Stuck Brew, What Would You Do?

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jgriffin

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Seems the big brew day Rye IPA is well and truly stuck at 1.038 down from an OG of 1.082.
I was going to rack it, and pitch some new yeast to hopefully finish it up. I originally used WLP002, and can make up a new starter with some from a new tube (i ended up having to use the entire starter in the beer).

This will obviously take the better part of a week to get a starter big enough to pitch just the cake, so the beer will be not doing much during that time.

The other option is to pitch a couple of rehydrated packs of Safale, however i have experienced a high degree of esters when using this yeast in the past, and don't like it very much. Beersmith tells me the terminal gravity should be 1.028 with the WLP002, or 1.022 with Safale, so if i pitch the safale i have 16 points or so for it to ferment out.

Seeing as the beer is already half finished, should i not worry about the flavour effects from the safale, or just try a new pitching of the WLP002?

(P.S it tastes bloody good so far, obviously sweet still, but awesome anway)
 
If the yeast have settled, try rousing them by stirring with a sanitised spoon every day for a few days. That worked for me on my last stuck brew using a highly flocculent yeast.
 
Then I'd rack and pitch a healthy new starter.
 
Would you consider pitching the starter at high kausen after giving the yeast a little aclimatisation with part of the wort?
 
A packet of Nottingham yeast would get that sucker fermenting again, and not add much esters at all.

What was OG and what was your aerating program?

Jovial Monk
 
That was spooky - I was rabbiting on about Nottingham yeast and how good that stuff is in my Kilkenny clones and then I saw JM's reply.

'Nuff said...!
TL
 
How would adding a complete yeast nutrient and then pitching a new yeast work i wonder? <_<
 
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