HELP PLEASE

[Patrick]

I have a major problem, I just unscrewed the lid of the amber ale I was going to rack to secondary, and it is infected. Smells like vinegar and has a couple of blobs of mould on the surface.

 

The problem is, I am in the middle of a brew (starting boil now) and I now have no yeast cake to pitch onto, and no yeast in the fridge.

 

What should I do? After the chill, if I put it in a sanitized fermenter will it be OK with no yeast till tomorrow after work?

 

[Patrick]

Thanks for all the info mate - it is only a 15L batch - will two packets be ok? I have already started the chill so it will be going in to the fermenter cold. It is however a brand-new fermenter and it is currently sitting with 5L of starsan solution in it and I am swishing it around every few minutes to recoat the interior. I have invested in an electric blanket which is working well to keep the fermenter at 22 degrees pretty steadily - that should take car of any cold weather issues. We are also moving house in a months time, the new place has a wicked garage with loads of work surfaces and an office to ferment in. Should I keep the fermenter with the yeast-free wort in the garage where it will drop to around 16 overnight, or let it into the house to stay at 24ish?

[Soren]

hmmm, probably wont matter too much. If you keep it warmer, the yeast will kick in faster but so would any bacteria but it sounds like the fermenter it plenty clean. 24 is a bit high though, so in that scenario I would probably pitch at 16 and then start heating it. I would try to keep it at 20 though. 2 packets should be plenty if it's only 15 liters.

[Patrick]

Well the gravity has not changed at all on the amber - 3 weeks after racking to secondary.

Thinking about ditching it, as I am moving house on the weekend.

The stout has settled at 1042 (from 1086) and has not changed for the last two weeks.

The stout tastes good so I am going to take it with me to the new house - the amber tastes a bit soapy or something so I will probably tip it out, also it is in a nearly-full bucket coverd in only gladwrap, so the chances of it (or the car upholstery) surviving a 5km car ride are slim-to-none anyway.

[Nick T]

How are you measuring the gravity? A couple of times recently I have thought that I had a brew finish too high, only to realise that I had forgotten to adjust my refractometer reading against the original gravity......

[Patrick]

Just a test tube and a hydrometer mate - haven't got the flash toys yet!

[Reviled]

Mate dont tip the amber, at least I wouldnt.. It seems like it has either stalled or stopped, so I would go ahead and bottle it in PET as opposed to throwing it out...

What temps are you mashing at? What thermometer are you using? Digital or glass? Are your batteries fresh? The stout stopping at 1042 for 2 weeks is a bit of a worry...

Last winter I was having underattenuation issues also, had a few beers finish at 1030 and just couldnt get them any lower, even with US-05 and it was really bugging me, but TBH the beers still tasted pretty good in fact one, an American Brown that finished at 1035 was IMO fkin awesome and got polished off within a week! It didnt even feel syrupy which was really wierd...

But seriously, dont tip it, you could be throwing out something awesome!

[Patrick]

I guess I could bottle it in PET - will have to buy some PET bottles.

Pretty annoying having two in a row not behaving themselves. Both were mashed at 68, using a glass and a digital thermometer. Looking forward to brewing a couple of quick ales as soon as we are in the new place, just to get the stocks back up. Down to my last dozen!

[Reviled]

Yeah mate, its probably worth it to shell out a bit on some PET bottles. And who knows, the beer could turn out amazing, and if it doesnt you still have some PET's which you can use for upcoming case swaps ;o)

Id say youre having issues due to a combination of mashing too high and temperature drops overnight, weve been having some pretty cold snaps lately which could easily make the yeast drop out...

[studio1]

It should be sweet if your sanitation is good - have done this a few times. How have you found the citrox? I've got a bottle here, but scared to ween off Starsan haha.

- and yeah - I always have a few packs of S05 handy for this sort of thing.

[Patrick]

Citrox has always been sweet as. It doesn't go as far as starsan - a bottle only lasts me about 3 batches. The thing I don't like about starsan is all the bubbles - it looks like youve used sunlight or something! Citrox doesn't leave any bubbles which is nice.

[JR]

Add the starsan to the water not water to the starsan to prevent foaming.

[Reviled]

I do what JR does and dont get a hell of alot of foam, just a lil, and I reckon its harmless, you smell it and it has a similair smell to cracking a can of coke...

Gutted about the Amber Patrick, I reckon still leave it and see what happens, beer can sometimes smell quite funny before its conditioned, also if you fermented rather cold you might have some funny phenols going on that may smooth out over a few months... All is not lost yet, hopefully...