Is my brew sha@@ed?

[MartialAnt]

I made an extract brew. done loads wrong due to making it by Art of brewing and can instructions. Ive made a tom caxtons real ale. It bubbled for 36 hours'ish then stopped. Since freaking out ive read this site like a bible basher would the big book and tried to help it re-start.

This is what i did.

Can of toms mixed into 3 litres of boiling water in FV.
Disolved 1kg of dark malt extract in boiling water to avoid lumps.
Added that.
Topped it up to 30 pints not 40 with cold water.
Added 1 FULL CAMPDEN TABLET. I know now not to listen to AOB
Attached my paddle to my cordless drill. Went chicken oriental on it, then let the kids have a go. Its the dogs bollox!!!

Whilst waiting the 10 mins for the campden to do its work i reyhdrated the yeast (but not the way Jim explains).
I just mixed the dried yeast in some 25c water till it had disolved.

Temp was correct.
OG 1050
I added the yeast and left it giving it a little stir by hand (paddle).
Job done.

36 hours later, flat as a fart. Gravity 1020.

Now all what ive read and slightly different stuff is a lot to take in whilst panicing so i added a new sachet of wetted up yeast (my daft way of rehydrating it) and also 250g of beer enhancer (how many of you are laughing?) Still nothing.

All the time the brew has been fermenting it has been at 20c.

Then yesterday i bought some Youngs u brew yeast nutrient. The man in the shop told me its the same stuff for beer and wine.
Was he right? Do i go and tip 30 pints of fooked up ale over him?

Anyway i know the tip on this site is a level tea spoon but i put in what the tub said 1 level per gallon. Oh god i over did it!!!

It has a sweet smell to it now. Is that good or bad?
Its roughly 4% as it is so should i keg it and not tell anyone hoping they'll all get pissed at my party. Or do i tip it incase i have to go out and buy a load of andrex for them all?

Please help!

Ps
Im new to this and this batch is only my third.

[tomU]

I'm pretty novice too but it strikes me that 36hrs is a bit soon to know that you have stuck fermentation. Presumably fermentation will slow down if you've got down to 1020. How long has it been at 1020 for?

[MartialAnt]

its been stuck at 1020 since monday afternoon. 3 days with no movement.

Its wierd, the last lot i made bubbled for days constantly. i lost pints from the amount of errupting it it.

[PMH0810]

I too initially followed AoB's capden tab advice (b'stards). Although absolutely wrong all I tell tell happened is thre's a slight chemical aftertaste to the brew and a loss of flavour.

Since my first two brews I've moved to using mineral water (only have one fv at the mo). When I.ve cobbled together my mashtun coolbox I may pretreat my water but will probably stick with mineral - only adds £3 to the brew and provides 5ltr bottles for Turbo Cider (You'll learn what that is - trust me!).

[delboy]

You need to treat water with campden before it comes into contact with the extract, thats when the chemical reaction happens between the chlorine/chloroamines and compounds in the extract.

Hopefully you haven't added to much nutrient (beer doesn't need as much as wine since it already has a lot of the nutrients present unlike wine) and it'll taste ok

[MightyMouth]

Nothing wrong with using 1 FULL CAMPDEN TABLET as long as, like Delboy said, You add it to the water before making up the kit not after.