100% Brett L oatmeal stout stalled?

I brewed an oatmeal stout and added a healthy starter of Brett L that I built up twice that was from white labs. I began to see active fermentation after 6 hours and thought things were great. My basement temp dropped to high 50's low 60's and after two days of going crazy it stopped so I moved it upstairs to a closet. After 3 weeks it is only at 1.026 and started around 1.050ish (don't have notes handy). Is this normal for Brett L to be so slow? I've read that most people are done around 4 weeks.

Brett in general will take a while to ferment. It has a wide temp range but is more active in the mid 80's. I would raise the temp with a electric blanket and see if that helps. Also just give it some time to do its thing. Def want to know how this turns out.

the drop in temp may have just crashed it out, but what temp did you mash at? 100% brett should be treated as normal beer

Using a refractometer?

I mashed for 60 mins at 157 but it was freezing in the garage that day and no matter what I did, the temp by the end of the 60 minutes was near 150. I also only use a hydrometer, so it's not a calculation error and it's calibrated. It also has a very metallic like taste...of course this was after I took a hydrometer reading so maybe It was from that.

6.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)

I also added a 1/2# of acid malt with 20 mins. remaining to lower the ph for the brett but not long enough to affect the mash ph.

Also the original gravity was 1.055.

hmmm, you said you built up a healthy starter, was it in the gallon+ range?

Not of pure Brett L... Around 1\4 gallon pure.

crawfman said:

Not of pure Brett L... Around 1\4 gallon pure.

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Depending on the age of that vial, you may have just inadvertently underpitched then. Those WLP Brett vials have something like 10% the total number of cells of a standard sacch vial. For an all-Brett beer, most folks try to pitch at/near lager rates.

I had varying results with Brett, getting between 60 and 80% attenuation with the same yeast in similar worts.

Give it a few weeks and keep it warm. If it still hasn't moved, add a standard yeast to finish it off.

Do you still have any noticeable sweetness? Because of your mash temp you might be dealing with a healthy amount of medium length proteins and dextrins.

Tastes fairly dry surprisingly. I checked it again today and it's showing signs of fermentation again so I'll wait and check in a couple weeks and see where it's going.

Checked again today. Gravity is 1.019, so it has went down considerably. Smell has some metallic-ness to it and something else I can't place my finger on. Definitely no cherry pie! But I used white labs not wyeast. I'll check it in a month and see if the gravity changes anymore.

I took another gravity today. It's at 1.016 today. Would bottling at this point be crazy? Slight metallic still present but more smoke noticeable, like a cigarette kinda in aftertaste.

crawfman said:

I took another gravity today. It's at 1.016 today. Would bottling at this point be crazy? Slight metallic still present but more smoke noticeable, like a cigarette kinda in aftertaste.

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Does it taste like you want to drink it? Doesn't sound like it from that description.

At first, no. But it kinda grew on me and I begin picking out other aromas and flavors.

I did a pale ale with Brett T at 60F and had a metallic taste, too...

I probably wouldn't bottle your Brett beer at that gravity. All my Brett beers (10+) have finished under 1.010