skagneti

Recipes 

Have a NB bourbon barrel porter that seems to be stuck. Originally sat 3 weeks in primary then transferred to secondary with bourbon and oak(should have transferred to secondary without oak and bourbon for a few weeks, but too late now). At that point it was stuck at 1.03. sat for two weeks with no movement then suddenly a new krausen formed and it fermented again for 2-3 days. It is now still again and the gravity is sitting at 1.024. I would normally let it sit,but from the gravity samples it is getting mighty oaky. Do I go ahead and bottle now with high final gravity or give it more time and risk over oaking.

AmandaK

Recipes 

Here's what you should have done (for next time, of course):

Don't ever transfer out of the primary before the fermentation is complete. Not 1.030. If you rack off the yeast before you hit your terminal gravity, you WILL have a stuck, slow or sluggish rest of your fermentation. I will never understand why new brewers rack their beers to a secondary before the beer is done.

Let the beer tell you when it's done, it's not on your 1 week, 2 week or 3 week schedule.

At any rate, a gravity reading of 1.024 will produce a very sweet beer. Add that to the bourbon and oak and it could be extremely cloying. If you are concerned with the oak being too strong, rack it off the oak. I would, however, rack it onto a massive amount of fresh yeast to get that FG down.

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skagneti

Recipes 

I generally never use a secondary, but for this recipe it is recommended to rack ontop of the bourbon and oak to avoid oxidation. I read through the other bourbon barrel porter thread and it sounds like a lot of people ended up with great results despite a seemingly stuck fermentation. I may just bottle it and role the dice.