Temp controller failed...

I had two batches in the ferm chamber. One was a half-batch of barleywine, and the other a Christmas ale. I noticed my temp controller was "ON", but the heater wasn't.

After a little bit of messing around and swapping heaters, I discovered that the heaters both have a thermal switch on them and only a 30 minute wait and turning them off and then back on will reset them. Not going to work for me.

Anyway, I figured they were pretty close to being done so I brought them in the house to keg (Xmas Ale) and Secondary (Barleywine).

Got a taste of both while racking and they are both pretty sweet. I'm letting them sit to start back up, but so far last night nothing doing. I realize it might take a bit for stalled yeast to get going again.

Do you think I should repitch? I'm going to grab the hydrometer tonight and see where they are at. There was some krausen residue in the buckets, so I know they got started at least.

I'd probably wait and just keep testing with the hydrometer. What was the OG & FG (current gravity) of each batch and what yeast strains are you using? Over 5%, the alcohol becomes pretty toxic to yeast, which is why it's difficult to get your ABV over 8% using a lot of strains. Especially if there was a stall.

You might try adding some yeast nutrient to the beer to see if it helps the stall.

I can't pull them up in Beersmith. I've had an issue with syncing the documents folder. They may be on my laptop...

One was a Barleywine, so I'm guessing about 1.10. The other was an xmas ale from the Holly Ale thread. I think it ended up being about 1.070.

I have lots of dry yeast and have never had an issue with going over 8% so far. Without the recipes I can't remember which yeast I used in each, except I'm pretty sure I used Notty for one of them. I think I used S-58 for the Xmas ale now that I referenced their website for names.

I've got S-05 and Notty on hand.

Gah. I forgot to grab a sample, but I can happily report that both seem to be fermenting again. Not that I had any doubts. Just couldn't help feeling a bit noobish.

I'm in a hurry to swap the Christmas Ale in for the lousy Centennial Blonde. I want it to taste decent before Christmas!

Took a sample 2 days ago and found the gravity sitting at right about 1.050. It seems to have been fermenting at a very slow pace. The temperature is high enough to allow it free reign though, so I'm not sure what's going on. Pitched some more on top last night. We'll see.

Other than being very sweet, it seems to taste ok.

You're certainly being forced to be patient with this one!