Finally got stuck

[fuji6100]

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later... I think I've got a stuck batch of beer.

The OG was 1.050 and I made a substantial starter and had a vigorous fermentation within 7 hours. I racked to secondary after 1 week and the gravity at racking was 1.020. Now, 6 days later, the gravity is still 1.020 and the beer is very clear and still.

I don't have any enzymes, yeast nutrient, or yeast hulls so I tried rousing the secondary a bit. I'm planning on rechecking the gravity in about 3 days. Should I pitch more yeast if I don't get any response by then? I don't have many non-fermentables in this beer (just a few ounces of 20L crystal malt) so it should be a lot lower.

The range of attenuation I've achieved with this yeast so far has been from 70-80% and so far this is only 60%

Any suggestions?

[Fast_Eddy]

Is this a grain or extract brew?

If it's grain any chance that you let the mash temp creep up too high and you denatured your beta-amylase? Then you wouldn't have as much fermentables as you think.

How did you rouse it?

[fuji6100]

It's an extract with specialty grains steeped at about 160 degrees (for about 15-20 minutes)

I only had 8 ounces of 20L crystal malt and 4 oz of belgain aromatic malt. The rest was light DME (Munton's )

I rouse the yeast by taking the fermenter and tilting it a bit and kind of rotating it around in a circle so not to aerate it but trying to get a bit of a tornado effect inside to stir up the yeast.

[Fast_Eddy]

I guess it's just wait and see, huh?

I would probably go ahead and make a small starter with same yeast just in case.

What do think happened? Maybe insufficient aeration of the wort? Doesn't seem likely that you underpitched. Is it a very alcoholic brew? Have you done this recipe before? Same yeast?

Stupid stuck fermentations..... ;)

[fuji6100]

I always make a starter for my beer and I'm still in the dry yeast stage (yeah, I'll get to liquid eventually :P) so underpitching has never been a problem.

I aerate my beer until it's just about foaming out of the fermenter, so I've never had a problem with that either.

This is kind of an experimental brew. Kind of a cross between a contenental ale and a pilsner (but using ale yeast).

Not very alcoholic actually. I recently did an irish red with a whopping OG of 1.070 and the same yeast took it down to 1.020 (it had a lot more unfermentables) in the same amount of time.

The temp in the "fermentation" closet stays a constant 71-73 F.

So, I dunno. Maybe I too good of a job transferring to the secondary and didn't get enough active yeast left in the brew?

[BucksBrew]

I have a stuck batch too! BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I called my homebrew store and he gave me a packet of dry yeast to dump in. I read the instructions after I dumped it and it says to soak in warm water then introduce wort to bring both to same temp. Of course I did not do this! 1.5yr old climbing up my leg at the time!

Well my Brew store guy says it doesn't really matter that I did that. The yeast will suck up water from the wort. I guess yeast needs water to kick start it. He said even if it doen't burp in airlock it could still be fermenting.

I told him I want to keg and should I wait. He said no, it will ferment in the keg. I also asked about adding corn sugar. He said kegging you want to eliminate sediment. Sugar ferments and produces sediment. Sugar is used to carbonate if you are bottling. He said to force carbonate the beer. 20-30lbs. of pressure for a few days and check.

Long response, but I got alot of help on here and thought I would return the favor to a fellow Brewer!

Good Luck

PS This is why I might buy Oxygen and aerate my wort from now on. Then I think I will own all the toys I need.

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by BucksBrew
............I told him I want to keg and should I wait. He said no, it will ferment in the keg. I also asked about adding corn sugar. He said kegging you want to eliminate sediment. Sugar ferments and produces sediment. Sugar is used to carbonate if you are bottling. He said to force carbonate the beer. 20-30lbs. of pressure for a few days and check....

The above is not so great advice IMHO...

If you let it ferment in the keg then when the yeast and by-products start to settle out where are they gonna go? The first several pulls from that keg are gonna be loaded with crap. Not that there's that much wrong with it but why do it if you don't have too? Especially if you know that there's a fair amount of fermenting left to complete. I would let it finish fermenting in the fermenter.

Also, when force carbonating there's a chart that shows you how much pressure to put on a brew at a certain temp in order to get the correct carbonation for the style. For instance the scottish ale I just carbonated was (approx) 48 F and I put 8 psi on it to get 2 volumes of CO2. What you do is leave the CO2 can attached(at the correct PSI) and then shake hell out of keg until the CO2 can and keg equilize. This has always given great results and is very consistent.

One last thing, it seems like I've read somewhere that active yeast under pressure(I'm not sure where the psi boundary is) act differently. Some big brewer uses this technique to create some unique flavor. I don't remember all of the details..

My $.02 worth

[b3s]

get some yeast hulls and toss them in. basically they are empty yeast bodies. your yeast should do an invasion of the body snatchers and start fermenting again.

[paul84043]

You could try gently swirling it and moving it to a warmer place, say 75F+, but not to exceed 80...That has kicked off a stuck ferment for me once.
You are really close to being there, my homebrew shop recommends a min. of 1.016 to be comfortable...depending on the O.G. If it's a higher gravity then 1.020 may well be done, but a 1.050 should go lower.
With as fast as yours kicked off, I can't imagine what the problem would be...
What style is it? You could dry hop it, that started a secondary fement for mine both times I have done it.