please tell me about any stuck fermentations you've experienced

CvilleKevin · 09-30-2009, 06:30 AM

Hi Folks,

I'd like to know about any yeasts you've used that have got stuck and needed nutrients to get going.

I'm thinking about exploring the use of nitrogen reduction for bottle carbing a sweet cider, the general idea being that if the cider runs out of nitrogen before it runs out of sugar, it could produce enough CO2 to carb a bottle but not so much as to cause it to burst. The devil of course is in the details.

One thing I have noticed is that 3068 is very easy to stop from fermenting, just by racking it off the lees. I suspect this is because 3068 uses a lot of nitrogen and without the nitrogen in the lees, it quickly uses up whatever nitrogen is suspended in the cider and starves. It becomes a stuck fermentation. SO4 will also stop fermenting after repeated rackings even without cold crashing.

It ought to be possible to bottle a yeast like 3068 or SO4 after racking it sweet and it might even produce a little CO2 on its own before running out of nitrogen. Or one could add something like a champagne yeast that is able to ferment in low nitrogen environments (but not for too long). I'm thinking about trying something like this once I locate some good storage containers that can contain a bottle bursting and which are easy to clean

So what other yeasts tend to stick unless nutrients are used? These would be good candidates for purposely inducing nitrogen deprivation. Has anyone had a ferment stick that they can tell me about

Thanks

SeamusMac · 09-30-2009, 12:35 PM

I used Nottingham Ale Yeast to make Graff in the spring and it stuck around 1.020-1.022 and I could not get it to start for the life of me. I stirred it, warmed it up, re-pitched yeast and finally racked it onto a yeast cake from my IPA and it restarted. I'm presuming that it needed additional nutrients that remained in the yeast cake from my IPA's primary.