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- Jul 18, 2019
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I bought one of those 5 gallon starter kits about 3 years ago and never got around to opening it until a few weeks ago. The ingredients supplied for a pale ale (1 lb crushed grain, 6 lbs LME, 1 oz hop pellets, 11g yeast packet) were clearly old, but I thought I'd give it a shot and brew a batch anyways to try it out; nothing was visibly or noticeably spoiled. I followed the recipe and steps very close, monitored my boil temp, cooled the wort with a wort chiller to ~70°F and aerated with a large whisk for several minutes before pitching yeast, and sanitized everything with Star San. Ambient temp in my basement where I put the bucket ranges from 66°-70°F, which seems to be ideal for fermentation based on the directions. I never noticed any consistent activity in the S-shaped airlock, other than the water being "pushed" unevenly toward the exterior vent side for several days, which means there was probably at least some fermentation going on. I popped it open after 1 week for a gravity reading and there was definitely some signs of krausen around the edges, but it had completely subsided after only 1 week (is that normal?). Gravity readings below:
OG: 1.035 (recipe said OG should be somewhere around 1.040-1.044, with a target gravity of 1.010-1.014).
Gravity @ 1 week: 1.020 (good sign, right?! It means that it is, in fact, fermenting?)
Gravity @ 2.5 weeks: 1.018 (definitely slowed down, and quite a ways from target for a 3 week fermentation)
I'm going to take another gravity reading at 3 weeks (which is in 2-3 days) to see what, if any, progress it has made, but I'm I'm not confident it's going anywhere.
My questions:
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
OG: 1.035 (recipe said OG should be somewhere around 1.040-1.044, with a target gravity of 1.010-1.014).
Gravity @ 1 week: 1.020 (good sign, right?! It means that it is, in fact, fermenting?)
Gravity @ 2.5 weeks: 1.018 (definitely slowed down, and quite a ways from target for a 3 week fermentation)
I'm going to take another gravity reading at 3 weeks (which is in 2-3 days) to see what, if any, progress it has made, but I'm I'm not confident it's going anywhere.
My questions:
- Was I doomed from the start using old ingredients? Particularly the yeast?
- At this point, is re-pitching with fresh yeast out of the question?
- Once fermentation has clearly stalled based on the gravity readings, should I bottle it anyways, even if it hasn't hit the target gravity? Are there any consequences to priming and bottling beer that hasn't completely fermented?
- Should I just cut my losses and scrap the batch?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!