Stuck fermentation?? At 1020 for about 20 days...

[brewbear]

So I brewed a pale ale which seemed to be fine, but it's femented from 1040 to 1020 and not budged any further despite agitating, racking and adding new yeast.

Here are the details:


Mash

Maris Otter - 4000 90%
Caramalt 30 – 330 7.5%
Torr. Wheat - 110g 2.5%
Mashed at 67-66degree C (1 degree drop over 90 mins mash)

Yeast: Nottingham (rehydrated, but no starter)

Fermentation Temp: 19.8-21.3c
Day 0 1040 (dry hopped with 35g hops – I forgot to add them at flameout, so chucked them in the FV)
Day 2 1024
Day 6 1023
Day 12 1021 – Racked to secondary
Day 14 1020 – Pitched Nottingham Yeast (rehydrated)
Day 18 1020
Day 31 1020

Tomorrow will be 32 days since brewday. Bottle? Advice gratefully received!

 

[Sandimas]

I had an AG brew like that, nothing I tried would get it going again. Bottle it (like I did) it'll be fine.

 

[Cwrw666]

My HBC Olgas Oregon Stout seems to have stuck at 1018. I've given it a stir and chucked in some yeast nutrient. If it's still there in a week I'll bottle it...

 

[ManseMasher]

Bottle it mate. It will be beer!

 

[brewbear]

I think I might just print that in the side of the FV. Worry less; just bottle.

Thanks for the advice all.

 

[MyQul]

My HBC Olgas Oregon Stout seems to have stuck at 1018. I've given it a stir and chucked in some yeast nutrient. If it's still there in a week I'll bottle it...

Im pretty sure Yeast nutrient wont do anything, however I think amylase enzyme will get it going again.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Amylase_Starch_Enzyme_25g.html#.VXLOAVJuUQk

 

[Cwrw666]

Things were much simpler when we used to peer into the top of an FV, see that the froth had gone and the beer was beginning to clear, then bottled it. Now you have to take consecutive readings on your hydrometer and worry obsessively at what it says.

Of course sometimes you'd open the first bottle and get a jet of foam for about 5 feet in the air and the inch or so of beer left in the bottle was more like beer flavoured soup than anything else. Good times.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Things were much simpler when we used to peer into the top of an FV, see that the froth had gone and the beer was beginning to clear, then bottled it. Now you have to take consecutive readings on your hydrometer and worry obsessively at what it says.

Hi BeerDevil, :-D I only take two readings , 1 og and 1 fg reading but I leave in the fv for 2, 3 or 4 weeks depending on the og and predicted fg of the recipe. I've not had any stuck ferments yet as temps are pretty stable, so no 3 consecutive measurements malarky for me, I suppose if you're keener to get the beer out of the FV quicker it's important but as long as my second and final measurement is in the ball park for the style i'm happy.

I've bottled from 1004 to 1015 all been good.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Im pretty sure Yeast nutrient wont do anything, however I think amylase enzyme will get it going again.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Amylase_Starch_Enzyme_25g.html#.VXLOAVJuUQk

Have you used this? My black IPA is currently stuck at 1020, will leave it another week, but don't fancy it finishing at this gravity.

 

[MyQul]

Have you used this? My black IPA is currently stuck at 1020, will leave it another week, but don't fancy it finishing at this gravity.

I havn't used it before as fortunately I've only ever had one stuck brew and that was a mild so I didn't mind the extra body in it. I just came across yeast enzyme for stuck brews when I was researching something else and haven't really looked into it closely - the exremely small amount of research I've done on amylayse enzye leads me to beleive there are some definate pros and cons with using it. I'd definately recommned doing a bit of googling on it , although I understand it definatley seems works for stuck fermentations

 

[Slid]

That does seem quite bizarre. 31 days is a long time, and you have tried two yeasts.

Obtusely, I would suggest adding a small amount of table sugar and see if that wakens the yeast up. Just chuck in half a priming sugar amount, see what happens.

My brewing experience is limited, but I have noticed that a high initial ferment temperature can make the yeast go very "lazy". Is this a possible explanation, do you think?

