Too high OG--now it's stuck!

Hey guys, this is a follow up from an old post about a racer 5 clone. Originally brewed march 15th-due to some mislabeling I added WAY too much extract leaving me with an OG of 1.135. Waited two weeks and bottled-at 1.070 (major dummy move on my part). Thought something might be wrong with such a high FG so I asked some questions on the forum here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/help-very-high-fg-469240/

Based on some advice I made a starter with a vial of WLP090, uncapped all the bottles, poured them back in the fermenter, pitched my yeast and hoped for the best. Didnt get much activity or krausen, some but not much.

After two weeks the gravity was 1.060 That was Thursday, so I decided to sprinkle in some US-05, not really any activity, this morning and this evening I gently swirled the carboy to stir up the yeast in the bottom to get it going but not seeing any signs of life besides a thin haze on the surface.

What can I do? Should I just toss this batch? Is there any hope for it?

Yes-I have calibrated my hydrometer, yes-I keep my carboy in a fermentation chamber, temp is usually between 69-73

I don't know what else you can do, but I sure would want to bottle it just to find out what god awful or awesome mess you made. The ABV calc says your at like 9.8% you could just cut it with some water maybe. I dont know... it's prolly oxidized with all this activity but it sounds like adventures in home brewing to me!

You're only at 10% ABV, so the 090 ought to be able to handle that fine. The only other thing that comes to mind is to make a small starter using rehydrated EC-1118 and pitch it at high krausen.

Just curious, if you have a fermenter chamber, why do you have it set at 69-73*F? That's a bit warm for most ale strains.

Cut with water? How much would I use and wouldn't that make it really weak and thin?
And I'd heard that a slightly warmer temp could sometimes rouse the yeast back into activity...what temp do you keep your ales?

Jeremy123 said:

what temp do you keep your ales?

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I usually set it a degree or two above the lowest recommended temp per the yeast manufacturers website.



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Jeremy123 said:

And I'd heard that a slightly warmer temp could sometimes rouse the yeast back into activity...what temp do you keep your ales?

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Warmer temp after the most active period of fermentation helps the yeast to remain in play and clean up their by-products. If you want a cleaner flavor with little or no ester character, it's good to keep in cool at first (the low end of the optimal range for the strain) and then let it get warmer.

I like to step up the ferment temp after activity begins to drop off. Most ales I'll start around 64*F if using Chico strains or English ale yeasts. Nottingham begins in the mid-upper 50's. Pitch temp is a few degrees lower than starting ferment temp. Finish temp is usually in the 66-70*F range, 75*F for Belgians (non-Saison).

Ok so I'm finding it pretty hard to calculate how much water to add to make it fermentable again since it has already come down to about 1.050-1.060. Any thoughts?

One idea I had was to move half of the 5gl to another carboy and add 2 gallons to that one and try to ferment. While leaving the remaining 2.5 gl in the original carboy and trying to ferment it using some wine yeast...sort of an experiment. Thoughts on the plan? how much water do I use to dilute?