Stuck Fermentation

[hando]

Hi All,

1 week ago I put down my 1st brew in two years.
Morgan's Royal Oak Amber Ale
750g Light DME
250g Maltodex
plus some Fuggles pellets made into tea.
kit yeast
SG 1.040

It didn't start to ferment well (18 degrees when I pitched). I wasn't sure if the brew was too cold or the yeast too old, so pitched another packet of yeast in and warmed the wort to about 20 degrees. The airlock started to gurgle in about 10 minutes, and it kicked along nicely for a few days....

The fermenter is in my brewing fridge with tempmate set at 20 degrees and a light-bulb in an aluminium box set on a cheap timer to be on for 15 minutes per hour to keep the temps up on the cold nights as the fridge is outside. It seems to be working well... temps never less than 19 and never above 21. The stick-on, digital thermometer on the actual fermenter has been reading about 22 degrees.

The airlock stopped gurgling about 3 days ago (SG 1.016) and today when I checked, the airlock is slightly displaced (i.e. the water levels are uneven) indicating that the pressure inside is higher than ambient... this tells me that the yeast is still eating my wort. yet the SG hasn't really moved. It now sits at SG 1.014.

I am a bit out of practice at brewing, but I just wanted some opinions as to what final SG I could expect. I was thinking it should go below 1.010.

Thanks hando

 

[Bribie G]

The malto is probably responsible for some of the 'extra' gravity as it doesn't ferment out much, if at all, and the LDME isn't totally fermentable either. That Mauribrew 514 Ale yeast that comes with the Morgans kits is pretty fierce, sort of along the same lines as Nottingham and goes like a rocket at 20 degrees, so it shouldn't be the yeast's fault. I would personally walk away from it for a few more days and do a hydro test on day 10 then day 12 and you'll probably find it's done and dusted. Ten days to two weeks in primary is a good number this time of year.

:icon_cheers:

None of my business but any reason you've been out of the craft for a while? A warm welcome back, whatever :icon_drunk:

 

[Renegade]

Considering the antichrist of maltodextrin in your hallowed brew, one might simply leave it for another week if there's concern, and if/when the reading is still around 1.016, just bottle the *******. It's often hard for a home brew enthusiast to accept that as an FG when all they have done in the past has eaten itself out to 1.010. WIth some trepidation, I recently bottled a 1.020 (from a 1.085 OG mind) and was quite uneasy, until I did some attenuation number crunching, along with shameless pleading for advice from AHB members, plus a bit of research into non-fermentable aspects, and also the expectations of the yeast strain (it was a Saison). And, after four months, there hasn't been a single bottle bomb.

That actually gave me a bit more of a 'braveheart' approach, and I no longer get stressed about a higher-than-expected FG. Then again, I'm crunching more numbers, observing the characteristics of particular ingredients etc so things are explained anyway.

Not teaching you to suck eggs, but the bog-standard advice wlawys applies..... you think it's a 'stuck ferment', then shake it around, add a bit of heat, kiss the airlock with a Listerine-Rinsed gob, pray to Jesus, then take a reading in three days. If it's still the same G, then it's time to rack it off.

 

[warra48]

FG 1.014 is not really all that high.
My calculations show you would not expect to go below FG 1.011, so you are very close.
As mentioned above, I'd leave it for another few days. Nothing wrong with leaving it in the fermenter for between 2 to 3 weeks all up.
I'm sure you'll be right to bottle it after that.
A look through my BeerSmith archives shows I've bottled brews at FG 1.018 and 1.021, both from OG 1.052, and never had a bottle bomb.

 

[hando]

Hey folks.... Thanks for the advice. I have checked it over the last 3 days and it did go down to 1.012 after a shake up. But has pretty much stopped there. I am also aware of the unfermentability of the maltodex... It's just good to get a second opinion you know?

Pretty happy with all the replies, so thanks again.

I haven't done a brew for a while because I moved house and chucked out all the bottles I collected, so there would be less stuff to move. Also, I wanted to get my keg system up and running. Apart from needing to find $300 to spend on a gas bottle (I had all the other gear), the place I moved into was a complete shit-hole, and finally I moved again out of there into a nice place with room to brew in. I've been living in this new place for about 3 weeks and since the opportunity presented itself, I've bought the gas bottle and put down a brew straight away. I'm thrilled about being able to brew again. Looking forward to putting down my next batch too - as soon as this one is out of the fermenter :icon_cheers:

hando