A Pair of Stuck Belgians...

I currently have 6 Gallons of Belgian Wit, brewed on 5/13, fermented with WLP400...and 5.5 Gallons of Saison, brewed on 5/27, fermented with WLP565. They both seem to have crapped out early on me and I can't seem to get them to finish. The Wit has stopped fermenting at 1.020 (OG 1.048), the Saison is stuck at 1.025 (OG 1.062). I've kept them both in the mid to high 70's, they've crept up over 80 here and there, but never for too long.

I'm wondering what, if anything, I should do with these beers. I feel like I should be bottling soon, but with that much sugar still in the beer, I'm worried about bottle bombs and my beer being too sweet. I've thought about just picking up a couple vials of WLP001 tomorrow after I get paid and pitching one in each to finish them out. My concern is, will this be too much time in Primary (especially the Wit that's been going over a month)?

And because it will get asked, no I didn't make starters for either of these. I didn't have my stir plate done yet, but that won't be an issue anymore

Thanks in advance for any input/advice you all may have.

Were these both all grain, what were the recipes? What did you mash at? 565 is notorious for for stalling at around the gravity you are at now, you really need to ramp the temp on that strain up into the 90s to get a nice dry beer.

Have you checked the calibration on your thermometer to make sure youre mashing in the proper range? With 2 beers finishing that high it makes you think you have a process issue somewhere along the line, but a high mash temp shouldnt be enough for a fermentation to stick that high.

How much yeast did you pitch, did you create a starter for both batches? Did you aerate well? If no starter and no aeration I would guess this could be your issue.

Pitching WLP001 is a good plan of action, Ive done it before when 565 stalled and it moved it a long a little bit. Or you could pitch some Brett!

Rouse the yeast.

Are you using a refractometer to measure the gravity?

Instead of going into all the details of recipes and such, I'll just say I've stuck very close to recipes I've seen around the HBT recipe section. All of which were tried and tested beers.

I had a vial of WLP001 in the fridge, so I pitched it into 750mL of 1.030 wort and ran it on the stir plate for a few days. I took it off before work today and put it in the fridge to settle. I took it out after work to come up to temp. In the morning I plan to decant some of the wort out, mix up the yeast (of which there seems to be a very healthy amount of) and pitch half into each beer and let them rock for a few days. I know it's a pretty small yeast starter, but I'm not looking to ferment a full batch of beer, just .01-.015 per batch.

If you see any major flaw in my process, please share before I stress about this not working out how I'm hoping it will.

I had a stuck fermentation on a Simla beer and I roused the yeast a bit and added 2 tsp of yeast nutrient and the fermentation kicked right up. Don't bottle yet!!!


Life is to short for ugly women or crappy beer.

Wyeast 3711 (French Saison) is great for a stuck fermentation. It's a beast. I even used it once on a stuck non-Belgian with good results. Pitch a small starter and ramp up into the mid- to high 70's. Give it enough time to finish. I've had brews that slowly dropped the last 3 or 4 points over more than a week.

So are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer to measure the gravity? It may not be stuck at all. Refractometers will read high with alcohol in solution.

I've been using a refractometer. I pitched some WLP001 into each one the other day, so I'll check it again tomorrow with the hydrometer.

Darth_Malt said:

I've been using a refractometer. I pitched some WLP001 into each one the other day, so I'll check it again tomorrow with the hydrometer.

Click to expand...

Then they aren't stuck. They're done. Using this conversion calculator it looks like the wit is around 1.008 and the saison is around 1.009. You didn't need to repitch. Refractometers aren't accurate once fermentation begins. The conversion calculators will get you a good ballpark estimate, but a hydrometer is the most accurate way to measure.

Wow, that's great info to have right there! Guess I should get washing bottles tomorrow so I can get this beer carbed and drinkable Thanks for the help peterj

No problem! Enjoy your beers!