Pilsner at 1.040 from og of 1.055 after 12 days should I be worried?

I used wyeast 2206. This is the second use for this same batch of yeast. It is at 50* in a ferm chamber.

The sample tasted great!

I know - give it more time. I was hoping to get this in secondary in a keg to free up some space but I guess this will have to wait.

Patirck said:

I used wyeast 2206. This is the second use for this same batch of yeast. It is at 50* in a ferm chamber.

The sample tasted great!

I know - give it more time. I was hoping to get this in secondary in a keg to free up some space but I guess this will have to wait.

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I'd be worried! Did it get a super late start, or has it been going so slowly all along? Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

I'm using a refractometer. I have three other beers fermenting and I tested them - they seem to be about where they should be so I think the refractometer is ok. I took a tiny sample at first and got this reading then I used a thief to get something further down the fermenter and got the same thing. It is my second use of this yeast - I put the used slurry in about 1.5 liters of wort and put it on the stir plate for 24 hours. I had lots of activity in the starter (more than usual).

is 1.040 the pure refract reading or did you adjust?

Patirck said:

I'm using a refractometer. I have three other beers fermenting and I tested them - they seem to be about where they should be so I think the refractometer is ok. I took a tiny sample at first and got this reading then I used a thief to get something further down the fermenter and got the same thing. It is my second use of this yeast - I put the used slurry in about 1.5 liters of wort and put it on the stir plate for 24 hours. I had lots of activity in the starter (more than usual).

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No, the refractometer is not right.

Alcohol skews the reading. It either needs to be run through some software conversions, some complicated math, or a hydrometer reading needs to be taken. I'd take a hydrometer reading, as I believe the beer is far lower than 1.040 if that's the reading you got from the refractometer.

If you're reading 10 brix now, the hydrometer could easily read 1.030 or lower.

OK - so now I leaned how to use a refractometer. I just got this thing and have only used it in wort - this is the first time that I am using it in fermenting beer. I just did the conversion using brewmate and it is at 1.030.

1.030 still seems a bit high to me but it is far better than 1.040.

Is there an advantage to using a hydrometer instead of the refractometer and adjusting the reading using software?

This is getting intersting. Now that I have learned to adjust this I have two other beers that seem to be done or close to done.

Das Boot - German alt beer with german ale yeast 1007. Started fermenting 8/30 (11 days ago) and has gone from 1.050 to 1.008. This thing needed a blow off tube (I was surprised at this). I just pitched the yeast with no starter. This puts it at 83% attenuation. Perhaps a bit over attenuated for an alt beer (supposed to be 1.010 FG).

Pale ale - 1.048 - 1.014 in 6 days. According to brewmate this is already at 72% attenuation. This is with S-05.

when in doubt, use a hydro.

Patirck said:

This is getting intersting. Now that I have learned to adjust this I have two other beers that seem to be done or close to done.

Das Boot - German alt beer with german ale yeast 1007. Started fermenting 8/30 (11 days ago) and has gone from 1.050 to 1.008. This thing needed a blow off tube (I was surprised at this). I just pitched the yeast with no starter. This puts it at 83% attenuation. Perhaps a bit over attenuated for an alt beer (supposed to be 1.010 FG).

Pale ale - 1.048 - 1.014 in 6 days. According to brewmate this is already at 72% attenuation. This is with S-05.

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The refractometer is useless at this point. You can't really get an accurate FG with it. You need hydrometer readings when you think the beer is done.

OK so I just rechecked the pilsner and the altbier and they were both the same as the corrected refractometer readings - the pilsner was 1.030 and the altbier is at 1.009 (maybe 1.008 or even 1.010 - my eyes aren't that good).

Ok - so I just rechecked and now I'm at 1.026 a fall of .004 in two days. It is two weeks 13 days since yeast was pitched. This is going much slower than I'd like. If I follow the 3/4 rule, I should pull it out to do a d-rest at 1.022 (1.055-1.010=.45 - 1.055-.45/3=1.022). Does this sound right?

Any idea why it's taking so long? Should I somehow try and rouse the yeast?

I guess I should be happy that the gravity is still dropping.

Patirck said:

Ok - so I just rechecked and now I'm at 1.026 a fall of .004 in two days. It is two weeks 13 days since yeast was pitched. This is going much slower than I'd like. If I follow the 3/4 rule, I should pull it out to do a d-rest at 1.022 (1.055-1.010=.45 - 1.055-.45/3=1.022). Does this sound right?

Any idea why it's taking so long? Should I somehow try and rouse the yeast?

I guess I should be happy that the gravity is still dropping.

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Yes, you can do the diacetyl rest at 1.022ish- that will be fine.

It might be going slow because the yeast is stressed or it was underpitched. Hard to say without knowing the details!

This is the second use of the batch of yeast. I first used it on the same recipe about 2 months ago and harvested the slurry from both the primary and secondary fermentation. I made the wort for the second batch and took 1 Liter or so and pitched the slurry into a flask and put it on the stir plate overnight. I then put the starter in the ferm chamber along side the wort to bring them to the same temperature for a day. Then I pitched at the end of that day.

The starter actually had some krausen in it when I pitched. I remember I was a bit surprised at the level of activity in the starter - more than usual.

I am getting a pretty good amount of the sulfur smell in the fermentation keezer so it is doing something.