Severe under pitch ... how to correct

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GRHunter

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I made a milk stout 9 days ago with Ringwood Ale yeast (Wyeast Labs #1187). Mr. Malty said that I should have used 7 packages of yeast for, I only used 2. The OG was supposed to be 1.062 but I came in high at 1.080. FG is supposed to be 1.018, and after 8 days in my fermentation chamber at a steady 70 degrees I am at 1.030. Now I know that I had a couple of days of lag time so I am not ready to panic just quite yet. Here are my questions:

I have dropped 50 points, but due to my accidental high OG should I realistically expect to get to my estimated FG of 1.018? If not, what is a realistic FG?

I can't get any more Ringwood Ale yeast until this Saturday. If I am truly stuck at 1.030 is it OK to wait that long before re-pitching more yeast?

I can get some dry yeast as early as tomorrow. If that is the best option, what type of yeast would be good to get?
 
You will probably not reach 1.018, but in the 20's is reasonable. You can just pitch some rehydrated Nottingham/S-05 to attenuate the last few points.

I know Ringwood yeast to be quite picky, but have not had the pleasure of using it (yet). Maybe someone else can chime in here about how to squeeze the last few drops out of this beast of a brew.
 
Thats a tough one. Its hard to get it started again once there is alcohol involved. 1.030 is not crazy for a milk stout. Maybe taste it and see how it is? You could try to gently rouse the yeast to try to get a few more points. Never brewed with the ringwood myself so I am not sure how to handle it, although I have talked to people who have used it a lot and they say it hits FG withing 2-3 days usually. I am guessing the underpitch and high OG is working against you on this one.
 
Did you use extract? If so, your OG was probably correct, and 2 smack packs would be fine for that gravity. I checked the yeast calculator and it's only calling for 3 packs at 1.080 without a starter. Is this like a 15 gallon batch or something?
 
Did you use extract? If so, your OG was probably correct, and 2 smack packs would be fine for that gravity. I checked the yeast calculator and it's only calling for 3 packs at 1.080 without a starter. Is this like a 15 gallon batch or something?

It was an all grain batch, and the yeast was 2 1/2 months old so it was not 100% viable. As I mentioned, I did NOT do a starter.
 
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