Stuck fermentation?

[randomusername]

Pardon my ignorance as it's my first time brewing and my first time posting on this board!

Right, so I've purchased all the equipment and made my first brew. I sanitised everything with VWP and made sure everything was incredibly clean and organised. The beer I chose to brew was the Canadian Blonde by Cooper's. All seemed fine, I followed protocol and my beer was brewing at about 26 celcius. It's very slowly crept to about 23 celcius but I don't think that would've been a huge issue?

Anyway, the slightly worrying issue is that i've had no action from the airlock at all and I started it 10 days ago. Now i've read extensively about brewing in the past few weeks as I do with any new idea that I have. I've read hundreds of pages of forum topics and how-to guides so I should know the answers to the questions but alas, I'll feel more at ease once some has directly addressed my issue.

The initial reading was 1.042 which is about right, of course the guide says leave it in the fermenter for 6 days or whatever but from what I've read it doesn't hurt to leave it longer so I was planning to leave it for a full fortnight before I began the task of bottling. I used Cooper's Brew Enhancer 1 in this brew instead of sugar. The reading is currently about 1.015 and was like that 3 days ago and is like that tonight. The trial jar my hydrometer came in is quite slanted so I've stuck the hydrometer (after sanitising it) in the actual FV just now and it's the same as the other readings.

Now, do you lot think there's anything gone wrong with it or is that the furthest it's gonna go?

Here's a picture of my brew to help diagnose.
http://i.imgur.com/nwed4.jpg?1

Cheers in advance as any advice is welcome to a new brewer such as myself.

[sbond10]

Probs about as far as it will go and 26 degrees where you trying to boil it. Lagers are suppose to be longer much lower like 18 degrees if not longer

[sbond10]

And why has every new brewer got a strange obession with air locks I've only done 3 brews and I've never had one and never will just a loose fitting lid and clean film or towel

[randomusername]

Ha, no I wasn't trying to boil it but I've got nowhere cooler to put it so it was sitting at room temp which I figured wouldn't be the end of the world. As far as I know the Canadian Blonde uses an ale yeast anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter as much about the cooler temps?

No obsession with the airlock but I know it's a decent indication of how things are going even if it isn't 100% proof of anything that's going on in the FV.

[sbond10]

It's probs a mix of ale and lager yeasts but I've done my first brew (coopers cevenza ) not reading anything and I cooked it at 23 degrees and it turned out like piss(don't worry everyone says that there cevenzas were like warmed up p*ss) but my next I went away and learnt a few things and choose youngs harvest bitter with 1kg of spray malt ( everyone said don't bother it's awful as its made by youngs) and it turned out decent drinkable within a week of bottling got even better 4 weeks. Even tho I brewed it in a heat wave at 26 degrees. My third was a milestone Xmas kit and it's been cooked in a heat wave 24 degrees and after only a week it's bloody lovely came out at 5.7 per cent even tho it's only suppose to be 4.5
With the air lock a lot of the old hand don't even use a hydrometer just leave it 3 weeks and bottle or keg. Me Ive never used an airlock just loosely put the lid on and left it to it once the head had died down I took the lid off washed and sanitised it then loosely put it back on

[randomusername]

I'd guessed that a lot of people probably don't use much equipment and don't test there brews much before bottling/kegging it and that's fine. I had the means to do it though so I figured I may as well take a reading. I was slightly baffled that I had no airlock activity but I didn't think it was the be all and end all to my brew. I'd put the lid on tightly and got a nice seal so with it being my first brew I was slightly anxious as to why nothing was happening but it does seem to be ok. The truth will be in the taste once it's bottled. I had a sneaky taste from the trial jar and it did taste like beer, albeit warm weak beer.

[orlando]

I looked at the picture of your brew and it looked fine with a little sign of fermentation still happening but the heat stress the yeast experienced is probably what is responsible for the low attenuation. Yeast is incredibly sensitive to heat even a couple of degres can have them running for cover. Keep checking the gravity, if it remains at 1.015 for the next couple of readings then it has probably gone as far as it is likely. If you bottle I would put a little less sugar in than recommended to reflect the high finishing gravity.

[Monkeybrew]

Hi and welcome to Jims

Another contributor to a relatively high FG is the Coopers BKE1, as it's made up of 600g of dextrose and 400g of maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is an unfermentable ingredient that will give your brew some body hence a higher FG.

I am sure that your brew will be drinkable, especially as you made it

Welcome to a very interesting and addictive hobby.

MB

[randomusername]

Is there any reason why I should put less suger in the bottles because of a higher FG?

I didn't know that the Brew Enhancer 1 had unfermentable ingredients in it so that's good to know for future reference. I also didn't know exactly how sensitive the yeast was to temperature changes so i'll bear that in mind for next time. I think in the winter i'll have to invest in a brew belt to keep the temps steady-ish.

As always, thanks for the help.