Brewing Master

Question:

: I have a batch of Oktoberfest Amber Ale brewing which seems to have : finished fermenting far too soon. After 3 days in primary, it looked : ready to transfer to secondary and after 3 days there, fermentation has : virtually stopped. I just checked the SG at 1.010. : : The only modification I made to the instructions was on the advice of the : guy in the homebrew store who suggested that I substitute dry malt for : part of the sugar. He suggested that instead of using 1kg sugar to use : 500 gms plus 500 gms dry malt. Could this be my problem, not enough sugar? What *is* the problem?  Your ferment time is good, the storeowner’s advice was reasonable (altho *I* thing DME is just not as good a choice as syrup) and your FG is perfectly reasonable.  Why were yu concerned in the first place?  Good god man, pull a pint o’ porter and park it! —

Response:

I have a batch of Oktoberfest Amber Ale brewing which seems to have finished fermenting far too soon. After 3 days in primary, it looked ready to transfer to secondary and after 3 days there, fermentation has virtually stopped. I just checked the SG at 1.010. The only modification I made to the instructions was on the advice of the guy in the homebrew store who suggested that I substitute dry malt for part of the sugar. He suggested that instead of using 1kg sugar to use 500 gms plus 500 gms dry malt. Could this be my problem, not enough sugar? — Trevor Lloyd Lantz NS

Response:

I have a batch of Oktoberfest Amber Ale brewing which seems to have finished fermenting far too soon. After 3 days in primary, it looked ready to transfer to secondary and after 3 days there, fermentation has virtually stopped. I just checked the SG at 1.010. The only modification I made to the instructions was on the advice of the guy in the homebrew store who suggested that I substitute dry malt for part of the sugar. He suggested that instead of using 1kg sugar to use 500 gms plus 500 gms dry malt. Could this be my problem, not enough sugar?

No problem.  Fermentations can easily finish in 6 days.  I’d recommend letting it sit in the secondary for a couple weeks to settle out and let the yeast do some conditioning, though. Most brewers actually don’t use ANY sugar in their beer (other than a little bit at bottling time to generate carbonation in the bottles).  I recommend that next time you subsitute dry malt for all the sugar in the recipe you have. — dave whitman             "The opinions expressed are those of the                           They made me say that.  Really.

Response:

  <snip, snip : Most brewers actually don’t use ANY sugar in their beer (other than a : little bit at bottling time to generate carbonation in the bottles).  I : recommend that next time you subsitute dry malt for all the sugar in the : recipe you have. Actually, Dave, I was surprised to discover that English brewers use forms of sugar in many of their ales.  If you can get hold of a copy of "Brew Your Own Real Ales at Home" (a CAMRA publication by Wheeler and Protz), you will find that probably between 30-50% of the recipes provided call for significant quantities of cane sugar (sometimes brown, sometimes not) or corn-based syrups (called maltose or glucose syrups).  What they do not typically use, however, is white table sugar.  Don’t discount adding sugars to your ale recipes, just be selective in what you add. —         "Good idea, Chuck.  But, syrup won’t stop them!" – Firesign Theatre

Response:

I just bottled my first batch of home brew, a great IPA (I hope). But the rather incomplete book I used as a guide says to let the newly bottled beer stand for a week at 70