Stuck Fermentation

I have what i think is a stuck fermentation. One week ago I brewed 10 gallons of an ESB with an initial gravity of 1.058. I used the large WYEAST London Ale, but do to a screw up, I was not able to step it up. So I under-pitched. To make matters worse, it got really hot last week and I had trouble keeping the fermentation temp down. I think I averaged 72 degrees.

I was transferring to a secondary this weekend, and had a specific gravity of 1.024, obviously a problem.

What I was thinking of doing is re-pitching. I grabbed a Mason Jar and sanitized it with Iodophor. I then siphoned some the slurry/trub mix at the bottom of the fermenter into the jar, covered it and put it in my Fridge last night. I was thinking of making a starter with some of the trub/slurry mix and then re-pitching that. Any thoughts.

Why don't you just try rousing the yeast? Sanitize a racking cane, or some other long object and stir up the yeast on the bottom to resuspend it into your fermenter. You dropped from 1.058 to 1.024, so you have obviously had some activity. I don't think your fermentation is stuck yet. It probably just isn't done yet and you have a slow fermentation.

knightbeer39 said:

Why don't you just try rousing the yeast? Sanitize a racking cane, or some other long object and stir up the yeast on the bottom to resuspend it into your fermenter. You dropped from 1.058 to 1.024, so you have obviously had some activity. I don't think your fermentation is stuck yet. It probably just isn't done yet and you have a slow fermentation.

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I have already moved into a secondary, so that option is no longer available to me.

If you've already moved to secondary, take another gravity reading in a few days to see where you are, as you may very well have moved a little lower. There's no harm at this point in taking your time. If it turns out to still be at 1.024 after several days, you can make a small starter as you suggested and pitch this to finish it out. Another option would be to use some dry yeast. At this point you will have already gotten most of your fermentation character from the yeast that was pitched originally, so using another strain won't make a difference.

meschaefer said:

I have already moved into a secondary, so that option is no longer available to me.

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Yup, duh. Good point.

I think you should just wait it out. It's moving. If consecutive gravity readings with a few days between show no change, then start deciding if more action is necessary. I bet it turns out just fine.

What does it taste like? Before doing anything take a small glass of it and see what's up. You might just like it as is and you can save yourself a lot of time and potentially messing it up.

If it picked up some strong esters from high temp fermentation, then reintroducing some yeast might be a good idea.

knightbeer39 said:

Yup, duh. Good point.

I think you should just wait it out. It's moving. If consecutive gravity readings with a few days between show no change, then start deciding if more action is necessary. I bet it turns out just fine.

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I'll wait it out for a few days and then take another reading to see what happens.

I very rarely take a reading this early, but it was a good opportunity to do so. I wanted to move it to a secondary to free up my larger carboys, which I use for primaries, for a the beer I brewed this weekend.

samc said:

What does it taste like? Before doing anything take a small glass of it and see what's up. You might just like it as is and you can save yourself a lot of time and potentially messing it up.

If it picked up some strong esters from high temp fermentation, then reintroducing some yeast might be a good idea.

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Taste it? What a crazy idea!


What is funny, is that while I probably tasted it when i took the reading, I for the life of me have no recollection of it. I will give it another taste when I take a reading in another couple of days.