stalled fermentation on my IIPA

Hello all,

I recently brewed up an imperial ipa. OG was 1.090 and fermentation has slowed to a bubble about every 5 seconds a week in. I checked gravity today and it is down to 1.038. I would like for this beer to finish up in the 1.016-1.020 range. Do you more experienced guys think it will make it? I was thinking of adding a little corn sugar, but I don't know how much or if I even need to. I pitched a four quart starter of wlp001. Am I worrying prematurely? Should I just leave it the hell alone?

What was your aeration method? 4qts should have been enough of a starter, also did you aerate your starter(ie shake it often)?

Clem

First question, are you checking your gravity with a refractometer.
Second question, what were your fermentation temps. I can't imagine a 1 gallon starter stalling

Relax. It is most likely not stalled. Most high gravity brews have a large grain bill...odds are your yeast is just burried in some residue that made it to your fermentor from your BK. Before you panic, sanitize a stirring pole and give it a quick stir...nothing crazy, just enough to move things around.

I once thought a fermentation was stuck and I did just as I described. I came home from work that day to beer on my ceiling...fermentation was vigorous! Well, and my carboy was over filled lol.

One week is wayyy too early for a beer that big. I'd give it at least a month. Plus, only multiple gravity readings spaced a few days apart will tell you if you're stalled or not. It sounds like active fermentation is still going on but if you're still concerned take a reading every couple days and see if it's still dropping...

Its not at all unreasonable to expect a 1.090 brew in reach FG after a week, especially with a mondo starter like the one he pitched. Most do, in my experience. I definitely wouldn't freak out about it, though.

Thanks for all the replies. I don't usually even bother checking gravity until I rack to secondary, but this beer is getting special attention because it's slated for entry into a big beer competition coming up, and it was also a bloody expensive batch. 18 lbs of grain, and 11 oz of hops by the time it is all said and done.

I have decided to just leave it be until I see no signs of fermentation, at which point I will take another gravity reading and then decide if I need to add sugar. I have never had trouble with 001 not attenuating, and I don't want to risk infection by screwing with it excessively

I always love the theory of unsticking a fermentation by adding more sugar. You already have too much sugar in the beer, why compound the problem by adding more? Fermentations generally stick for a handful of reasons:

1. The ferment got too cool and the yeast floc'd out.
2. The yeast ran out of fermentable sugars.
3. The yeast hit the limit of their alcohol tolerance.

Adding sugar to any of the above isn't going to do anything...

I see many posts in here from people expecting a low gravity
and getting a high one, I think many don't realize that their beer
should finish high. For example, Jamil's Bohemian pilsener recipe
at beerdujour.com uses 12 lbs of German pilsener malt and 12 oz
of cara-pils for 6 gal (equal to 10 lbs and 10oz respectively in
a 5 gal recipe) and finishes at 1.017, appropriate for that style.
If you got a fg of 1.020 from a 1.090 beer with no unfermentable
specialty grains, that would be 78% attenuation, not too easy
to attain in a high alcohol brew. 70% is more realistic, leaving it
at 1.027, and that's only with no specialty grains. With adjuncts
you could easily finish over 1.030.

Ray

rayg said:

I see many posts in here from people expecting a low gravity
and getting a high one, I think many don't realize that their beer
should finish high. For example, Jamil's Bohemian pilsener recipe
at beerdujour.com uses 12 lbs of German pilsener malt and 12 oz
of cara-pils for 6 gal (equal to 10 lbs and 10oz respectively in
a 5 gal recipe) and finishes at 1.017, appropriate for that style.
If you got a fg of 1.020 from a 1.090 beer with no unfermentable
specialty grains, that would be 78% attenuation, not too easy
to attain in a high alcohol brew. 70% is more realistic, leaving it
at 1.027, and that's only with no specialty grains. With adjuncts
you could easily finish over 1.030.

Ray

Click to expand...

