Stuck Fermentation

My first batch to get stuck. A brown ale extract with grains. OG was 1.050 and used White Labs vial on brew day. Everything looked good, nice activity in air lock, descent krausen. After 1wk moved to secondary and was surprised to see gravity of 1.022, but continued to see activity in the air lock so didn't think twice.

2 weeks in secondary and I move to bottling bucket, gravity is still 1.020.

Racked back to a clean and sanitary secondary, made a pint starter with new vial of white labs, next day the starter is roaring so I pitched.

2 days later I'm still at least 1.018. I'm going to check again in a day or two. Pro Mash estimates FG of 1.012.

Anyone ever had a batch that just wouldn't get to your expected FG? What else can I do? When is it ok to bottle?

I got the same problem right now. Made a Belgium Wit about 17 days ago. When I racked I still had healthy krausen with airlock activity but wanted to get it off the trub. When racked it was 1.024 with an OG of 1.050; never had that either. Krausen started building up in the secondary; still airlock going and the krausen still hasn't settled. Haven't checked gravity but I'm going to increase the temp a bit (is in ferm chiller @ 68) to see if the wl400 belgium yeast just wants a little warmer environment to finish.

Nutshell no answers for ya but I don't consider adding more yeast. Just don't think thats the issue. Maybe I'll go test the gravity on it but I'll just let it sit until it runs its course. Have to take a sip with the test grab as well. Tasted fine at rack time...

I'm down to 1.016. Still 2" krausen on the top . Promash figured 1.012 was optimum. I had intentions on bottling it this coming weekend. May still - depends on how it finishes off but really want that krausen to start to settle...

I've just got a little bit of foam on top. Hopefully it's still dropping...

I pulled out the book that came with my starter kit and it give this guidance.

For OG of 1.050, FG estimated by 50 / 3.7 or 13.5 +/-20%

So FG should be between 1.016 and 1.011.

I still have a little bit to go sitting at 1.018

Finished gravity is not only dependent on your yeast strain and SG but also on the fermentability of the sugars in your wort.

IE: using Laaglander DME which is highly dextronus and is only 55% fermentable. John Bull LME is also highly dextronous.

These unfirmentable sugars can leave you with a higher finishing SG.

Hmm, I'm an all grainer so not sure what my answer to unfermentable sugars would be. 1st wheat beer I've done w/ AG (& belgium yeast). She's chugging along fine though. It'll be beer.

If your still firmenting than you're not stuck. It's just taking a long time.

i have a problem aswell im currently fermenting an irish ale and it had a S.G of 1.050and a week later its at 1.010 and fermentation is very slow i have now sythoned it into 5 gallon jars with airlocks to see what happens 2 out of 4 are bubbling at a rate of 3 bubbles a minuite but the other two arnt doing anything and the gravity is still 1.010 any hep? p.s i used muntons light spraymalt

You're expecting it to go lower than 1.010?

desertBrew said:

I'm down to 1.016. Still 2" krausen on the top . Promash figured 1.012 was optimum. I had intentions on bottling it this coming weekend. May still - depends on how it finishes off but really want that krausen to start to settle...

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I'd give it a bit longer. I'd be concerned about bottle bombs if you add sugar yet.
What were the specifics on the yeast? Some don't attenuate as far as others.

El Pistolero said:

You're expecting it to go lower than 1.010?

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ooops i ment 1.020 sorry

ORRELSE said:

I'd give it a bit longer. I'd be concerned about bottle bombs if you add sugar yet.
What were the specifics on the yeast? Some don't attenuate as far as others.

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Agreed on the bombs.. but you could always lay some at the doorstep of your HBS

Got to look into the attenuation but I forgot most the details of what all that means... WLP400 74-78 attenuation; low-med flocculation. Whatever, it's just going to sit...

My fermentation seems to be slowing down as well after a week. Its in the secondary (last night) and I haven't seen the lock bubble once. Didn't seem to be much krausen on top either.

At what point should I decide whether to add more sugars?

Shmohel said:

My fermentation seems to be slowing down as well after a week. Its in the secondary (last night) and I haven't seen the lock bubble once. Didn't seem to be much krausen on top either.

At what point should I decide whether to add more sugars?

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It sounds to me that your fermentation went just fine. You won't be adding anything (sugar) until its time to bottle. A "typical" fermentation would be getting near or at your final gravity while in the primary. The secondary is where it will still do a bit of fermentation but it's goal is to settle before bottling. Many of my secondary carboys just sit there with no visual appearance of anything going on. A good thing...

Not to whore the thread, but I think I'm in the same boat. I started an Oktoberfest on 8-21 (yeah, yeah, I know, march). It had an OG of 1.040. I racked it to a secondary on 8-31 and it had a reading of 1.022. I've got it in a plastic tub with water/ice, keeping it at ~60-65 degrees. I'm using 2112 California Lager Yeast.

Today, I noticed the bubble activity had increased enough to create a ring of bubbles around the fermenter, so I took a sample (tasted very nice) and took a reading - 1.018.

Should this thing still be going? I was thinking about bottling this weekend, but now I'm not sure if that's a good idea yet..

Eskram said:

Not to whore the thread, but I think I'm in the same boat. I started an Oktoberfest on 8-21 (yeah, yeah, I know, march). It had an OG of 1.040. I racked it to a secondary on 8-31 and it had a reading of 1.022. I've got it in a plastic tub with water/ice, keeping it at ~60-65 degrees. I'm using 2112 California Lager Yeast.

Today, I noticed the bubble activity had increased enough to create a ring of bubbles around the fermenter, so I took a sample (tasted very nice) and took a reading - 1.018.

Should this thing still be going? I was thinking about bottling this weekend, but now I'm not sure if that's a good idea yet..

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I would not bottle yet. Your temp may be a bit low at 60-65. Mine after hitting about 1.012 I brought out of my fement chiller and into the house where it's 78. It's finally settling out. Wait...

Hi everyone,

Don't know if this thread is still active but I just started home brewing lately and what is discribed here is basically what happened with my last two brews.

(FYI both brew kits, dry ale yeast from a separate source, not from the kit, spraymalt instead of sugar, yeast rehydrated, pitching at 25° C, fermentation consistent between 18-20°C as suggested by the yeast specification)

Now what happens is that I went down from OG 1.050 to 1.024 in 3 days, strong kreuse, strong bubbling. After day 3 the kreuse is almost gone, fermentation also seems to be very slow.

My thoughts:
1. Temperature to low, so I went up to 20-22°C.
2. Maybe the spraymalt ferments slower or is less fermentable.

Any comments, ideas, tips are welcome.
Cheers!