S l o w fermenting

I've had my brew in the primary for a week. It bubbled like a champ the first 4 days or so. Now, it's taking 5 minutes or more to bubble. I started at 1.047. two days ago the gravity was 1.020. I roused it. Today, it's 1.019. It should be at 1.012. It's a pretty steady 68 degrees here. At what point do you pitch new yeast?

I stirred the wort outside to cool it which I thought would aerate it good. I used a muntons dry yeast pack- I pitched the yeast at 86 degrees. Waited 10 minutes and stirred a few strokes like the instructions said. Should I do anything differently next time?

I've had similar bad luck with the Muntons yeast, I stopped using it entirely in fact. If you can, try and bring the temperature of the beer up a few degrees. That should help the yeast get finished up.

Shaking the bucket/carboy will work better for aerating but there's nothing wrong with how you did it.

I would gently rock the fermenter just to disturb the cake, but not enough to create splashes or anything. Warm the fermenter up to the mid 70s and wait a couple days. Hopefully it'll drop a few more points. I'm in the same boat actually... my 1.060 rye porter was at 1.020 after 7 days with zero airlock activity. I was about to rack it to a keg (yeah... kinda rushing it), but ended up just rockin the cake a little and warmed it up. That was like 2 days ago. If it hasn't dropped at least a couple points by tonight I'm gonna pitch more yeast. IDK... with Nottinghams it should have AT LEAST hit 1.016 if not 1.012-14.

My first batch did that with Munton's dry and had similar problems with it finishing up. How does it taste? If you've got enough IBU's in there to balance out the leftover sweetness, I might not worry about it. You'll probably lose another couple points by the time it's through the secondary and bottle carbonation.

Only things I can think of to do differently is rehydrate the yeast in warm water (boil it first). Pitch at a slightly lower temp, like 80F. Maybe aerate more, stirring might not do much if you don't splash much. I really shake the crap outta my carboys now and it seems to be working.

It's still only 1.018. Do I throw in new yeast or add yeast nutrients? It will take months to get to 1.012 the way it is.

Ditto what reshp1 said. Hydrate your yeast per package instructions and aerate your wort well. I would also pitch cooler then 86F. More like the low 70's and ferment 68-72.

GT

That's great for the next batch. What do I do with this one?

I've had a stuck fermentation in the past, and here's how I got past it.

1. Aquarium aerator. Cost me about $5 to get the set-up at the pet store. Sanitize - submerge - and let it go for 5 - 10 minutes.

2. Yeast nutrient I bought at the LHBS. It was less than $2.

I did both of these things at the same time, and it kicked back off immediatlly.

The only recomendation I have for next time is to use a starter - expecially with dry yeast.

Good luck!

Cool. Thanks.

libs said:

...The only recomendation I have for next time is to use a starter - expecially with dry yeast.

Click to expand...

You definitely do not want a starter with dry yeast. Liquid yeast absolutely but dry yeast should just be rehydrated as per the manufacturer's directions.

libs said:

I've had a stuck fermentation in the past, and here's how I got past it.

1. Aquarium aerator. Cost me about $5 to get the set-up at the pet store. Sanitize - submerge - and let it go for 5 - 10 minutes.

2. Yeast nutrient I bought at the LHBS. It was less than $2.

I did both of these things at the same time, and it kicked back off immediatlly.

The only recomendation I have for next time is to use a starter - expecially with dry yeast.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Whoa there! I really don't recommend aerating your beer after some fermentation has occured. That's where you get nasty oxidation off-flavours. By all means stir up your fermenting beer to get yeast back into suspension, but avoid all aeration, splashing, aquarium bubbles, etc.

bradsul said:

You definitely do not want a starter with dry yeast. Liquid yeast absolutely but dry yeast should just be rehydrated as per the manufacturer's directions.

Click to expand...

Would it be BEST to rehyrdrate then make a starter out of that? (the dry yeast)

I've read it seems to be benificial to always make a starter. I've only used liquid yeast so far, and did make a starter with that.

riored4v said:

Would it be BEST to rehyrdrate then make a starter out of that? (the dry yeast)

I've read it seems to be benificial to always make a starter. I've only used liquid yeast so far, and did make a starter with that.

Click to expand...

A starter isn't necessary for dry yeast (and in fact can be detrimental) as there is already enough viable yeast cells for pitching a standard batch. Simply rehydrating is sufficient to ensure proper cell counts. Liquid yeast packs (despite what they say) do not have enough cells to adequately pitch most beers and you will always want to make a starter.

Mr. Malty has a great pitching rate calculator.

thanks man. i'll check out that calculator later since it's blocked right now at work.

It's been 5 or 6 hours after I added the yeast nutrient and I don't see any change. I'm guessing there's not enough oxygen in the wort. Am I going to get much oxidation if I pitch new yeast that's been dissolved in heavily aerated water?

Is oxidation even a big deal if you plan on drinking the stuff in the next month or two?

Yeast nutrient won't help once the growth phase is completed.

Rehydrate your new yeast using boiled and cooled water (this will drive off all the O2). Bring your beer up to 70-72F before you pitch your newly hydrated yeast to make sure that the yeast will be nice and active once they hit the wort.

If you want to take the risk for oxidation, by all means go ahead, it's your beer after all. Personally I would avoid it. Pitch your new yeast and if after 4 or 5 days it's not dropped any farther, I'd say it's going to go as far as it can and your beer is done. Not all extracts are as fermentable as others, that's why FG targets are just estimates.

And by all means, use something other than Munton's. Even Munton's gold will attenuate better.

Too late. I did it just like bradsul said. I used the same muntons yeast as I did originally. I thought using two different kinds of yeasts could be a problem. It's definitely better than it was, but it's still slow. Hopefully it's alright. Is any yeast OK to use as long as it's ale yeast?

In the future you'll want to pick yourself up some Nottingham dry yeast just to keep in the fridge. The muntons yeasts really aren't very good.

I just picked up a california common for my next brew. It came with a wyeast smack pack. I quit going to the local brewing shop. They keep their yeast on a shelf at room temp and their prices are higher than Northern Brewer where I got the new stuff from.