Bottling at 1020 does not sound great to me. When I bottled off of poor attenuation, all I got in the end was very fizzy beer that tasted horribly of carbonic acid. Spent ages venting gas out of 2L PET bottles containing Wherry etc that had never really fermented out in the primary FV.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

I havn't used it before as fortunately I've only ever had one stuck brew and that was a mild so I didn't mind the extra body in it. I just came across yeast enzyme for stuck brews when I was researching something else and haven't really looked into it closely - the exremely small amount of research I've done on amylayse enzye leads me to beleive there are some definate pros and cons with using it. I'd definately recommned doing a bit of googling on it , although I understand it definatley seems works for stuck fermentations

I've done a bit of reading and it sounds like it may work, so thank you for your suggestion. If mine wasn't an IPA, I may have bottled it, but I want it closer to 1010 than 1020. I'll let you know if it's a success.

 

[Cwrw666]

Just checked my HBC Olgas Oregon Stout again as it's a few days since I gave it a stir and a bit of yeast nutrient. I'd say it has gone down a bit (hard to tell with these hydrometer things combined with not so good eyesight) and there's odd bits of yeast floating around. So living in hope.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Im pretty sure Yeast nutrient wont do anything, however I think amylase enzyme will get it going again.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Amylase_Starch_Enzyme_25g.html#.VXLOAVJuUQk

Well I used some amylase on mine on weds evening and it's gone from 1020 to 1011 today, so I owe you a thanks!

I'll leave it another week, I'm hoping it doesn't go too low! Assuming this has no impact on flavour (other than drying out the beer, which I wanted), this stuff seems to do the trick.

 

[MyQul]

Well I used some amylase on mine on weds evening and it's gone from 1020 to 1011 today, so I owe you a thanks!

I'll leave it another week, I'm hoping it doesn't go too low! Assuming this has no impact on flavour (other than drying out the beer, which I wanted), this stuff seems to do the trick.

Good, oh! Seems your the forum test pilot for this enzyme. If it goes too low, and I mean ridiculously low you can expect the beer to taste more bitter. This i what has happened to my wild yeast infected beers that are super attenuated (FG 1.003, hopefully your IPA wont be anything like that). I guess it tastes more bitter as there are almost no residualy sugars left in the beer to balance the bittering hops.

 

[Cwrw666]

Mine was still stuck the other day. I've stirred it again and added 2 oz of sugar which took a good 24 hours to start fermenting. At the moment it's still bubbling away. I'm going to call in at my LHBS this morning and see if she has any amylase. Not holding out much hope though - last week I asked her for protofloc and she'd never heard of it - only been in business for 40 odd years.

 

[Twostage]

I asked her for protofloc and she'd never heard of it - only been in business for 40 odd years.

Maybe she knows it as whirlfloc ?

There is a great variance in assistant knowledge though. I was in a HBS last week and the lad said that a particular yeast was good because "it starts to, err, flocculate in 24 hours". I think he meant ferment.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Good, oh! Seems your the forum test pilot for this enzyme. If it goes too low, and I mean ridiculously low you can expect the beer to taste more bitter. This i what has happened to my wild yeast infected beers that are super attenuated (FG 1.003, hopefully your IPA wont be anything like that). I guess it tastes more bitter as there are almost no residualy sugars left in the beer to balance the bittering hops.

From what I read, seems the guys in the US use it for this purpose and only takes a few gravity points off, so I'm kind of hoping it's done. Will check again mid week. If it goes as low as 1003, it will be dark coloured hop juice!

 

[Cwrw666]

Maybe she knows it as whirlfloc ?

No, Irish Moss is the nearest she stocks, though she was out of stock of that last week and was having trouble getting more from her wholesalers.
I was right of course - she had no amylase though she said she used to stock it but that the wholesalers didn't list it anymore. In fact she got their lists out to check while I was there and it wasn't in the list. But they had supplied her with irish moss so at least I've got that now for future brews.

 

[MyQul]

From what I read, seems the guys in the US use it for this purpose and only takes a few gravity points off, so I'm kind of hoping it's done. Will check again mid week. If it goes as low as 1003, it will be dark coloured hop juice!

If it's done, we all know now what to do in future if rousing/warming doesn't work.