IPA stuck in mid fermentation

sooooooo.......here the story. i'm brewing a dogfish head 90minute clone. i've brew this 5 times before with outrageous success. this time though it stopped fermenting before it reached the final gravity.

i brew 10 gallon batches and primary in a 15 gallon minibrew. my OG was 1.082 (just like my other batches) and the yeast i use is WLP0007. this yeast always gets me to 1.020. however today it was only at 1.034.

i needed my primary for another batch so i moved everything to 2 corny kegs and added some Nottingham dry yeast to each corny and put airlocks on them.

i dont know if i did right, but i was hoping to ferment out the rest by using a more aggressive yeast. anyone want to way in on whether i made a good choice or if i have choosen poorly?

My magic crystal ball says... I bet the yeast was underpitched and aeration was inadequate. But without a recipe and detailed breakdown of your process, there is no way we can even begin to diagnose your problem.

i did an all grain recipe.....
34lb 2 row
4lb amber malt
2oz simcoe
2oz warrior
4oz amarillo

i used a ph balancer
it was 105 minute boil

i mashed at 154 and sparged at 170

it aerate it i transfered the wort to the primary with a 5 gallon bucket (3 trips) a dumped it vigorously into the primary....i thought that would add enough O2

dblott1 said:

i did an all grain recipe.....
34lb 2 row
4lb amber malt
2oz simcoe
2oz warrior
4oz amarillo

i used a ph balancer
it was 105 minute boil

i mashed at 154 and sparged at 170

it aerate it i transfered the wort to the primary with a 5 gallon bucket (3 trips) a dumped it vigorously into the primary....i thought that would add enough O2

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How many quarts/liters of starter did you make?

You've already got, what? over 6% ABV? I'm not sure pitching dry notty will help. The alcohol may permeate the cell membranes before they can reproduce and start working. Did you rehydrate with water to prevent?

You could wash/save your yeast cake and build up a good starter and repitch. Or start with new yeast.

What size yeast starter did you use? Did you use a yeast nutrient? Was the yeast starter saturated with O2 (stirplate?)

Just pouring the wort twice probably didn't get you quite up to the 8+ppm dissolved O2 the yeast needs to properly propagate if your starter was too small.

i didnt make a starter batch. all i did was dump 2 viles of wlp007 in for the 10 gallons of wort

dblott1 said:

i didnt make a starter batch. all i did was dump 2 viles of wlp007 in for the 10 gallons of wort

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You grossly underpitched- with an OG of 1.082, maybe four-five vials would have been better. I think that's the reason for the underattenuation this time.

so, did i do good or bad with adding nottingham to finish it off?

it really started the fermentation right away.....there was a good krausen and everything....but this time it just stopped

dblott1 said:

so, did i do good or bad with adding nottingham to finish it off?

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It's tough to introduce a new yeast into such a toxic environment and expect it to produce clean results. How much did you pitch, and did you rehydrate it?

i only to 1 packet of the dry yeast, let in soak in 3 cups warm water, then stirred it and dumped 1/2 into each corny

dblott1 said:

i only to 1 packet of the dry yeast, let in soak in 3 cups warm water, then stirred it and dumped 1/2 into each corny

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Wait about two-three days and take another gravity reading. If it's not budging, then it'll be time to dig into the bag of tricks. Ve haff vays to lower ze gravity!

ok. thx, what other tricks do you have? im in need of something, any advise would help plus im sure my techniques are extremely offensive to everyone (being so reckless and all).........sorry

I'd warm it up, feed it a massive dose (300+ billion cells per 5 gallons) of a neutral ale (or even lager) yeast (rehydrated if dry) along with some yeast nutrient and rouse it regularly without aerating it to convince it to kraeusen. If that still doesn't work, feeding it with regular doses of simple sugars would be the next step, followed by resorting to enzymes.

ArcaneXor said:

I'd warm it up, feed it a massive dose (300+ billion cells per 5 gallons) of a neutral ale (or even lager) yeast (rehydrated if dry) along with some yeast nutrient and rouse it regularly without aerating it to convince it to kraeusen. If that still doesn't work, feeding it with regular doses of simple sugars would be the next step, followed by resorting to enzymes.

