Racking To Primary Yeast Cake

[Baulko Brewer]

Hi Guys,

I currently have a stuck/slow ferment. (Ferment began 14 days ago OG was 1046 and has been at 1020 for over a week)

I read a thread and took Manticle's advice of giving a slow stir to rouse the yeast out of suspension. (nothing has happened yet, but only stirred a coup[le of hours ago)

I was speaking to LHBS about it and he suggested (or what I think he was getting at) racking the beer off,and put back on to the primary yeast cake, give it a shake and let ferment continue.

Is this right?? It seems a lot of work, to basically acheive the same result as stirring the wort.

Has anyone done this? I can't find any threads regarding this specifically and I want to make sure that I understood correctly. (I found some info on US forum, but more specific to high OG beers)

Is there benefit to this. I was thinking that it may clear up the last of any remining fermentables, but nothing more.

Did I understand him correctly??

 

[Yob]

sounds like trouble to me... Just the stir should do it.

 

[Muscovy_333]

Remove the airlock, pick up your fermenter, do you best dance move (while no-one watches), try to add some hip gyration, sit it back down, airlock in....should get some action.
I try not to open up the fermenter personally, especially when stalled...risky business.

 

[JaseH]

I had a stuck ferment at 1020 a few brews ago. No amount of warming up and stirring/swirling helped. Eventually I took some advice to rack it to another vessel and that got it going again.

I syphoned it all(inc. yeast cake) into another fermenter and that was enough, no need to re-rack back to the original vessel. The process of racking with the yeast cake got all the yeast back into suspension without adding introducing too much O2.

 

[manticle]

Hi Guys,

I currently have a stuck/slow ferment. (Ferment began 14 days ago OG was 1046 and has been at 1020 for over a week)

I read a thread and took Manticle's advice of giving a slow stir to rouse the yeast out of suspension. (nothing has happened yet, but only stirred a coup[le of hours ago)

I was speaking to LHBS about it and he suggested (or what I think he was getting at) racking the beer off,and put back on to the primary yeast cake, give it a shake and let ferment continue.

Is this right?? It seems a lot of work, to basically acheive the same result as stirring the wort.

Has anyone done this? I can't find any threads regarding this specifically and I want to make sure that I understood correctly. (I found some info on US forum, but more specific to high OG beers)

Is there benefit to this. I was thinking that it may clear up the last of any remining fermentables, but nothing more.

Did I understand him correctly??

Racking can work. Presuming you took advice from the article I wrote, you'll see the next step is to try racking but only if the stirring doesn't work. However, when I've needed to do this. I've just racked gently into the new vessel and let ferment finish out there, not racked back again.

Certainly no need to shake - the racking is enough (and as much) agitation as you need or want. Separating from the bulk of the yeast too early can limit the yeast's ability to re-absorb various compounds like diacetyl which may be why the LHBS owner is suggesting racking back. In my experience it's not necessary but the advice seems sound in theory. However I would just rack (once or twice - up to you), not shake.

Wait and see if gentle stirring and warming works first though before going to the effort. What FG do you expect?

 

[razz]

Out of interest Baulko Brewer what was the strain of yeast?

 

[Baulko Brewer]

Racking can work. Presuming you took advice from the article I wrote, you'll see the next step is to try racking but only if the stirring doesn't work. However, when I've needed to do this. I've just racked gently into the new vessel and let ferment finish out there, not racked back again.

Certainly no need to shake - the racking is enough (and as much) agitation as you need or want. Separating from the bulk of the yeast too early can limit the yeast's ability to re-absorb various compounds like diacetyl which may be why the LHBS owner is suggesting racking back. In my experience it's not necessary but the advice seems sound in theory. However I would just rack (once or twice - up to you), not shake.

Wait and see if gentle stirring and warming works first though before going to the effort. What FG do you expect?

Thanks Manticle, I will leave a day or two to see if I can drop the gravity. At his stage of ferment, I would normally have racked to secondary add gelatine and begun CC, these last parts will obviously need to wait.

Brewmate tells me that I should have FG of 1012

 

[Baulko Brewer]

Out of interest Baulko Brewer what was the strain of yeast?

Just dried US-05 Ale yeast

 

[Pennywise]

I doubt you'll notice a change in SG after only a few hours in this case. Leave it for a day or two and then check it. What was the recipe/method for this one anyway?