Day 7 flat sample at 1020???

[Perun]

I’ve got a Coopers Wheat Kit on the go for 8 days and I made it with 1kg DME Extra Dark and 150g chocolate malt steeped at 65c for 30mins (cause I wanted it dark). I’ve not added any other sugars.

It had a decent high krausen over night which subsided in the morning and left an impressive trail ring. I am planning to leave in FV for 14 days minimum as this has worked before and is normally advised on the forum.

This is the first time I used just DME and no other fermentable sugars. OG was 1046 but I am wondering if DME alone together with steeped dark grains would impart some sugars not to the yeasts liking and thus finish with a higher FG. I did a hydrometer test on day 7, just to see how its progressing and it showed 1020. I tasted the sample and it is very flat and very mild tasting but malty if I may put it that way. My last two brews always had a bit of fizzz even after two weeks.

I am thinking to leave it for another week before checking again but am in two minds about gentle rousing with a sanitised spoon. Last week has been rather cold and even though my FV is wrapped up in a sleeping bag and resting on a Virgin Airways blanket the house temp has been known to drop to 12-13c at night or while at work. Its standard Coopers Ale yeast. My last two brews made it fine through January freeze.

Regards

Perun

[rootsbrew]

Don't worry if it's not fizzy at the moment. When you add a the priming sugar, just account for how much CO2 there is in the beer on bottling day. As for the current SG, it would be good if it fell to 1.010 but if it's hardly dropped in 3 or 4 days, guess that's where you're at! Both dark and chocolate malt will raise the SG, so expect the final SG to be higher than for gold or red beer. If you rouse it, you'll end up with extra yeast in the bottles - if not some sugars might go unfermented... you decide! Just thought - have you checked the pH? When I made a dark wheaty, I didn't add any CaCO3 so it became very acidic, which slowed the speed the yeast acted.

[Perun]

@rootsbrew - my last two brews were FG1010 and 1012, but had much less malt extract and more fermentable sugars. I am leaving the FV until day 12-14 before I check again. Not too worriied at the moment. Thanks

[Perun]

I bootled my brew last night after 15 days in FV. After callibrating my hydrometer it was showing 1.004 instead 1.000 in water with similar temperature. This would mean my beer was sitting for more than a week on 1.016 instead of 1.020. I am rather happy with it as i did not use any sugars other than DME Dark (which I believe has more residual sugar than DME Light) and have read about the "1.020 curse of extract brewing".

Thanks