fermentation stall/stop on all grain IPA

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bigben24

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brewed up an IPA memorial day weekend. Initial gravity was 1.070 measured prior to pitch. Took gravity 5 days later and it was only at 1.038, waited another 4 days and still sit at 1.038. Program I use projected my final gravity to be in the realm of 1.019.

Im left with an alc % in the area of 4.3% when I was supposed to be looking at 7.5%. Not to mention the product is entirely to sweet with all the residual sugar.

So, what to do? Room temperature has been spot on for a proper fermentation using Wyeast American Ale II.

Do I repitch? Never experienced a stall/stop before.

:confused:
 
Have you tried rousing the yeast? Gently swirl the fermenter to get yeast resuspended. See if that will get the yeast back to work...

Did you do a starter?
 
At 1.070 you are brewing a larger beer and depending upon your pitching rate I will also assume that there was a day or two of lag time prior to the start of active fermentation which means in reality the beer has only been fermenting for 3 days which means that taking a gravity at only 5 days in is way too early and the beer is just not done yet. Leave the thing alone for at least 2 weeks total time and then take a gravity before you do anything further, I would be very surprised if the numbers don't continue to drop over that time to meet your FG
 
Have you tried rousing the yeast? Gently swirl the fermenter to get yeast resuspended. See if that will get the yeast back to work...

Did you do a starter?

I didnt do a starter as it was only a 5 gallon batch. I did swirl the fermenter after taking my first 1.038 reading.
 
At 1.070 you are brewing a larger beer and depending upon your pitching rate I will also assume that there was a day or two of lag time prior to the start of active fermentation which means in reality the beer has only been fermenting for 3 days which means that taking a gravity at only 5 days in is way too early and the beer is just not done yet. Leave the thing alone for at least 2 weeks total time and then take a gravity before you do anything further, I would be very surprised if the numbers don't continue to drop over that time to meet your FG

suprisingly it was bubbling away within about 5 hours of pitching. I didnt expect that at all. So there wasnt a lag at all.

I have patience, but have more of a concern becuase of the two 1.038 measurements, it should have at least gone down some fraction with 4 days in between measurements, if there is activity. No?
 
suprisingly it was bubbling away within about 5 hours of pitching. I didnt expect that at all. So there wasnt a lag at all.

I have patience, but have more of a concern becuase of the two 1.038 measurements, it should have at least gone down some fraction with 4 days in between measurements, if there is activity. No?

Generally yes, but sometimes those last several points take a while to drop, I would give it some time before considering re-pitching, You may want to bump the temp up a bit if it's cold as well.

Also, at what temp did you mash, if your mash temps were higher than they should be you may have wound up with a less fermentable wort preventing the full attenuation of the yeast as well, something to consider
 
I took it from my basement at about 66 to the upstairs at about 70 after first 1.038, so considered that.

My mash started at 154 and held to 152 or so. Using an 10 gallon igloo converted tun.
 
Hindsight is always 20/20 -- you probably should have made a starter for a beer with an OG of 1.070.

Did you Aerate thoroughly before pitching? and Pitch at proper temperature?

My suggestion would be to grab a pack of US-05 and dump it in there and see if you can get the gravity down.
 
Hindsight is always 20/20 -- you probably should have made a starter for a beer with an OG of 1.070.

Did you Aerate thoroughly before pitching? and Pitch at proper temperature?

My suggestion would be to grab a pack of US-05 and dump it in there and see if you can get the gravity down.

pitched at proper temp and shook the hell out of it.

starter next time I guess.
 
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