stuck fermentation. Is it worth it to fix?

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cheschire

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My girlfriend is starting to grow an interest in my beer making so she brewed her own brown ale under my guiding eye. But now we have a stuck fermentation. Its supposed to have an FG of about 1.013 and its at 1.020. The only way I have ever been able to fix a stuck fermentation is to buy an $8.00 pack of wyeast and make a 2L starter. Is it possible that my thermometer is set too low and we mashed alil too high, and we've fermented out all there is to possibly ferment? We mashed at 154 said my thermometer. We used Windsor ale yeast (for the last time... stoopid cheap $#!@)

8lb Maris Otter
1lb aromatic
1lb biscuit
.5lb honey
.5lb crystal 60
.5lb carapils
.25lb chocolate

mashed at 154 for 1 hr, sparged at 170 for 15 minutes, pitched hydrated windsor at 70 F, fermentation started 12 hrs later at 65 F and held it at 65F for 3 weeks. OG was 1.056. Now stuck at 1.020. Want it to be 1.013


So is it worth it to get an $8 pack of yeast to finish it off? Do I need to worry about bottle bombs?
 
I had tried swirling the fermenter a week ago and had no luck. I just racked it off the yeast cake because Im nearing th 4 week mark and I dont want dead yeast flavored beer. In the link, Shafferpilot mentioned at the top of the second page, that Amylaze Enzyme would help.

Do you think there is still enough yeast in my beer after racking it that Amylaze Enzyme could work?
 
Autolysis, Dead yeast flavor, takes several months! I leave beers on the cake for at least a month.

I would double check the gravity, gently spin your hydrometer in you sight glass, bubbles tend to stick to it and give a false reading.

If you are around 1.016 or less you should be safe to bottle.
Does it taste sweet?
You might have run out of fermentables. Your Efficiency was fairly low I get 64%

You may not have enough yeast left in suspension to ferment down much further with out stressing the yeast. Stressed yeast lead to off flavors.

Again I would try to take another gravity sample or a different hydrometer.

Test you hydrometer in 60deg water
 
8lb Maris Otter
1lb aromatic
1lb biscuit
.5lb honey
.5lb crystal 60
.5lb carapils
.25lb chocolate

You have an awful lot of adjunct malt in there and if your mash
conversion was not as high as it should be, your FG will be high
because there isn't enough alcohol in the beer. It may be right
where it should be.

I would not use a cheap dry yeast for anything, at least use one
of the good ones.

I'm not picking on you, but honestly I can't understand going to
the trouble of an all-grain brew but not using a good yeast with it.

Ray
 
Lots of non-fermentables and windsor, 1.020 sounds about right to me. Give it a few days and see where it's at then.
 
And one other thing: you mashed at 154, which means you
are going to have relatively higher amount of non-fermentables
anyway (beta amylase is deactivated above 148), so that
also contributes to the high final gravity. See the answer to
the second question on this page:
http://***********/stories/wizard/a...the-hot-side-debate-a-mash-temperature-issues

Ray
 
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