Question 9

I think my draught brew has failed. There has been no activity during the fermentation ie. no bubbling through the air lock. I bottled the last lot but it is very cloudy.

The lack of activity could be for a number of reasons. We know for certain that there is not a batch wide issue with any of our products however there have been a few isolated incidents of damaged yeast, usually from exposure to high temperatures during transportation & storage prior to purchase. Please also note that whilst we have had a few isolated incidents of yeast failures we have also had a number of calls from brewers who brew solely by the activity in their airlock and are used to vigorous bubbles which often some of the products don't emulate.

 

Of those that haven't thrown out their brew before contacting us we have managed to save a number of brews simply by asking the brewers to take Specific Gravity (SG) readings, which has confirmed that there has been fermentation. 

 

In other cases brews have been saved by adding a second sachet of yeast. It is our strong recommendation that all brewers, no matter how experienced, take daily SG readings.  The most important readings are the Start SG, a reading with 24 hours to confirm fermentation has commenced and the end SGs, ensuring that the brew has finished fermentation by obtaining the same reading for a minimum of 24 hours.