Very slow Ginger beer

[Aussiekraut]

Sorry, not beer but nevertheless a brew.

I bought a ginger beer kit from the LHBS, one of their own in-house kits. It was supposed to be brewed to 20l and as is would have given me an ABV of 3.5.  It came with 2 packs of yeast and the fella said to add more dextrose if I wanted it stronger. So I slapped another kg of dex into it. I fermented it at 25C as the guy told me and let it sit there. There was a minute layer of Krausen on it after about 2 days but by day 4 it was all gone and after a week, SG had barely moved. It started off at 1.048 and after 2 weeks, it was at something like 1.043, so it had barely moved. I added a pack of US-05, thinking it may have stalled. The SG did drop slowly but it was all very slow. After 6 weeks or so, it is now down to 1.000 but I tasted it just then and it is still pretty sweet and I expected it to be rather dry by now. I am going away for 6 weeks in a little over 2 weeks and need this to be finished. Any idea how low this might go? Is it safe to bottle (in PETS bottles) now, despite the residual sweetness? I can leave it for another week maybe but then I must bottle it, so I can get some fizz into the bugger. It'll probably take weeks to carb up anyway as slow as it was so far.

Whaddaya reckon? And what might have caused it to be so slow, despite the fairly high temperature? I've never seen anything like it. I made a batch of Merlot not too long ago and that was done and dusted in 4 weeks, despite all the extra effort that needs to go into it.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

@Aussiekraut the ginger beer kits usually are sweet tasting. I remember you mentioned this a while ago when was wondering what yeast to add. 

I reckon you would be right with that gravity they finish low because have no body like a beer.  If you have the PET bottles I reckon go for it.

You have put so much time into it already why not bottle. Hope when you get back from travels and taste one it's nice.

[Coopers DIY Beer Team]

17 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Sorry, not beer but nevertheless a brew.

I bought a ginger beer kit from the LHBS, one of their own in-house kits. It was supposed to be brewed to 20l and as is would have given me an ABV of 3.5.  It came with 2 packs of yeast and the fella said to add more dextrose if I wanted it stronger. So I slapped another kg of dex into it. I fermented it at 25C as the guy told me and let it sit there. There was a minute layer of Krausen on it after about 2 days but by day 4 it was all gone and after a week, SG had barely moved. It started off at 1.048 and after 2 weeks, it was at something like 1.043, so it had barely moved. I added a pack of US-05, thinking it may have stalled. The SG did drop slowly but it was all very slow. After 6 weeks or so, it is now down to 1.000 but I tasted it just then and it is still pretty sweet and I expected it to be rather dry by now. I am going away for 6 weeks in a little over 2 weeks and need this to be finished. Any idea how low this might go? Is it safe to bottle (in PETS bottles) now, despite the residual sweetness? I can leave it for another week maybe but then I must bottle it, so I can get some fizz into the bugger. It'll probably take weeks to carb up anyway as slow as it was so far.

Whaddaya reckon? And what might have caused it to be so slow, despite the fairly high temperature? I've never seen anything like it. I made a batch of Merlot not too long ago and that was done and dusted in 4 weeks, despite all the extra effort that needs to go into it.

Do you know if there was any malt extract in the kit? Two sachets of yeast is a bit ott - one of the sachets wasn't a nutrient was it? Or maybe one of the sachets was supposed to be yeast nutrient and they gave you two yeast sachets by mistake. That could explain the sluggish ferment. I'd bottle into PET before going away Aussie.; the brew isn't going to attenuate much further, and certainly not enough to cause PET's to fail. Cheers, Frank.