Stuck Fermentation? Should I just rack it?

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elmito

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Citra - SMaSh 12 Gallon

25lbs - Maris Otter
1lbs - Crystal 40

1 oz Citra - 60m
2 oz Citra - 20m
1 oz Citra - 10m

1 packet - Safale 05 (yeast starter)

Mashed at 154 for 60M
Batch Sparge Water at 175

Pre-boil 1.054
Post-Boil 1.058 - on Jan. 24th
Estimate F.G - 1.013

1.020 on Jan 31
1.020 on Feb 12

Ok, so that's just about all the info I think is needed. I'm getting a little uneasy about the gravity being stuck at 1.020 for so long. I want to rack and dry hop with another 2 oz of Citra. Should I wait longer or rack it, slurp up some yeast and dry hop? Need some insight folks! Throw some knowledge at me! :ban:

Thanks!
 
Did you use one pack of yeast in 12 gallon?

You mashed at 154 which could account for the FG being a little high.

You didn't say what temperature it's at now, but maybe warm it up a bit.

It's not a SMaSH since you used marris otter and crystal 40.
 
You say you made a starter, but how big? That's a lot of grain. Your mash temp would leave a lot of unfermentables too. 1.020 is too high in any case, so either warm it up, stir up the yeast cake or add more yeast or all 3. If adding yeast, make another starter out of it first.
 
Warm up to 22-23 Celcius and once it's at that temperature, swirl the fermenter gently for 30 seconds... At this point, higher temp won't give you off flavors...

Be sure not to swirl if you opened the fermenter in the last 24h to prevent oxydation...

Anyhow, you mashed at 67-68 C... 68 C is more like ScotchAle mash temp... If you wanted a fairly dry beer, you should have mashed around 64-65 (I think it's 149 F)...

Unrelated to that, I would have added a hop addition at 1 minutes... ;-)
 
A) fermenting at 68
B) you're right, technically not a smash but I figure that 1 lbs of crystal should not affect the flavor that much. I wanted to add a little color.
C) 800 mL starter one packet of Safale05. Realize now I should probably start pitching larger starters (even though I haven't had a problem till just now)
D) gonna do a mix of suggestions. Gonna swirl the yeast with minimal aeration and rack to secondary but try to pull up some of the yeast cake. I don't think I have any extra yeast laying around.

I spoke to the brewer at work (just so happens I work at a microbrewery) and he said the same thing. I mashed too high and got too many unfermentable sugars. Read over my notes and this is by far the highest I've ever mashed at.

I'll let you guys know what happens. Thanks for the advice guys!
 
Next time make at least a 2L starter, probably more. That's a 5 gallon starter, but you made 12 so more than double it.

You work at a microbrewery and you can't get some yeast?
 
That's a good point zackster, there's tons of yeast that I can use but I don't know if the brewer has safale 05. Would it be bad to use a different type of yeast?
 
Why are you making starters with dry yeast? Especially if you have access to the yeast the brewery uses.
 
In some countries, using dry yeast when you have access to a microbrewery's fresh yeast might get you burned at the stake.

Oh wait.... BURN HIM ALIVE!!!
 
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