Sample at 1.030

[RopenutS]

So looks like my beer has finished fermenting and the sample I just took is 1.030. Im not too sure what the OG was to be honest. You guys reckon I should pitch another packet of yeast in or just leave it for the full 2 weeks and bottle.

Cheers
Adam

[JackoNZ]

How long has it been fermenting? That's still quite high for your average beer. What temp is it at?

[mattd2]

Also do you have the recipe, if so we could assume what the OG was most likely.

[RopenutS]

This is the 8th day of fermenting, and the second day of the sample not getting lower than 1.030. It has been sitting at a temp controlled fridge at a constant 18 degrees.

Here's the recipe too

Possible APA

Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 8.9 (EBC): 17.5
Bitterness (IBU): 50.0 (Average)

95.24% Golden Promise Malt
4.76% Crystal 80

15g 0.7 g/L Cascade (7.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
15g 0.7 g/L Amarillo (8.5% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
15g 0.7 g/L Falconers Flight (10.5% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
15g 0.7 g/L Amarillo (8.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
15g 0.7 g/L Falconers Flight (10.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
30g 1.3 g/L Amarillo (8.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 68°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Safale US-05

[JackoNZ]

Certainly sounds like something has gone wrong there. Does it taste overly sweet? 18c is great for s-05 so the temp shouldn't be an issue. You could try giving the fermenter a gentle swirl to get the yeast back into activity and increase temp to 19 or 20c. Can you see the top of the wort? Does it have any yeast activity on top? If nothing after a day then more yeast is probably worth a shot. I've never had s-05 fail on me yet even at 15c so really surprised to see this.

[Ralph]

I agree. Try warming it up a little and swirling the yeast off the bottom of the container. If this has no effect I would pitch another lot of yeast in there. I would definitely expect that beer to finish down below 1015 as long as your mash etc all went correctly.

[RopenutS]

Sweet as. I'll take a look inside. Give it a swirl and raise the temp a couple of degrees. What could you expect if the mash didn't go correctly? I mean Im pretty sure the mash went all good, but i wouldn't know....

[Ralph]

I am not 100% certain myself, but if the temperature was too high (like up closer to 75 deg) it might be possible to extract starch from the grain, and yet deactivate the enzymes that convert the starch to maltose... and so end up with a high gravity because of starch in solution that could not be fermented??

[RopenutS]

True. I had it sitting at a steady 69.5. I just had a look inside and there is some clumps of stuff floating around on top, definitly not a krausen tho. And it doesnt smell very good at all... I think im goin to biff this one. Try again this weekend

[JackoNZ]

I wouldn't biff it right away, you never know the yeast may have just dropped out a little early on you for some reason. I fermented my beers at 70-71 on the same weekend and they are both down to 1.012 so 69.5c is fine. Is your thermometer accurate though?

What does it smell like by the way?

[RopenutS]

Its got like a sharpness when you smell it, I cant acurratley describe it cos ive never smelt anything like it. Nah ive been pretty unhappy bout the whole thing. New batch this weekend I think. Hopefully no problems witht that one