Bottle At 1026?

[Dazza_devil]

G'day Brewers,
My Muntons Export Stout has stalled at SG 1026. I put the kit in with a stout pack - 500g Dark dry malt , 250g Light Dried Malt, 250g Maltodextrin and made it up to 16 litres with the kit yeast. It was kept at 18 degrees in my brew fridge with tempmate and fermenting well within hours of dry pitching the yeast. It formed a huge krausen and all seemed well until about 5-6 days in any visible action appeared to diminish, I took a reading of around 1027. I then bumped the temp up to around 19-20 degrees. I took another SG reading today (day 11) of 1026. Should I pitch another yeast, I have a spare fresh sachet of Coopers yeast that came with a Pale Ale Can. Rehydrate it, pitch it dry or make a starter with some of the wort? Or perhaps transfer it to a second fermenter then repitch?
Would it be OK to bottle it now? I worked out it would have an alcohol content of around 4.5%.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[RdeVjun]

G'day Brewers,
My Muntons Export Stout has stalled at SG 1026. I put the kit in with a stout pack - 500g Dark dry malt , 250g Light Dried Malt, 250g Maltodextrin and made it up to 16 litres with the kit yeast. It was kept at 18 degrees in my brew fridge with tempmate and fermenting well within hours of dry pitching the yeast. It formed a huge krausen and all seemed well until about 5-6 days in any visible action appeared to diminish, I took a reading of around 1027. I then bumped the temp up to around 19-20 degrees. I took another SG reading today (day 11) of 1026. Should I pitch another yeast, I have a spare fresh sachet of Coopers yeast that came with a Pale Ale Can. Rehydrate it, pitch it dry or make a starter with some of the wort? Or perhaps transfer it to a second fermenter then repitch?
Would it be OK to bottle it now? I worked out it would have an alcohol content of around 4.5%.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Gooday Boagsy, a fine tin that one, I quite like it. You don't have an initial SG do you? Sounds like it to me. (I can't be arsed working it back from 4.5%...) It'd be almost at toucan territory I'd guess, and I had one of them finish high on me recently. If it was only a 16 litre job, you could be done.
But if you can then bung it into secondary, that'll rouse it, maybe throw 80g boiled sugars in while you're at it (dex would do), if there's anything left alive in there, they'll eat it up. If there's not, just consider it the first addition of your priming sugar, top it up with the rest for that sized- batch and bottle it. Sort of a compromise and covers a few bases. If you're really worried about it, then throw another yeast in, wait and see what your SG does, if no respone in three days at the higher temp, just bottle it.
Other folks may have different suggestions, but that's what I'd do...

 

[Dazza_devil]

Thanks mate. The OG was 1056.

 

[manticle]

I've got a partial stout at the moment which seems to have stalled around 1040. It's a high gravity beer (1087 from memory) but I've had similar gravity beers finish at 1020 before.
It may have been due to me racking and crash chilling too early (I've never crash chilled before)

I tried pitching some extra yeast and adding some dex and corn syrup (to balance the thinning potential of the dex) in boiled water a couple of days ago.

I got a little sign of fermentation activity after the addition of the extra sugar and yeast but the points also upped themselves.

Prior to re-pitching I tried warming and agitating to no avail.

Today I re-racked - if it's still high in a couple of days I'm bottling it anyway. It tastes great so maybe it doesn't really matter as long as my bottles don't blow.

 

[cozmocracker]

heres my 2c worth. give it a good swirl (dont splash) to get some of the yeast back into suspension, leave for 2 or 3 days and take another reading, if its still 1026 then i would bottle and end up with a beer of about 4.4%

 

[DUANNE]

I've got a partial stout at the moment which seems to have stalled around 1040. It's a high gravity beer (1087 from memory) but I've had similar gravity beers finish at 1020 before.
It may have been due to me racking and crash chilling too early (I've never crash chilled before)

I tried pitching some extra yeast and adding some dex and corn syrup (to balance the thinning potential of the dex) in boiled water a couple of days ago.

I got a little sign of fermentation activity after the addition of the extra sugar and yeast but the points also upped themselves.

Prior to re-pitching I tried warming and agitating to no avail.

