4 weeks and only at 1.030… bottling at high gravity

My first brew is not going as smoothly as I would like. It was stuck at 1.030 so I pitched some Nottingham 4 days ago and nothing happened, it is still at 1.030. I am going to bottle it this Tuesday which will make it 4 weeks. Anyone have any similar experiences? How did you beer turn out?

Thank You

Twilight,

What is the recipe and what was the original gravity? It's certainly high right now. Have you taken a taste? Was it sweet? We'll need this information to really help you.

4.7# light DME
1# dark DME
0.5# crystal 40
Wyeast 1099
OG around 1.055
5+ gallons

At first I thought weak yeast and temperature flocculation’s stalled my brew now I am starting to think it’s the DME. I put half of the DME in at the end the other half at start, I had A long boil waiting for a hot break to occur but that never really happened, then I started boiling the hops, total boil time was around 2 1/2 hours for the first half of the extract, could this long boil cause some of the sugar to become unfermentable?

Yes I tasted the beer and it was not overly sweet at all, it was more bitter then sweet.

you're at less than 50% attenuation. the dme didn't cause that. looks like you've got a stalled fermentation.

if you put that into bottles now, they will likely explode.

DeathBrewer said:

if you put that into bottles now, they will likely explode.

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I would go as far as to say the WILL explode....no "if" about it. maybe a complete lack of oxygen stunted the original yeast and of corse the new packet had no oxygen to get going either.

I dunno but I would not bottle it.

Maybe someone can walk me through this...if the yeast are not able to use up the sugars that are there now, why would they suddenly start to do so once in the bottles?

The small amount of priming sugar alone should not lead to bottle bombs.

If the priming sugar "kicks starts" the yeast and gets them going, then how come I never hear about adding extra sugar to the carboy as a solution for stuck fermentations?

Just wondering.

If it were me, I'd aerate the beer really good, pitch properly rehydrated dry yeast (like Nottingham), keep it in a warm place, and see what happens. Yes...aeration may lead to off flavors eventually, just make an effort to drink the beer fast.

I would gently shake or swirl the fermenter to try and revive the sleepy yesties. Chances are you'll see the gravity drop in less than a week. Do not move it out of the primary.

Did you happen to use Laaglanders DME?

Did you aerate the crap out of the wort prior to pitching the yeast?

What temp is the beer sitting at right now?

Do the easy things that won't cause damage first.

Raise the ambient temps (high temps are an issue primarily during the beginning of fermentation, you can get away with higher temps a little bit more later on).

Swirl the carboy, get the yeast back in suspension.

brloomis said:

Maybe someone can walk me through this...if the yeast are not able to use up the sugars that are there now, why would they suddenly start to do so once in the bottles?

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mainly because mixing everything up racking to a bottling bucket is very likely to kick start fermentation again. and then...pop...fizzzzzzzzz.


Actually I read something today that indicated adding alpha amylase may help the situation. that the original extract may have been more unfermentable than fermentable sugar content, and the enzyme addition might fix it after a couple days it'll ferment through...though it might end up a bit on the dry side.

malkore said:

mainly because mixing everything up racking to a bottling bucket is very likely to kick start fermentation again. and then...pop...fizzzzzzzzz.

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I don't think normal racking is sufficient to kick start a stuck ferment.

I have an EdWort's Haus Pale Ale that is stuck at 62% attenuation. I racked it to secondary after adding a second packet of Nottingham. Guess where its at now...62%.

all I know is, when my stout started exploding on me 9 years ago, that's how it went down.

I'd swirled the fermenter for days, and no gravity change, so rousing the yeast didn't help.

However I didn't mean to imply that racking would definitely cause fermentation to resume due to aeration.

malkore said:

However I didn't mean to imply that racking would definitely cause fermentation to resume due to aeration.

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I think you are on to something with the aeration, though. I've only had one stuck ferment so far, and the only thing I haven't done yet to get it to finish is aerate it.

I've swirled, kept it warm, all that stuff people suggest, but none of it has worked.

I think the risk of bad flavors from aerating the beer is less than the risk of bottle bombs.

Besides, if fermentation starts again, wouldn't the yeast scrub out a lot of the added O2?

Maybe I'll try it tonight and see. All I have to lose is one batch of beer that's probably going to taste like ass anyway.

About how long after bottling would the "bottle grenade" phenomena happen?