Is my beer dead?

[Chris The Fish]

I brough the Youngs Barley Wine kit, in the absence of a stout kit (which went down wonderfully) but now im beginning to regret it.

Day 1, made the brew as per instructions, with spray malt and yeast nutrient and all was good. Gravity 1058

Day 2, Gravity 1030, blimey!

Day 3, Gravity 1030
Day 4, Gravity 1030
Day 5, Gravity 1030 - Ok, its stir time!
Day 6, Gravity 1030 no change - arse.
Day 7, Gravity 1030 - pitched in 11g of Nottingham yeast and another stir.
Day 8, Gravity 1030 - Sweet jesus, has someone killed my brew? More yeast nutrient and another stir.

Tomorrow is day 9, do i feed it to the porcelain monster or persevere?

[prodigal2]

Its clutching at straws but it may be worth checking your hydrometer is calibrated correctly. it should read 1,000 at 20C in water. Worth a try.

And as DaaB suggested taste it and perhaps lay it down for a couple of weeks then transfer to a secondry.

Or try a champagne yeast which will be more tollerant of some the fermantables the ale yeast wont munch through. Quite a few breweries are using champagne yeast on beers at the moment, as they give a dryer feel to the beer(well thats the marketing BS anyhow)

All depends if it tastes off

[Seveneer]

What's the temperature of the fermenting beer? And also of the sample you're measuring?

Seems odd that it just sits at 1.030. If you OG was higher, say 1.100, you might not expect the gravity to get much below 1.030 but for a 1.058 beer 1.030 seems very high for it to stick.

If I were you I'd check the temperatures and your hydrometer calibration. If you really do have an FG of 1.030 then I'd try what DaaB suggests.

Are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer?

/Phil.

[Chris The Fish]

Thanks for the suggestions, ive checked the hydrometer and it reads 1000 in water so its not on the blink.

What i plan to do is take a sample out of the bucket and test that, the hydrometer readings have been taken from within the wort itself as there has been little head from the word go but good activity between days 1 to 2 in the slight chance that it will be different.

then if it still reads 1030 ill drink the sample and make an informed decision - if it tastes ok, ill prime 6 2l PET bottles and whack it in them (keeps my glass bottles free for my ambiorix!) and if in a few weeks its drinkable then all the better - if not, then its going to be chalked up as experience and move on.

cheers all.

chris

[Garth]

hey Chris, look on the bright side, it's still beer, albeit a 3.7% beer, just means you can drink loads more of it before you fall over. just the problem of it possibly tasting sickly sweet.

could it be the bubbles of fermentation holding the hydro up and giving a false reading?

[Chris The Fish]

well, i tested the gravity in a sample jar and it still reads 1030, after that i had a little slurp - it tasted like flat beer! not sweet at all so i guess all i need to do then is slap it in some bottles with a little glucose and see what happens.

cheers for the feedback and advice, i hope the next lot is more successful!

chris


btw seveneer. the beer is fermenting at 18-22 deg c, and im testing using a hydrometer.