Stuck fermentation?

I created a starter for my beer and fermentation began in a few hours. It fermented extremely strongly, much more strongly than any of my previous beers. At one point it even went up into the airlock, thus clogging it up. The pressure built up and blew the rubber stopper and airlock off. I resanitized the stopper and carboy and put it back in.

After about 3 and a half total days of fermentation, there was no more activity in the airlock. I gave it another day just to make sure. Unfortunately I could not take a gravity reading since the inner sides were coated with the blowoff, so I transferred it to another carboy. When I transferred it, I made sure to take all of it including the yeast settled at the bottom.

It's been in the new carboy for 2 days now, and there's still no activity in the airlock. The beer is mostly clear and I've got a thick layer of sediment settled at the bottom. The only problem is the gravity is 1.030. Conditions where the beer was being stored never changed (70 degrees, with the yeast calling for 68-72), so I don't see it stopping due to environmental effects.

I've made this beer a couple times before and never had a problem. What would cause it to stop fermenting? Also, what's the best course of action to make it continue?

Original gravity was 1.055 and target final is 1.015.

Final gravity is a relative term. What was the original gravity?

Wow, I originally had that in there but apparently removed it when I was doing some rewording. The original was 1.055 and the target should be 1.015. I edited the original message to reinclude that.

Three plus days of vigorous fermentation makes me believe you had more than a 25 point drop.

When you take a hydro reading, make sure after the hydro is floating in the tube of beer, that you bounce it up and down a few times to knock off any CO2 that tends to cling to the hydrometer. That can cause a false/high reading.

Is the 1.055 an actual reading or what the recipe projected?

The 1.055 was actual. I believe 1.060 was projected.

I've taken a couple different hydro readings over the past couple days and they've both been 1.030. Actually 1.031, but I'll just call it 1.030 for simplicity. I've also got another batch going and it's very close to its target, so I don't think the hydrometer is off.

I'm stumped. I'll assume this was an extract batch. Liquid or dry malt extract?

It was mostly dry malt extract, but there were some specialty grains as well. Only around a pound though. I figure the specialty grains are probably why I ended up at 1.055 instead of 1.060.

I have heard of a trick some people use to rouse up the yeast again to get them active. People sometimes take the degassing wands that you can find online or at your local store and actually stir up all of the yeast to get them moving again. I have heard that some "stuck" fermentations have taken off after they have been stirred up a bit using the degassing wand. I can't say this works from experience, but I do know that several posts on these forums offer this as a solution. Hope this helps!

My advise would to be give this a bit longer, a week or two, and brew up another batch. When you transfer your 2nd batch off the yeast cake, transfer this batch onto that yeast cake. I have done this once or twice and it seems to work fairly well.

If it does not work, at least it has given you something else to do and allows you to make another batch of beer

Tourney3p0 said:

It was mostly dry malt extract, but there were some specialty grains as well. Only around a pound though. I figure the specialty grains are probably why I ended up at 1.055 instead of 1.060.

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Didn't happen to be LaagLander brand of extract did it?

BierMuncher said:

Didn't happen to be LaagLander brand of extract did it?

Click to expand...

Nah, it was Munton's.

So forgetting for a moment about what caused it, is there anything I can do to make it start again?

I tried stirring up the yeast, as per previous suggestion. I'll give it awhile to see if that helps, though I'm apprehensive since it was already pretty well stirred when I transferred between carboys.

Other forum posts I read while searching for solutions suggested that pitching more yeast wasn't the best idea, though that's about all I know to try.

The beer looks okay and tastes normal for this stage at this point.

Best of luck man. Besides rousing up the yeast and possibly bringing up the temps, that's all I can really think of right now. Let us know if it picks back up soon.

A couple of ideas for your consideration regarding the cause and a course of action but first, how did you pitch the yeast? Did you create a starter and let it go to a full krausen before pitching? Was the temperature of the yeast close to the temperature of the wort you pitched into? The reason for those questions is that if you did not create a starter and/or pitch at a close temperature then the shock to the yeast could have caused the yeast to quit suddenly. You say, however, that the fermentation was vigorous for a few days so I doubt the problem is there. Most likely the fermentation ceased because either 1) there was insufficient FAN (Free Amino Nitrogen) in the wort and/or 2) there was insufficient O2 in the wort to support the growth of the yeast and hence the continuation of fermentation. FAN is normally in sufficient quantity from the malt (grain or dme/lme) but O2 deficiency is common unless you take steps to prevent it. You can probably resolve this problem by adding some yeast starter AND bubbling some O2 for a couple of minutes in your wort. Within a few hours, it should resume fermentation. Check out Palmer's book to get more information on the potential source of the problem and suggestions for resolution. I hope this helps. Good luck.

I used a starter which had a couple days to work its magic. It looked pretty healthy when I added it.

I've tried bubbling in some oxygen and finally resorted to adding more yeast, and nothing is waking this beer up. The only other thing I can think of is maybe something's wrong with the acidity for some reason. The beer tastes fine as far as nothing unexpected in it, but it's very sweet due to the incomplete fermentation. I would classify it as undrinkable due to the excessive sweetness.

I don't have any equipment to check the acidity, but I'll pick it up tomorrow just to have around. If the acidity is off, is there anything I can do to correct it or is it too late in this stage? At this point I've already given up on it, but I still like the idea of a challenge to get it going again.

I can't imagine it has anything to do with acidity. I make plenty of wine and that's acidic but it ferments just fine.

I'm stumped as to why it just won't go any lower. Did you use unfermentables in the wort, like lactose?

Also, it's too late now, but adding oxygen now is a BAD idea. I wouldn't do that again.

If you post your recipe, maybe I can see what happened.

No unfermentables. Ingredients were 55/45 wheat DME, crystal malt, chocolate malt, melanoidin, and light munich malt. Ratio of DME to everything else was about 9:1. I used a weihenstephan smack pack (big one, not small one) the first time then some dry yeast after it had been stuck for a week.