one) a “mix-stir” which you hook up to a cordless drill to aerate in the future.
I’ve brewed this beer three times once in extract and twice in AG the SG on all three were from 1.050 to 1.055 all three finish at 1.019 and I hit them with a 2L starters.
I’ve had a few stall out after transferring to secondary. try rousing the yeast or adding a small amount of corn sugar (like a priming solution) to re-start the fermentation.
You said “stall out after transfering” I was under the impression that fermentation was over and none would happed during secondary. I took two gravity readings one after a week and one after two weeks in primary and they were both 1.024 so i figured thats all that it would be and transfered… Do i have this wrong?
You said “stall out after transfering” I was under the impression that fermentation was over and none would happed during secondary. I took two gravity readings one after a week and one after two weeks in primary and they were both 1.024 so i figured thats all that it would be and transfered… Do i have this wrong?[/quote]
if that’s what it stopped fermenting at, then it’s done. you got that right. a real secondary is a secondary fermentation. transferring to clarify or age is a bulk age. you might want to check your hydrometer. most are calibrated at 60 F. if you feel that gravity is too high at the end of primary, try rousing the yeast by gently rocking the carboy. also, review your pitch rates & aeration techniques. I hope that helps!
