Re-awake the PNB

After 4-5 days of moderate activity, the PNB appears to have gone back to sleep. So I did another aeration to reawaken it. I used a similar technique to before, but with an improvement. I still glugged the wort from the carboy to a bucket, but this time, I set the bucket on a counter-top, and the carboy (with funnel) on the floor, below the bucket spigot. With the spigot partially open, the wort flows very chaotically, hopefully picking up plenty of oxygen. I did 4 carboy-to-bucket-to-carboy iterations. The last iteration was probably the best - the flow from the spigot was all over the place, and probably took 20 minutes to drain the bucket.

I decided not to pitch anymore yeast - hopefully what is there will wake up. If theres no activity after a couple of days, I'll consider another pitch.

During this procedure, I took another SG measurement. It is now 1020. While this is still high, it is a great improvement. This represents 53% AA and 3.1%ABV. A target of 1015 is now looking a bit more realistic. I will bottle if we get that far. As for the taste, the distinct sour note has been replaced by a mild bitterness. This is much more drinkable.

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HLB Secondary update.

The HLB has now been in secondary for 1 week. I've opened the jar periodically to test the H2S odour. It gradually decreased, and is now not unpleasant. A couple of times when I took the lid off, I waved a lit match above the beer, the theory being that this will burn off any lingering H2S. Not sure if this had and effect +ve or -ve.

The beer has settled considerably. Watching this happen has been interesting. It various stages there has been a distinct level at which the beer is clearer above, and cloudier below. This level takes a few days to drop to the bottom. This has happened at least twice. I assume this is the settling of particles of uniform sizes as they come out of solution. I'll probably