Today I re-racked - if it's still high in a couple of days I'm bottling it anyway. It tastes great so maybe it doesn't really matter as long as my bottles don't blow.

if you crash chilled at 1040 the yeast should still have been active but at the cold temp would have put the yeastys to sleep. the best bet would be to let it warm up to fermentation temp . the crash chill would have dropped them all to the bottom and there may not now be enough to finish the job. if you bottle it now i dont think id want to be in the same suburb as you cause they are certain to explode and with some force id think. right now patience is your best friend.

 

[manticle]

I agree.

However I did that - I left it outside at ambient temp for over 5 days after the chill. Points remained the same.

Then I added the extra dex and yeast and left it 2 days.

Now I plan to leave it for another 5 days before bottling. I have another brew to start and I'm not in a rush. It's off the yeast cake, march temps in Melbourne are pretty good and I'm happy to be patient (tastes good now and was expensive and time consuming to put together). It just seems really odd.

I will also check my hydro although it's fairly new and seems to be on the money with everything else.

Finally as a precaution, if I have any bottles I'm slightly worried may explode I put them in a milk crate and wrap the whole thing in plastic.

 

[RdeVjun]

Tricky situation there manticle! Its sorta got you by the balls, so to speak... and IMO you've done all the right things. In all honesty, I think patience may be your best friend, oh, and another fermenter... and a blast wall maybe...

One other option, unattractactive as it is considering the initial cost, may be to split it if you have the right spaces. One half into bottles (behind the blast wall!), the other into a cube and store it in the fridge until you have something to blend it with while watching SG of course. Another is a massive starter culture (shameless plug), but I doubt it'd be much use, only a long- shot.

None of these options are terrifically appealing, I know roughly how you feel, I had a toucan stout do something similar just recently, but not quite the same magnitude as yours. I bottled mine & so far so good, no bumps in the night yet. or the day...

 

[manticle]

Tricky situation there manticle! Its sorta got you by the balls, so to speak... and IMO you've done all the right things. In all honesty, I think patience may be your best friend, oh, and another fermenter...

I may have forgotten to mention - today was the second time it was racked to a different vessel .

So steps were/are:

1. Primary ferment 8 days
2. Crash chilled at 1040
3. Brought to ambient
4. Racked to secondary
5. Agitated
6. Added yeast nutrient
7. Repitched yeast (2 days)
8. Added dex/corn syrup mix (2 days)
9. Rack again to tertiary today
10 (planned) leave for 3-5 days, checking progress of gravity every 2 days
11. (planned) bottle and wrap securely.

The half/half idea is not a bad one. If the first lot don't explode after a couple of weeks or so, I'm probably ok. If it gets to that point I'll just drink them all really quickly (save and wrap two for aging).

 

[WarmBeer]

I've become a bit of a fan of the champagne (sorry, "Sparkling Australian White") bottle for my more stubborn brews.

They're designed to hold up under high internal pressure, easier to get a hold of (every party or family 'do you go to, somebody will be into the bubbles), plus they look really "schmick" once you soak the labels off em.

Just buy a larger bell for your capper, and the larger circumference caps from your LHBS. I've got some high FG Porter in them that I plan on aging for 6 months or more, even though it finished at 1030!

 

[Dazza_devil]

It's in the bottles.
I ended up racking it at day 12 and two days later it still read 1026.
This was my first go at bulk priming so anything could happen. The 90mls of water (fair bit evaporated I think) with 56g of dextrose dissolved in it looked fairly insignificant sitting in the bottom of my bottling fermenter mixed up with the starsan residue but I calculated it to CO2 volume of 1.9, I like my stout light on the fizz. I'm quite prepared to drink it flat anyway, the last hydro sample tasted alright.
Bit worried about the slight frothing when I transfered to my bottling vessel using the tap2tap method and sideways sediment reducer. It bubbled up a bit in the bottles too when I used the hose and wand joined together method with all my stubbs and bottles lined up on the floor. I ended up with 25X345ml stubs, 2X330ml stubs and 6X750ml bottles of something that I hope will be drinkable.
Cheers to yus.