I disagree. Attenuation is a very general measure of a yeasts potential. I've heard some people reaching 90% attenuation. An IPA of 1.090 should ferment down to 1.025. I just had this exact situation. And I have another IPA of 1.092 that I mashed at 148 and it came down to 1.015

bottlebomber said:

I disagree. Attenuation is a very general measure of a yeasts potential. I've heard some people reaching 90% attenuation. An IPA of 1.090 should ferment down to 1.025. I just had this exact situation. And I have another IPA of 1.092 that I mashed at 148 and it came down to 1.015

Click to expand...

The original poster wanted to know if there was a problem, and
it doesn't look like it to me. Sure, if you use a highly attenuating
yeast like a saison or a brett and/or ferment at high temp, AND
have a high amount of fermentables AND/OR add sugar, you can
reach 90% *apparent* attenuation (I stress apparent because
a lot of the low final gravity is due to so much alcohol in the beer),
but it's definitely not the "normal" situation. He's using American
Ale yeast which has a high of 77% according to Wyeastlab.com,
and since that's not a yeast especially designed for high alcohol
levels, it's not too surprising it slowed down a lot towards the end.

Ray

I agree with bottlebomber, too many people look at the yeast and say White lab or wyeast list this as 60-75% attenuation therefore I will get x out of my recipe. When you really have to look where you get your fermentables from and how they were created. The range that yeast manufactures put on there is referencing a standard brew that they use for all their yeast and it gives you an idea of how hungry the yeast is but not an exact number to compare against. White Labs provides information on their web site about the mini ferment data they trail their yeasts on and that is a baseline for comparing yeasts not exact ranges.

For the OP although there are some occasions where your yeast will suddenly come to and start fermenting I think you are probably stuck. The interesting part is why and how to fix it. Of all my stuck brews (two) I tried temp and agitation, adding dry yeast and pitching on a cake from a good brew. The only thing that did any good was pitching on a cake. Dry yeast dropped it a couple of points and agitation and raising temp might have done something but nothing much. A beer of this size I would be tempted to brew an american ale around 1.050 and pitch on to the cake of that to finish it up.

Clem

If yeast had some absolute attenuation percentage then we wouldn't consider cane sugar 100% fermentable. Like it's been said, the real attenuation of any brew is based on the source of the sugars. I'd expect a 1.090 beer mashed in the 145-149 range to get well below 1.030 with wlp001.

As to the OP, what was the recipe and process? If it's all malt getting it lower may be difficult especially depending on the mash temp. If you added sugar, how much and when? I've had a big beer stall out at 1.040 with 30% sugar in the boil. It worked out b/c I was planning brett aging. Too much sugar right off and the yeast can stop eating maltose. Like clementine says, racking this onto a cake may be your best chance for getting to where you want.

I disagree with rayg. This yeast is quite alcohol tolerant. Also, something likely did go wrong if the ferment stays where it is. To the OP: usually people use some sugar in place of some of the malt in an IIPA to get the beer dry enough. The style calls for an fg between 1.010 and 1.020.

This fermentables included:

14 # two row
2 # victory
1 # flaked rye
1 # crystal 60L
2 # orange blossom honey

I did a single rest mash at 153 for 90 minutes. Last time I did a big beer with this yeast I mashed low and it went to 1.008 and it tasted like jet fuel, way too dry and fusely. Its still bumping along at a bubble about every three seconds, and has come down to 1.032 as of last night, so maybe it will make it after all. I really appreciate all the replies...wnc

So its lost 6 points in the last 2 days?? That's not stuck man. That's not stuck.

bottlebomber said:

So its lost 6 points in the last 2 days?? That's not stuck man. That's not stuck.

Click to expand...

You're right, I guess what I should have said is, fermentation has slowed way down and I'm not sure if it will make 1.020, I think I got worried prematurely because I have so much planning and high hopes invested in this beer

A quick update for anyone interested, I just did another gravity check and it has fallen to 1.022, which I can live with. There is also still some action going on in the airlock. So it seems that I got all worked up over nothing. This has been a very informative thread for me, however, and I appreciate the help...cheers and happy brewing...wnc

Its ok, that happened to me before. I had an IPA drop 40 points in about 36 hours, then it took 10 days to lose the other 35 points, and I did start a HBT thread. Since then I use WLP007 for all my IPAs, it hits terminal gravity in 4 days then drops like a rock. Glad your beer is turning out