colonel2jays

Thanks guys. Now to take steps to improving my fermentation performance...

Bluefish, thanks for your reply. I certainly can't rule out stratification, but after 5 days in the tank I'd have thought all of the distribution of wort that was going to happen would have happened already! It's also important to note the gravity didn't change from 1.011 in the days after, so it's safe to assume the batch was no longer actively fermenting on day 6. Does anyone have any thoughts on my 'secondary conversion' hypothesis?

Tom, thanks for your reply. The temperature difference between the two readings was only 0.9C so that's not it. The samples were taken from a sample port about 18" from the base of the tank. I'd like to think that can be called a 'representative' sample. I even took a second sample of the 1.011 product as a sanity check.

Hey all, has anyone ever experienced an increase in SG on their ferments? Yesterday (day 5) I had 1.009 and today I have 1.011! I've never seen this before. The product is a wheated bourbon-style mash with the grains separated from the wort prior to fermentation. The total volume in the tank is ~6000 litres, with 1480L of that having begun wild yeast fermentation two days before 4.5kg dry yeast was pitched. Is it possible that fermentation has stopped and somehow we're still getting secondary starch conversion? Thanks in advance!