 

[manticle]

As a follow up to my stuck ferment/high finish (incidentally - I may bottle in a couple of days without carbonating at all. Assuming none have exploded in 7- 10 days, I'll try one and see how it tastes. Futher assuming no trouble I'll then carbonate each bottle lightly. Cover in plastic and hope for the best.

 

[Adamt]

Bottling it at 1.026 is just asking for trouble, it has not finished. If the yeast is dead, the bottles will be flat. If the yeast is just asleep, if bottling doesn't wake up the yeast you'll still have flat beer. If it does wake it up, it'll eat the priming sugar, and the rest of the primary food and create a huge mess and hazard of shattered glass and beer.

The froth when bottling is just dissolved CO2 coming out of solution; nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[Dazza_devil]

Bottling it at 1.026 is just asking for trouble, it has not finished. If the yeast is dead, the bottles will be flat. If the yeast is just asleep, if bottling doesn't wake up the yeast you'll still have flat beer. If it does wake it up, it'll eat the priming sugar, and the rest of the primary food and create a huge mess and hazard of shattered glass and beer.

How long are they gonna take to blow if that be the case? Might have to start drinkin them tomorrow, lol.
I've got them in the bottom of a cupboard where a huge mess will be confined.
I actually racked the beer twice because the first time I did it the bloody grommet pushed through when I was putting the airlock in. I coulda just left it but decided to put the wort back into the primary, it's a better vessel. So if that didn't wake the yeast I figured nothing would. I was hoping that there would be some yeast left in suspension to give it a little fizz.
So what would you have done in this situation Adamt?

 

[manticle]

How long are they gonna take to blow if that be the case? Might have to start drinkin them tomorrow, lol.
I've got them in the bottom of a cupboard where a huge mess will be confined.
I actually racked the beer twice because the first time I did it the bloody grommet pushed through when I was putting the airlock in. I coulda just left it but decided to put the wort back into the primary, it's a better vessel. So if that didn't wake the yeast I figured nothing would. I was hoping that there would be some yeast left in suspension to give it a little fizz.
So what would you have done in this situation Adamt?

If you have a bundle of plastic bags, place each bottle in a bag and tie it up tight. Otherwise wrap each one in several layers of glad wrap. This will contain any shards of glass (the biggest concern with exploding bottles). If nothing has exploded in two weeks maybe try a tester. If it's overfizzy, it's likely the yeast was still alive and kicking. If not then I'm guessing you could proceed drinking with caution.

 

[sgreatwood]

What total volume is recommended for this kit? If it's a 23L kit, then the non-fermentables would keep it at about 1010 or so. As soon as you reduce the water volume, the FG will be higher as the non-fermentables now make up a larger proportion of the volume. maybe not double, but the last few kits I've made have been in 10L fermenters, so the sugars were fermenting out fairly quickly in that volume, but the FG was around 1026 because of the low volume.

(first post, so thanks for listening)

Simon

 

[Dazza_devil]

I think it's 23 litres from memory. I did it up to 16 litres because I only had 750g of dried malt as fermentables, wanted a higher alcohol content and read somewhere of it being done at 15 litres for a full bodied stout. It tastes very rich but nice from the hydro jar. It went right off in the fermenter within hours and had a huge foaming 4 inch or more krausen, very spectacular.
I'm fairly confident the bottles aren't gonna blow, it may be a little on the flat side but if all else fails good for a black and tan.
Two days in the bottles and they're all in tact so far, fingers crossed.

 

[flattop]

Look if you have beers that seem stuck the best policy is to bottle in PET, the bottles are re-usable and don't explode. $12 for 15 bottles, not expensive at all.
I had one brew i bottled early and it opens like NYE champagne every time i crack one (i only open them outside) i lose 30% when opened. Not a bad brew btw.

Bottle in PET and it just doesn't matter, save your glass for the brews you know are finished.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I confidently placed a stubbie of this in the fridge last night and just finished drinking it.
There is a little carbonation, nice tiny little bubbles and what I would want in a stout. I hope this doesn't mean that my bottles are gonna blow.
Not much head retention but it's there.
The flavour is however a little overpowering but has improved, something like what I'de imagine it to be like when chewing on a mouthfull of roasted barley grains.