Final Gravity too high. What to do?

I moved my Winter Warmer to the secondary about a week ago after it was in the primary for 3 weeks. I sampled it at the time and noticed that it was sweet (not malty, but sugary). The original gravity is 1.069 and the gravity reading for the past three days has been 1.040. The gravity doesn't seem to be changing, but today I was getting bubbles in the air lock about every eight minutes pretty consistently. So, I'm not sure what to do. The fermentation was strong in the primary for 2 solid days, but I'm worried that it didn't complete based on the gravity I'm getting. We did have a cold week while it was in the primary and the temp in my basement probably dropped. The secondary is now upstairs and at room temperature (~68-69 degrees). Should I wait for the gravity to improve? Will it go lower at this point? Do I re-pitch yeast? Or bottle? (recipe below)

Thanks,

EMU

Fermentables

11.5 lbs. Crisp Maris Otter
1 lbs. Simpsons Crystal
0.25 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate
Boil Additions

2 oz. Willamette (60 min)
1 oz. Willamette (10 min)

Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast. Optimum temperature: 64-70° F.

Don't bottle yet!

1.040 is way too high. If the yeast pick up, you have bottle bombs for sure. If they don't, you have sweet uncarbed beer.

The best thing (in hindsight) might have to leave it on the yeast in primary, rousing the yeast by stirring gently and warming it up to low to mid 70s. Sounds like they may have dropped out when it chilled.

If you have racked to secondary, then you have removed most of the yeast. So, at this point, you might well want to add a packet of something dry. Nottingham, S-05, more Windsor etc. It won't affect the flavor too much now. And warm it a few more degrees. 70-72 should be fine.

The bubbles in the airlock might just be it degassing and not fermentation. The hydrometer is the only way to know for sure.

BioBeing - thanks a lot. There isn't much head space in my 5 gallon secondary. Do you think that's okay. I'm happy to hook up a blow-off tube. I'm more concerned about having enough O2.

Thanks again.

E

Don't add oxygen at this point, or you'll oxidize the beer. Just rehydrate and pitch. Use a blow off if you need, but you probably won't need it: there will be no growth, and you have used half the sugar up already anyway.

The story of this problem child is above. Basically, I brewed over the winter time and I believe I let the temperature fall too much in the primary,which stalled the fermentation. I got some good advice in this forum: I re-pitched (after rehydrating) yeast and moved the carboy to a warm place. I got a gravity drop from 1.040 to 1.030, but not a robust fermentation. The airlock bubbled very slowly for a day and then stopped. After that, the beer just sat in the secondary (about 2 months) until this past Sunday when I racked it onto a Safale US-05 yeast cake from a beer that just finished. It's been over 24 hrs and there is no activity. Is this beer a lost cause? Is it possible that I didn't convert the sugars in my mash? I've been brewing all-grain for a while and have never had this problem. And, I don't recall anything different (i.e. temperature problems) with this beer. I figured a fresh yeast cake would do the trick, but so far no luck. Any suggestions on salvaging this beer?

Thanks as always,

emu

Short of adding some alpha amylase, there isn't much else you can do. But, the stuff is cheap.

Is the alpha amylase to help convert the sugar? This assumes the conversion didn't occur in the mash?

Thanks.

David_42:

The amylase worked! It's going again. It's not a very robust fermentation, but I've got a thin layer of foam, visible yeast activity, and bubbles in the airlock about every 3 seconds. Is there anything different I need to do at bottling? I ask because I'll have active enzymes in my beer now. Should I expect any change to the taste?

Thanks,

emu