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Good plan! If you saved the yeast from this batch, that could work. Just build it up. If you didn't you could use any neutral yeast, as Arcane suggested. You want a big active starter, with krausen, and then you can pitch it in the fermenters.

thanks, that helps alot. how long should i wait to see if this works and make a yeast starter? and do you have a simple way to make a yeast starter?

just boil water w/ dme, cool and add yeast? how much water to how much dme?

dblott1 said:

thanks, that helps alot. how long should i wait to see if this works and make a yeast starter? and do you have a simple way to make a yeast starter?

just boil water w/ dme, cool and add yeast? how much water to how much dme?

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Yup, you got it right. In your case, you'll need at least a 3-liter starter per corny, shaken as often as you can, if you start with one vial of yeast each. Use 300 grams of DME for each starter. Or you could rehydrate 1.5 packages of dry yeast for each corny.

what if i dont have very much room in each corny......in only have about 2 inches untill i hit the top. am i just out of luck?

i have another packet of nottingham yeast. should i rehydrate that and split it between the cornies? that way the each have 1 packet of yeast in them

dblott1 said:

what if i dont have very much room in each corny......in only have about 2 inches untill i hit the top. am i just out of luck?

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You don't pitch the entire starter. After the yeast has fermented out, you put it in the fridge to crash cool it, decant as much of the starter beer as possible, warm it back up (slowly), and then pitch the slurry into the corny.

i warm up the decanted beer or what was left in the bottle? sorry that i have no idea what im talking about

so, do i warm up the decanted beer or what was left over? sorry im such a rookie

ArcaneXor said:

You don't pitch the entire starter. After the yeast has fermented out, you put it in the fridge to crash cool it, decant as much of the starter beer as possible, warm it back up (slowly), and then pitch the slurry into the corny.

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You know, in this case I might differ on this. I'd suggest pitching the starter at high krausen, so that active viable yeast are pitched. It probably wouldn't harm it to chill and decant, but I'd be concerned about that.

If you don't have much room, I don't know what to tell you. You could rack the beer back to a fermenter, but that's how you got in this predictament in the first place! Do you have some old ale pails to sanitize and use?

no. i only have 5 gallon cornys. plus i still not sure what arcanXor was saying.....do i warm up the decanted beer or the left of sediment at the bottom?

dblott1 said:

no. i only have 5 gallon cornys. plus i still not sure what arcanXor was saying.....do i warm up the decanted beer or the left of sediment at the bottom?

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You chill the starter. After two days, only clear beer (spent wort) will be on top. You pour off the spent wort, until the yeast starts to flow, and then stop. Pour the remainder in the beer.

oh, ok that makes alot more sense. i did add the other packet of nottingham dry yeast (rehydrated of course) that i had while you were replying to the thread. think that will make a difference?

Could your mash temperature thermometer be out of calibration? I ran into that once and got a 1.034 BVIP instead of the 1.020 i was hoping for.

FWIW

Yooper said:

You know, in this case I might differ on this. I'd suggest pitching the starter at high krausen, so that active viable yeast are pitched. It probably wouldn't harm it to chill and decant, but I'd be concerned about that.

If you don't have much room, I don't know what to tell you. You could rack the beer back to a fermenter, but that's how you got in this predictament in the first place! Do you have some old ale pails to sanitize and use?

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Rather than pitching 3 liters of starter wort, I would do the decanting, but then feed the slurry some fresh wort prior to pitching to get it active. Should only take a couple of hours. Best of both worlds!

ArcaneXor said:

Rather than pitching 3 liters of starter wort, I would do the decanting, but then feed the slurry some fresh wort prior to pitching to get it active. Should only take a couple of hours. Best of both worlds!

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Good idea! That's a great way to do it!

I'd start the starter now, to pitch in about two-three days if no activity starts back up. If the nottingham works, then just save the starter for another batch of beer in the fridge.