Whats up with my brew!? help!

[c2ash]

Hello! Thanks for reading I hope you can help me here. Here's the scoop....today I checked the progress of my beer that I have fermenting and everything seemed to be okay up until I tasted it and checked the gravety. First thing I noticed is that the krausen (spelling might be off, but the foam on the beer) never really seemed to go down. Its almost kinda floated ontop of my batch and some of it will fall down in clumps back into the bottom of my carboy. Next problem I got is even after a eight days I get a gravity reading of 1.040.....unfortunately I failed to take a starting gravity this time so I cant specify the differance here, but the ferment lock only bubbles every 30 sec or so now and even after eight days watching it foam up and ferment its still really sweet. And for the taste, well to be quite honest it tasted like sweet apple cider with faint traces of beer...not even really sour. Now I have had batches that have completely failed me in the past and the ended up tasting like cider mixed with aspren pills so I knew it was a gonner, but this batch...its like sweet apple cider with a high gravity and with that white krausen floating on top falling in clumps when its messed with. Have I lost my french pilsner to infection?

thanks for your help!

[HarkJohnny]

almost sounds like all of the yeasties have been caught in your krausen which as you say is left "floating" above the liquid level... leaving them unable to complete the fermentation.

I think it'd give it a couple good whirls and try to get let the liquid consume that krausen somewhat and give it a few more days. see what happens.

anyone else?

[corkybstewart]

We need a little help here. What kind of beer is it, what's the recipe? What are your ambient temps? Is this a lager or an ale, 8 days isn't too long for lots of different beers to still be fermenting and the green apple smell may be nothing but green beer.

[c2ash]

Thanks for the quick response guy I appreciate it. Well in answere to you question this would be the first Ale I have made. So I guess its an Ale more spacifically its a clone recipe for the "Castelain Blond French County Ale". The recipe calls for as follows:
-12.25lb Belgian 2-row pilsner malt
-1/2lb Belgian Cara-Vienne malt
-1oz brewers gold
-1/4oz tettnanger
-1/4oz German hallertau hersbrucker
-with the Wyeast European Ale

Its been sitting in round 70F temps the entire time...hardly any light at all. And for the smell, well, it just smells acidic and slightly cider I suppose...taste just like apple cider with a hint of beer in there ya know. I'll give it a swirl see if that doesnt help I did do that midway through the fermentation. I dont know how it works but hopefully the yest isnt dead from sittin up there for so long..its liquid yeast. And something I failed to mention...with the gravity ringing in roun 1.040 the book said that the starting gravity should be round 1.066-1.068 and finnish at 1.015-1.017. This would be the first time I've attemted an Ale before nontheless all my other beers were done in bout 7-10 day range. Ohhh wellll...I dont know anymore you think its alright? What should I do?

[Mill Rat]

Swirl it up good and see if the gravity doesn't drop. At least you still have a nice high gravity reading, at least something nasty hasn't got in there and eaten all the sugars you've saved for the yeasties. If you don't see a drop in the gravity after a few swirls, add some dry brewers yeast to finish it off.

[Mad Scientist]

What was your mash routine? Temps and mash time, etc....\

And if this is your first ale, what were you brewing before?

[c2ash]

Well in answere to my mash temps/times and what not the book said to mash @ 150F for an hour and a half. Then after I fly sparged for bout a half hour to fourty-five. And the rest is just another 90 min. for the bittering/flavoring hops. I'm not really sure what else to tell you...it just sweet,cider,acidic, and still has a high gravity (which shocked me). Oh, and the last two batches I made was an ESB and a Nutbrown Ale.

[c2ash]

well I threw in some Muntons yeast...we'll see how it does.