The beer that will not be moved

I have an AG that's been in the FV since June 11th. Forever, I know!

I posted a question about stuck fermentation a few weeks ago, and I've tried all the usual - stirring, adding sugar, warming etc. I've also added some amylase enzyme but it won't move past 1020.

So my next question- should I bottle it anyway and settle for a sub 3% beer or would I potentially end up with 20 bottle bombs?

There's also a kind of white oily skin on the surface. I'm not sure if that's a by product of the amylase or some kind of infection. It smells and tastes fine but it looks a bit odd.

If all else fails, I suppose I ciuod water the garden with it!
Thanks in advance for your wisdom :wink:

My latest brew, a dry Irish stout, finished at 1018-20. I too tried amylase but it didn't budge so I eventually stuck it in a pressure barrel - at least then if it starts fermenting again the excess pressure will just blow out the pressure relief valve. It tasted fine by the way and a quick calculation shows it to be about 3.5%, so that'll have to do.

It's been in the FV since june the 11th :shock:

First off, if it's still on the yeast cake, I'd rack it to another FV as your risking Autolysis(dead yeast cells rupturing and the contents causing a meaty off flavour in your beer).

Secondly I don't hold out much hope for it going much lower and I'd just bottle it. However....

If you'd like to be the forum guinnea pig, the experimental method I mentioned in the 'great article' thread would be as follows:

One of the reasons why just putting some more yeast in a stuck brew wont always work is because one of the first things that the first lot of yeast do is use up most of the available oxygen and a good portion of the nutrients available in the wort. The implication from the krausening article http://beerandwinejournal.com/krausen-1/ is that you can use a starter to get a stuck brew moving again.
"The active yeast help finish the fermentation, potentially increasing attenuation and scrubbing the beer of its diacetyl."

So, theoretically, all you need to do is make a starter and pitch it at high krausen, which is when the yeast is at it most vial (healthiest).

The problem come in that your not supposed to make a starter with dried yeast( unless of course you want to go to the expense of purchasing some liquid yeast or you already have some slurry in your fridge) but I think you can get around this.

Make up 1L of 1.040 DME (100g) and put it in a 5L water bottle. Then rehydrate 0.1 grams of dried yeast. Thats obviously a very small amount and unless like me you have jewellers scales, impossible. So re-hydrate a packet of dryed yeast normally and put about 3 teaspoonfulls in the starter. Now shake the water bottle vigourously for about a minute. The starter should all know be foam. Undo the lid so CO2 can escape (but leave it on) and leave the starter at room temp. It should be at high krausen after about 12 hours. Then pitch it into your stuck brew. Hopefully it should get it going again

Edit: Actually I'd be inclined to add about 2 dessert spoons of the re-hydrated yeast depending on how much water you re-hydrate with. The standard reyhdration amount is 1 us cup/236ml so 2-3 dessert spoonfuls of re-hydrated yeast would be better I think

In that case I'll rack it to another FVS now!

I'll pick up some DME and yeast in the morning and have a crack at that. I'll report back what happens. If it still won't move I'll stuck it in a pressure barrel as Cwrw666 suggested.