Help, fermentation seems stuck on Wal's kit

[Akury]

This my absolutely first time brewing beer. I'm excited to try brewing my own and experimenting with flavours etc.

I bought a kit from a from the Country Brewer which included a fermenter and everything I thought I'd need. I asked for the recipe for a Leffe Blonde, which is the following:

1 x Wal's Blonde Ale
1 x 1.5kg Light Liquid Malt
1 x 150g Special B Grain (Steeped)
1 x 12g Perle Finishing Hops (Infusion Method)

However, the guy mistakenly gave me 1.5kg of the powdered light malt...

So after careful sanitising, I mixed all of the ingredients in the fermenter together, and pitched the yeast. The wort temperature at this stage was 24C. I measured the gravity then, and it was 1.052

It's pretty cold where I am in Sydney now, and after a couple of nights, the fermenter temp dropped to about 16C. I ended up buying a heat pad and temperature controller to keep the fermenter temp between 19-20C.

After 4 days the bubbling in the airlock stopped, I measured the gravity at 1.022.

I measured a week later and the gravity hasn't changed. It will now be 3 weeks on Sunday and the gravity still hasn't changed. It tastes a little like beer but quite sweet and yeasty, and it doesn't look like the yeast has flocculated and is still suspended in the wort. It states on the light malt packaging that the final gravity should be 1.016.

What could be going on, have I somehow got a stuck fermentation? Should I just have some more patience and leave it longer? There is no Krausen on the top of the beer either. I don't know what other information to provide...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Grott]

Welcome Akury.

The fg of 1.022 Is a bit high and should be around 1.015/16. Make sure your reading the hydrometer correctly. I would give the fermenter a bit of a swirl, don't stir and raise temp to 22 degrees to see if you can get it to kick off again.
Are you kegging or bottling? If bottling PET or glass.

 

[wereprawn]

Did your lhbs give you Belgian Ale yeast? The reasons can be varied for a stuck ferment . If you use the search function you will find possible remedies .

 

[Akury]

Hi guys, thanks for all of your help. Yeah I thought that the FG was high too, so the fermentation is definitely stuck?

I'm scared of oxidising the wort by swirling or stirring it, I'll definitely try raising the temperature before I risk oxidising it.

I'm reading the hydrometer by reading it at the bottom of the meniscus, when it is at a point where it is floating of its own buoyancy.

From doing lots of research it seems that the kit comes with a S-33 ale yeast.

And I'm bottling, in glass.

 

[Grott]

Ok, hydrometer use seems ok, temp rise should help. Please note a bit of a swirl doesn't mean splashing it about, it's meant to be a slow rotation to stir some of the bottom sediment, to get it moving so to speak. But stick with temp first as you need to get activity again as glass is not good for a brew not fully fermented.
Let's us know how you go.

 

[Gloveski]

Hi guys, thanks for all of your help. Yeah I thought that the FG was high too, so the fermentation is definitely stuck?

I'm scared of oxidising the wort by swirling or stirring it, I'll definitely try raising the temperature before I risk oxidising it.

I'm reading the hydrometer by reading it at the bottom of the meniscus, when it is at a point where it is floating of its own buoyancy.

From doing lots of research it seems that the kit comes with a S-33 ale yeast.

And I'm bottling, in glass.

Bit of a gentle stir mate and you should be able to get it down a few points , all you need to do is stir up the sediment a bit . Its worked for me

 

[Akury]

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll let you know how I go in a couple of days or a week or so

 

[Akury]

Thanks for all of the help guys. I've raised the temp to 22C, and I've even opened it up and stirred it... Nothing crazy, but enough to raise some of the yeast from the trub...

The gravity hasn't changed from 1.022,I measured it today. I just think that here's a high amount of unfermentables in the wort and it won't ferment any more...

What are your guys thoughts? What would be the risk if I just bit the bullet and bottled now? The gravity hasn't changed in 3 weeks

 

[wereprawn]

I'd bottle after 3 weeks of stable gravity . Using P.E.T bottles?

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

My first kit beer did the same thing, I even had it in a temp controlled fridge. I went ahead and bottled it after a month in the fermenter and then after another month, the beer tasted like **** and was majorly under carbonated. I put it down to the yeast, was probably out of date or just a bad pack, I didn't even think to check the expiry date at the time, but whatever the reason I think it just conked out before the job was done. I opened every bottle and sprinkled a little bit of decent brewing yeast in each and re-capped. A week later the beer still tasted like **** but it was carbonated!

I'd try and pitch a some more yeast first and see if that helps

 

[Akury]

I'm using glass and not PET... I even made a yeast starter before pitching the yeast, and it had expiry well into 2019...

 

[pcmfisher]

If you used the kit Wals yeast it is mauri 514 ale yeast.

This starter, how did you do it?

 

[klangers]

Just give it more time. Highly unlikely under those conditions to have truly halted.

 

[Akury]

I'll head down to the country brewer HQ today and see which yeast it actually is, it'd be good to get some reference attenuation figures..

For the starter, I boiled 1&1/2 cups of water and dissolved 2 heaped teaspoons of the light malt extract. I cooled to 25C and put in the dried yeast, left it for 20 min and then put that into the fermenter.

I just checked this morning, and it seems to have dropped to 1.017, which equates to an apparent attenuation of 68%. I've tasted it and the sugar content seems to be dwindling, and it's starting to taste **heaps** yeasty. I even thought to check the calibration of my hydrometer and it's spot on 1.000 when the water is 20C

 

[bingggo]

Howdy! Just for info, that approach to yeast is more a rehydration (which is good) of the yeast (although rehydration doesn't need malt added). Eg. something like this approach: http://www.gwkent.com/media/pdf/product/3565/mauribrew_Ale_514.pdf

A starter is typically left for hours or over a day for the yeast to actually start to multiply - involving maybe 1 litre of water and more malt. You only need a long starter, rather than rehydration, for dry yeast when, say, brewing a really strong beer with only a packet or two of dry yeast. For normal beers, many folks don't bother to even rehydrate (I usually do though).

I don't think this would have affected your OG though.

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

I thought it was always best practice to rehydrate dried yeast before pitching?