Stuck fermentation or full attentuatoin?

So I have a stout in the fermenter (extract) that I brewed that after water down was at about 1.080 (approximately - I don't remember exactly and don't have the info at the moment) and added SAFale-05 that was a 1L starter from a previous batch. After over a week in the fermenter, it did not get below 1.040, despite agitating it and such. I put it in the secondary and then bottled one bottled and left it for a week.

I opened it today and... nothing. A bit of a hiss as I opened the bottle, but no carbonation compared to the beer in the ferementer. So can I add some priming sugar without worrying about bottle bombs? Has the beer fully attenuated?

I'm a little confused.

But I think I get what you are saying. I would say it isn;t done fermenting yet if it's only been one week. Secondly, you transfered it to secondary way to soon.

I leave my beers in primary for a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks and longr for higher gravity beers.

I would leave it in secondary for another two weeks and take another hydro sample to see where you are in the fermentation process.

Let it keep going. Maybe make another starter and pitch some more yeast.

Sorry, my original message was a bit rambling as I had quite a few Belgian beers last night.

I brewed the stout about 4 weeks ago. It was in the primary for about 2 weeks, and in the secondary for another week. I bottled one as a test, so it was in the bottle for another week with no priming sugar.

If there were fermentable sugars left, wouldn't there be some kind of natural carbonation??

shawnduthie said:

Sorry, my original message was a bit rambling as I had quite a few Belgian beers last night.

I brewed the stout about 4 weeks ago. It was in the primary for about 2 weeks, and in the secondary for another week. I bottled one as a test, so it was in the bottle for another week with no priming sugar.

If there were fermentable sugars left, wouldn't there be some kind of natural carbonation??

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I think we can all be accused of at least one post while buzzed!

I'm not sure about the natural carbonation. I have never tested one that way. The only way to know if it is really done is with a hydro reading.

I would let it go another week and then take another hydro reading. If it hasn't moved then I would say it's just done. You could try repitching but I have read a lot of mixed results. Some get more fermentation and other don't.

I had this happen to a stout I brewed in December. OG was something like 1.120 and I transfered to early I ended up letting it sit in secondary for two months which brought it down from 1.050 to 1.038 and that is where it finished. I repitched champagne yeast based on advice at the LHBS and that didn;t bring it down at all. I ended up bottling at 1.038 and had no problems but my yeast had attenuated all the way out.

Thanks for the advice - nice to know that others have had the some problem. I have been checking the hydrometer and it has not moved for about a week, so I think I might just bottle it and see what happens... I don't have all that much space in our tiny apartment, so the quicker it is bottled, the quicker I can make another beer!

If you can leave your beers in primary longer it will help you achieve full attenuation especially in big beers and it will do wonders for clarity post production.

This was a lesson that took me a year to understand.

Good luck.

unionrdr said:

I was thinking it might be something to do with your boil. Did you boil the extract too long maybe? I always wondered if extract could wind up like some AG brews. Too many "un-fermentables".

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I believe some brands have more unfermentables than others, and the darker extracts have higher amounts of crystal malts in them anyways...my stouts always seem to end high, but not necessarily too sweet...lots of adjuncts and crystal malts i guess!