Milk stout fermentation

Made a milk stout with estimated O G of 1.057. When we moved it to the fermenter we forgot to take a gravity reading. The fermentation seemed complete after 4 days when the bubbling reduced to almost none. After 6 days total we moved it to the secondary fermenter and we measured a gravity of 1.034 which seems too high. I was assuming a higher gravity because of the lactose added at the end of the boil. The estimated FG is 1.010. We used Beersmith for this recipe and that's where the estimated gravity comes from.
Question: Should I pitch another yeast? We used White Labs Irish Ale yeast. Would it hurt to use a different yeast for the re-pitch? I have Safale Dry Ale yeast on hand.

So it's only been like 10 days since brew day? I know that's longer than normal but I would let it go longer did you make a yeast starter?

It has only been 7 days since brew day. I didn't use a yeast starter. The yeast was bought from the store in a liquid but only about 2 ounces. I followed the instructions on the little bottle. Bring to room temp, shake and pour directly into fermenter. Temp during fermentation stayed around 76 F. We just moved it to the secondary today. I was going to wait and see if it started to bubble again before I did anything.

How much lactose did you use?
Recipe? Mash temps...the norm..
Igotsand

Yeah the recipe would help. 76 is really high for a Irish ale yeast

Recipe:
7 lbs pale malt (2 row)
2 lbs caramel/crystal malt 120L
1 lb flaked barley
1 lb chocolate malt
8 oz black barley
8 oz cara-pils/dextrine
0.5 lb malto-dextrine
1 lb lactose

60 min boil. Lactose and malto-dextrine added with 10 mins left in boil.

Ambient room temp was 74 F. Temp strip on side of fermenter read 74-76 F.

It bubbled well for 2 full days then steadily slowed.

Single mash temp was 158 F for 60 mins. Sparged with 166 F.

If it was me I would let it sit for a few days and take another reading.

I was leaning that way. Thanks for the reassurance. I'll post updates when available.

Cool in the mean time you should read up on some solutions to keep the ferm temps down you might get some off flavors from fermenting that high of a temp. A easy and cheap solution is put the carboy or bucket in a big plastic tote with water and freeze a couple 24 oz or so water bottles and switch out ice bottles every 6-10 hours depending on the circumstances. I was doing that before my ferm chamber build with good results.
Chopps

It may be my inexperience, but it seemed like the recipe had excess sources of nonfermentable sugars. I’d be more leery that things went really well fermentationwise but that the recipe might need adjustment. High mash temp (158) also makes results very believable. My guess is that things went fine considering the ingredients.

I have moved the carboy to a "cooler" type contraption called a Frementerator. I bought a bunch of equipment from a guy getting out of homebrewing and this was part of it. One chamber holds the carboy and the other holds the ice. There is a fan in the dividing wall that is controlled by a thermostat with a knob on the front to set the temperature. We'll see how this works.

The unfermentable sugar is what makes it a Milk Stout. If it wasn't in there it would just be a Stout.

More pics.

You could always toss a packet of Nottingham in there and let that chew on the unfermented sugars if you feel your gravity is too high. No harm in doing that. I just made a stout today too with the intention of it being a milk stout, but I'll be adding the lactose with the priming sugar just before bottling.

That's a neat new rig

If I add more yeast it will be more of the same that was originally used, Irish Ale. I don't want to lose the Milk Stout! We'll see how the rig works. It's my first time to try it.

Kind advice for you - don't ferment so high. Anything above 70 is not good for most typical ale yeasts. I usually ferment between 60-65 depending on my mood.

Definitely hope it turns out ok for you though. I love milk stouts, I made a very similar recipe about a year ago and it got rave reviews so I need to make it again real soon. I added the lactose at kegging.

Yeah your sweet rig would have been better at the beginning of your fermentation. At this point lowering the temp could slow the yeast down and not help. Normally if your brew doesn't finish where it's suppose to you should raise the temp a little and gentle swirl to wake the yeast back up. What was your last gravity reading?

All advice is welcome. This is only my second all-grain brew. Brewed extract several times though. I have my thermostat set for 65 F. Thanks for the tips.

I swirled and let it sit for about 36 hours and nothing changed. I haven't taken a gravity reading since before swirling. It was 1.033. Should have been about 1.012.

It is possible the yeast may have died from the previous high fermentation temp. Try another SG reading and see if it"s gone down from your last reading. If its stuck you could either try some yeast energizer or add the Nottingham (its a neutral yeast so it wont affect the flavour of your stout).

You can't kill yeast at 70-80 degrees. It takes much higher temps to kill off yeast. Like in the 180+ range. I have bottle pasteurized ciders before and I normally soak the bottles in 180 degree water for 10 mins to ensure I killed the yeast. At temps between 70-80 the yeast would be going crazy eating up sugars and throwing off off flavors. Did you have any sudden degree changes during fermentation?