Should I scrap my brew?!?!

[Brewer #51620]

I'm currently making a Pumpkin Spice porter. I'm on day 5. I don't believe I oxygenated the wort enough so I haven't had any airlock activity. Also, I haven't seen any visual fermentation. Today I took a sample to take a gravity reading and it read 1.020. This is pretty close to the recommended final GR. Could it possibly be down this fast? Also, I tasted the sample and it was on the sweet side. I hate to toss the batch if it's actually ok but it's tough for me to say. What do you think?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

the 1020 curse, look it up many people have had it including me, mine was a bad batch of dry yeast, it can happen just shake it up first or stir, if nothing happens in a couple of days re-pitch and wait another week

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Sounds like everything is going just fine. Warm it up a bit, swirl it up a lot, leaving the lid on, and give it another 10 days or so.
Brian

 

[Yeast Head]

Sounds like it's stuck. I would try to rouse it by doing what the posters above me said. If that fails, I would make starter and repitch the yeast.

 

[jmcnamara]

funnily enough, the latest issue of Zymurgy had a quick article with some uses for a scrapped batch. Composting and using it for cooking are the two that come to mind. there were 3 or 4 others
might even be a good learning experience if there's off flavors too. invite a few friends over and taste a few "bad" good beers before moving to the "good" good beers. it might help to pinpoint any errors in your process

 

[Nosybear]

Only caution: If you have reason to believe it's a stuck fermentation, don't package! It may come unstuck in the bottle or keg and you could have little grenades going off in your storage area.

Also, could you provide us the OG and the yeast used? 1.020 is not out of the question as a FG for some yeast strains, depending on where they start. If you haven't had ANY airlock activity and the FG is less than the OG, you have a leak in your system somewhere or the yeast finished up so fast you didn't notice (not unheard of). Is there a krauesen ring in the carboy or stuff stuck to the roof of it? If so, the beer fermented and you missed it.

Lately I've been using a finishing hydrometer to measure my beers as they get close. It's a tool worth the $20 or so it costs - no matter how slow, you can see the change in gravity due to the widely spaced markings. Its scale starts at 1.020 so you might not be able to use it directly but you're looking for change - if the gravity is changing, it's still fermenting.

 

[PZ]

It's only day 5! Give it more time. Next time you measure the gravity, sanitize the hydrometer and test cylinder and put the beer in a sanitized bottle covered with foil. Keep it next to the fermenter. You can test the satellite whenever you want without wasting more beer and even see if there is visible yeast activity. The satellite will tend to be a little ahead of what's in the bucket. I wouldn't do anything to the beer for another week or even two unless you think it might be too cold. In my opinion, monkeying with the beer at this point is likely to do more harm than good.

Brew on, PZ