Restarting stuck fermentation

Hello,

I have an IPA in secondary that seems to be stuck. OG/FG per recipe is 1.070/1.012, and I've been hanging around 1.022 for a week or so.

I'd like to re-pitch to see if I can drop the gravity a little bit, so I've made another starter (1 cup DME, 2 pints water). My question is this--should I:

-Pitch the entire volume at high krausen (as I've read some places), or
-Wait until the starter ferments, yeast settles, decant, and pitch

Seems like with the first approach, if the fermentation doesn't get going again, I'm pitching a bunch of sugar in that starter that could ruin the beer. On the other hand, if I wait until the starter ferments and the yeast settles out, then the yeast may not be as active and have a lesser chance to restarting some fermentation.

Advice?

Thanks!

Pitch at high kraeusen. You want the yeast active. The new yeast will consume all the new simple sugars, so don't be concerned about increasing the FG.

BUT ....... depending on the cause of the original stuck fermentation, they may end up stopping at the same place.

+1 to pitching active yeast. They're ready to ferment anything that's left in there and they've got the nutrients and health to immediately get going.

Thanks guys for the input... I repitched it last night and the carboy is back to bubbling. We'll see how it does.

If you brewed from extracts, you might have enough unfermentables that you end up at 1.020. It's one of the curses of brewing from extract.

Try yeast energizer and rousing the yeast that dropped out. I got my saison from 1.020 to 1.008 by doing that.

It is extract -- I did rouse the yeast in the carboy before repitching... I'm going to give it about a week and then take another gravity reading... we'll see how it does... fingers are crossed.

Bumped - any luck?

If you brewed from extracts, you might have enough unfermentables that you end up at 1.020. It's one of the curses of brewing from extract.

Click to expand...

I don't understand why this myth keeps popping up. I do extract w/steeping grain batches all of the time because that is what I am set up for at this time. If the beer is not finishing then it is probably some other problem, not the extract. By telling someone that the problem is an extract curse does not help them understand what caused the problem. It could be a yeast problem, aeration problem or fermentation temp problem.

I have done almost 20 extract batches and never had one finish higher than 1.016. I did a Belgian Tripel that finished at 1.012 from 1.081. I had a Saison that finished at 1.005. All of my IPA's and wheat beers finish in the 1.012-1.015 range.

So after repitching, I basically added 0.5% ABV... not as much as I had hoped, but a reasonable change. IPA actually turned out pretty well...finished at 6.25% instead of in the 7's, but oh well.