Stuck fermentation

[bradmccoy]

I brewed a kit beer little over a week ago (MJ american pale ale). Rehydrated the dry yeast sachet in half a jar of weak DME+water, left it for about an hour. It seemed to become quite active (foamy) before I pitched it in the fermenter with the brew.

After a couple of days there was a good krausen.

Couple days later krausen was gone.

Took a sample today and it is still over 1.020. But fermentation activity seems to have slowed to a stop. Beer is really hazy. Has a but of a dried apricot flavour.

What should I do? Pump temp up? I've had it around 14C so far.

 

[malt junkie]

Give the wort a good stir(without aerating) and bump the temp to 19 or 20.

If you still get no joy, it's best to drop onto a fresh yeast cake if you have one!

 

[bradmccoy]

Give the wort a good stir(without aerating) and bump the temp to 19 or 20.

Thanks mate. Just gave it a slosh around without taking lid off, hopefully will do the trick. No yeast on hand, will grab a pack from local store if no more activity soon.

 

[malt junkie]

A packet of yeast may get you out of trouble, but the more yeast the better. I'm currently fermenting an ale, I'll use that yeast cake to rescue a beer that stopped dead in it's tracks at 1020.

In future pitch 2 packets, and I'm finding with the MJ yeasts they could also then do with a starter. If you haven't done a starter before there's plenty of good info in the yeast thread.

best of luck

Mike

 

[Ditchnbeer]

14 is in the high end for lagers. Ales will want about 19-20 for ferment, then raise 2 degrees at end of ferment to finish it off. Your yeast could have gone to sleep

 

[decr]

What others have already said, 14c sounds low for ale yeasts. I've had trouble keeping them going at that temp, fermentation takes forever and the haziness takes another forever to settle. Taste is usually off too. Using Coopers kits and kit yeast. I aim for 18c and like quick ferments, works for me.

Good luck.

 

[bradmccoy]

Gave it a slosh, got temp up to 20, bo obvious activity, no change to SG. So I threw in another pack of yeast this morning and it's kicking along nicely. I wonder what chance the beer will be no good? I guess biggest risk is introduced a chance of infection?

 

[nowaynicko]

How did it go mate?

 

[bradmccoy]

Still reading 1.020. There's no way that's done. I wonder if I'm getting inaccurate readings from the bottom of the vessel (drawing from spigot)? Might try siphoning some from further up.

 

[bradmccoy]

What I mean is - there seems to be a lot of suspended yeast around the bottom of the vessel, which I wonder is affecting gravity readings. Not sure if this is possible.

 

[Brewnicorn]

Could be just as you suspected and perhaps the original yeast wasn't quite up to the task. And temp might have halted things. I'll leave it to more expert operators than me, but the additional yeast requires a pretty well spot on temp to pitch another batch in.
How is it going now? Bottled or kegged or abandoned?

 

[malt junkie]

A packet of yeast may get you out of trouble, but the more yeast the better. I'm currently fermenting an ale, I'll use that yeast cake to rescue a beer that stopped dead in it's tracks at 1020.

In future pitch 2 packets, and I'm finding with the MJ yeasts they could also then do with a starter. If you haven't done a starter before there's plenty of good info in the yeast thread.

best of luck

Mike

Well mine chewed it's way from the 1020 down to 1009 is keged and on tap, tasting as I would expect.

 

[bradmccoy]

I pitched another pack of yeast, seemed active in no time, then dropped out without changing the gravity at all.

This BYO article points out that there probably wouldn't be enough o2 left for a pack of yeast to thrive. They recommend a 1-2L starter and pitching it when it's most active. Tried this. Haven't check gravity for a few days. Will just have to pour it down the drain if that fails. Fingers crossed.

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3170-stuck-fermentations-techniques

 

[Rocker1986]

14C is too cold for most ale yeast anyway, 18-20C is better. Anyway, if you are worried about sediment affecting SG readings, you can discard the first little bit that comes out of the tap, or simply let the sample sit around for an hour or so to allow any shit in it to settle out to the bottom.

I normally take a sample on day 3 and let it sit on the kitchen bench with the hydrometer floating in it to monitor activity. Gives me an indication of what the FG should be too.

 

[Tex083]

You could try pitching a 1l starter of LARGER yeast they tend to ferment out a bit more and can be helpful at finishing off a beer.
Listen to the Brewing Network podcast on stuck ferments it's a good one