Again a stuck/slow fermentation and must have my beer kegged in 1 week. What to do?

Our brewclub puts together a brewfest every year for Cystic Fibrosis, and everyone brews a bunch of beer to donate and pour. It's a lot of fun, gets the word out about homebrew and everything we make goes to a great cause.

So I brewed a stout and a pale a few weeks back and they have ceased fermentation (at least slowed to a crawl) for the past week. The stout is sitting a 1.030 and the pale at 1.020. I am expecting about 10pts less on teh stout and 6 on the pale. The event is next saturday, and I must have this beer kegged by then. I thought about dropping in something that finished really dry in each of them like a notingham packet, but thought about maybe using a champagne yeast. I've heard they ferment slow however, and I need something... well... yesterday.

Does anyone have any miracle, hail-mary thoughts?

If anyone is interested, the brewfest info is Brewing Up A Cure

-J

The stout could stand to go a little lower, but have you tried the pale yet? Taste it and see, perhaps even dry hop it to try and balance the sweetness with a little bitter character.

As far as pitching again, throwing dry yeast in a mostly finished beer won't do anything, they'll be way too stressed and may simply die out. Make a starter with the yeast, get them actively fermenting, full krauzen, and then dump the whole shebang in the beer. The yeast are already up and running, so they'll have an easier time getting the gravity down. Watch the gravity though! It can go too far and dry out your beer.

Never use champagne yeast, it's not made for beer, and will throw some really off flavors.

Once you get to the gravity you want, get the carboy nice and cold. The yeast will drop out and the beer will clear quicker, that way you can rack the beer before the yeast take it too far.

Good luck!

How warm/cold is the room they're in? Since they're almost done, warm 'em up to 70-72*F and see if they finish out.

I hear ya, I'm marathon-kegging beers for all different events. OktoBEERfest stroke benefit, 10der & Mild swap, local holiday beer contest, etc.

Chriso said:

How warm/cold is the room they're in? Since they're almost done, warm 'em up to 70-72*F and see if they finish out.

I hear ya, I'm marathon-kegging beers for all different events. OktoBEERfest stroke benefit, 10der & Mild swap, local holiday beer contest, etc.

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I'd go with this route, plus swirl the fermenter a bit....

Though Search for a thread by Evan! from a couple months back on Krauzening....he had good success with using the krauzen from one beer to jumpstart and stuck fermentation....

Or send him a PM... It's Evan! not Evan....

They are sitting at 70 right now. When I get home, I plan to get them next to a radiant heater and bring them up to about 80 or so.

-J

Never use champagne yeast, it's not made for beer, and will throw some really off flavors.

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Not true. Champagne yeast is the most neutral yeast available for high ABV fermentations. When used to finish a stout, you get nitro-like head.

I vote for krausening the secondary.