Fermentation stuck

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kaeptnerdnuss

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hi everyone,
this is my first post! :mug:
home brewing was never a big thing in germany but as soon as i moved to NZ i was introduced to home brewing by my friends.
i made a few brews from kits during the last months and wanted to start experimenting a bit more. i tried honey, i tried adding hops and now i tried: 2 cans coopers stout, 500g DME, 2 sachets yeast (found this on the internet and thought i'd give it a go...).
i topped up to 27 liters and my OG was 1.04. after six days the fermentation stopped completely and i read 1.016 on the hydrometer. that was four days ago and it's still at 1.016.
any suggestions? how could i get the fermentation going again? i guess i would risk bottle rockets when bottling now?

cheers,
daniel
 
Well, first what type of stout (or final gravity really) are you going for? 1.016 is in the range tolerance for all stouts except a dry stout. Though your orignial gravity was a bit low for most stouts according to BJCP. If you haven't seen your gravity change in the last few days you are safe to bottle. What type of yeast did you use? You may have reached there max ability to ferment (though I doubt this since you're only at about 50% Real Attenuation). You could try to warm the fermentor to get the yeast going again, try giving it a little shake to bring the yeast back up into suspension to squeeze out another gravity point or two. I heard somewhere (but I don't remember the source so take this tip with a grain of salt), that you can add a lager strain to help break down a few of the longer chain sugars. MY assumption is that two cans of coopers stout had a bunch of unformentables and you are as low as you're gonna get
 
Extract is notorious for stopping around 1.020. With an average 75% attenuation on a 1.040 wort, you would expect an FG of about 1.01, and 1.016 is pretty darn close!

That's probably all you're gonna get..
 
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