rylan

Recipes 

Brewed an imperial stout 2weeks ago with an extract recipe put together by my local brew store. OG was 1.086 at 80F, pitched 2packs of yeast to make sure I got full fermentation, this is only my sixth batch. Pitched on a Sunday night and left early Monday morning for work, by 9am my roommate was calling me because beer was spraying out of the fermenter everywhere. He moved it to a shower room in our basement where it stayed until the next Saturday when I got back and it seemed to be doing nothing. I racked it to a secondary with some bourbon oak chips and the gravity reading was 1.04, and now a week later it is the same, I'm thinking of racking it onto another yeast cake this weekend to try to get it down to at least 1.02. Is it possible the yeast burned itself out after such a violent start to the fermentation? Any advice would be appreciated I really want to get this to drop some more. Thanks

rylan

Recipes 

Oh and temp in the basement room was in the low 60s, now its sitting in my closet at around 67. I also was considering making a yeast starter and just pouring it into the secondary, since I want it to sit on the oak chips for a while longer.

pdxal

Recipes 

Patience.
You shouldn't have transferred out of primary so early, if at all. A big beer needs lots of yeast, and you removed it from the yeast cake. The colder temps in the basement may have slowed the yeast down or made them go dormant. Keep it in the warmer temperature and keep rousing what yeast is left for several weeks before giving up and pitching more yeast. If you do add more yeast, look that up before doing so to have the right idea. I hope it turns out for you.

CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

+1

What strain was it?

rylan

Recipes 

I hydrated and pitched 2 packs of Windsor British style yeast. I suppose I should have left it in the primary but I've been doing most everything for a week before transferring to secondary so I didn't really think about it.

Bricks41

Recipes 

Rarely would you ever need to transfer any beer to a secondary - unless of course you are dry hopping or adding fruit, chocolate, etc. IMO it's better to leave it on the yeast for at least 2 weeks. If you get into the 1.100 range, longer is better.

Cheers!

CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

Windsor isn't exactly known for great attenuation, but 1.040 is still obviously high.

rylan

Recipes 

I have been doing IPA mostly so I've been doing a secondary with a dry hop, and I was thinking it would cut down on the sediment I would have at bottling. In hindsight I guess it wasn't really necessary for this recipe, as I was only adding the oak chips. I rolled the carboy around a bit and gave the yeast a little pep talk, now I guess I'll just wait. Thanks a lot for the help.

pdxal

Recipes 

No need to worry about sediment in a dark/opaque beer like a stout.
In the future, read up on the advisability of secondary. Really no need to do it, but potential risks like oxidation and transferring off of needed yeast if you do. Either way can work, though. Good luck.