Two beers stalling at 1.026

I brewed an IPA (Edworts Wounded Knee IPA) 2 weeks ago, and a Stout (O'Flainnagains Standard) one week ago, and they both have stopped at 1.026. I hit the OG on the money on both, with an All-Grain setup.

The IPA was fermenting really really vigorously after only about 4hours with a rehydrated packet of Safale-05, but the temperature was sitting at about 75deg for the first 5days. It stopped bubbling completely at around 3 days, and at 5 days I took the first hydro reading, it was at 1.026. Then again a couple of days later it was still at 1.026, and now 2 weeks later it is at 1.026, so safe to say it has stopped fermenting.

The Stout pretty much same deal. Difference is, I used a smack pack (WLP004 Irish Ale) without a starter, and it lagged for about 24hours before starting a good krausen and fermenting vigorously for the next couple of days. It stopped a few days ago, I took a hydro, 1.026. Again today, it's sitting at 1.026. This one has been fermenting at 68deg from the get go.

I used jugs of Spring water from the grocery store with 5.2ph Stabilizer in them. Should I just accept the lower alcohol content? Both taste great, but I'd really like them to dry out. Any suggestions??

Might your hydrometer be off? check it in a tube of 60dF water. It should read 1.000

Yeah, I did that and it is exactly at 1.000. I was really hoping that was the issue as well. I was thinking that perhaps the yeast didn't have enough nutrients in the crappy Spring Water I bought? Or the temp was too high on the IPA and crapped the yeast out?

Arcanexor has a good blog on unsticking a stuck ferm http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/ArcaneXor/Fixing_a_stuck_fermentation_101/ and I added some stuff to it in the comments/suggestions.

What were your mash temps? Is your thermometer accurate? It sounds like you mashed at a high temperature and got less fermentable wort.

This sounds possible, but I did check the thermometers in icewater and they're correct, but at temps above 70deg I get 3 different temperatures on 3 different thermometers. Two digital and one analog cooks probe. And we're talking about 3-5deg difference at 150deg, so not majorly off.


That page is awesome Revvy, I will try some of those on the Stout. The IPA is going into bottles, so we shall see. Definitely going to keep them covered and in a big tupperware container, hoping to not have any bottle bombs!!

On behalf of Arcanexor I'll accept your kudos...I think he did a hellova job! Glad it can help.

I’ve heard (never tried) that you could pitch some champaign yeast into your beer. Since champaign yeast ferments pretty dry it should eat up the last bits of sugar getting you to a lower gravity. This is what my LHBS owner does with many of his high gravity beers and since it’s at the end of fermentation the champaign yeast shouldn't leave any flavors behind. But like I said, never tried this but heard it works well.

SmokinJohn said:

This sounds possible, but I did check the thermometers in icewater and they're correct, but at temps above 70deg I get 3 different temperatures on 3 different thermometers. Two digital and one analog cooks probe. And we're talking about 3-5deg difference at 150deg, so not majorly off.

Click to expand...

3-5 degrees can make a big difference, especially if you were shooting for 155* and hit 160*.

SmokinJohn said:

And we're talking about 3-5deg difference at 150deg, so not majorly off.

Click to expand...

3-5 degrees difference at 150 are completely different mashes. 149 and 154 are going to give you quite different fermentables.