Pitch more yeast?

Hey guys,

Just made Northern Brewer's St. Paul Porter extract kit last Saturday. The OG on the kit is 1.052. Yeast was Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale.

I took a gravity reading today (5 days after brewing) and I'm a bit concerned. The SG is at 1.022 still and I haven't seen a bubble in the airlock for a couple days.

This beer was my first go at making a yeast starter and I messed up in two ways. I didn't aerate before adding yeast to starter wort, and I didn't shake starter over the 2 days it was on my counter.

My questions are:
Would that kind of mess up with a starter hurt the yeast?
Should I pitch more yeast?
If I should pitch more, is a pack of S-04 ok (I've got one in the fridge)?
Or should I just give it some more time?

Thanks for any help!

Add the S-04. 22 is finishing a bit high. It would probably taste great anyway, but that beer should finish closer to 1.012 - 1.014.

BTW, did you end up with 5 gallons, or less?

Re: your starter, shaking will result in more yeast, but not shaking won't hurt anything.

You should shake the hell out of your wort before (or after) you add yeast. Get as much O2 as possible in there for the yeast. Post boil, there is zero oxygen in the wort.

First off, 5 days is way too soon to panic over the gravity. I would leave the beer on the yeast cake for another week before you do anything.

Did you aerate the wort?

Check it again in a couple days. I've had brews take a while to finish up. It might still be slowly dropping.

passedpawn said:

Add the S-04. 22 is finishing a bit high. It would probably taste great anyway, but that beer should finish closer to 1.012 - 1.014.

BTW, did you end up with 5 gallons, or less?

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The gravity sample sure tasted delicious!

Ended up with pretty much exactly 5 gallons.

TimTrone said:

First off, 5 days is way too soon to panic over the gravity. I would leave the beer on the yeast cake for another week before you do anything.

Did you aerate the wort?

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Yup. Gave it a good shake for a few minutes.

Qhrumphf said:

Check it again in a couple days. I've had brews take a while to finish up. It might still be slowly dropping.

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Ok, that's what I'll do. Just wondered if the poor starter practices could be the problem since I haven't had a beer's SG drop this slowly before.

Heavyfoot said:

Ok, that's what I'll do. Just wondered if the poor starter practices could be the problem since I haven't had a beer's SG drop this slowly before.

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The yeast you used isn't known to be a very dry strain, but based on your OG it should get you to 1.016 or so. You're not far off, and I bet another week on the cake gets you there. I'd also recommend raising the temps a few degrees to finish up. Cheers!