London Porter...is it stuck?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
cg17

cg17

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
91
Reaction score
0
Location
Scottsdale
I brewed a porter three weeks ago and it appears that my FG is not getting down to where it should be. I had an OG of 1.057 and its been stuck at 1.023 for a week. Should I bottle it if it stays at this gravity or should I repitch? I used the London ESB yeast, no starter (its a 4 gallon batch)
 
Post your recipe and method to get a better idea of what could be wrong. The first and easiest thing you can do is bring it up to around 70-72 degrees and gently swirl to rouse the yeast.
 
BIAB

Mash at 154 degrees


6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK
1.25 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
0.63 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
1.06 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min)
0.54 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min)
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Ferment @ 62 degrees (I know, it seems low but the recipe is from the BYO mag and that was the temp given.)
 
cg17 said:
I brewed a porter three weeks ago and it appears that my FG is not getting down to where it should be. I had an OG of 1.057 and its been stuck at 1.023 for a week. Should I bottle it if it stays at this gravity or should I repitch? I used the London ESB yeast, no starter (its a 4 gallon batch)
Click to expand...

Sounds right where it should be, I would bottle it.

Ray
 
+1 it probably is done. Your mash may have gotten a couple of degrees higher for a while and left more unfermentables than usual.
 
I don't think it's done yet. 1968 should give much better than 59% attenuation.
Warm it up a few degrees and give it a gentle stir or swirl to rouse the yeast, then check the gravity after another 3 - 4 days.

-a.
 
ajf said:
I don't think it's done yet. 1968 should give much better than 59% attenuation.
Warm it up a few degrees and give it a gentle stir or swirl to rouse the yeast, then check the gravity after another 3 - 4 days.

-a.
Click to expand...

+1. 60% is never done, unless you have done something wrong.
 
Wyeast #1968 temperature range is 64-72F, fermenting below that range can be why you're not getting better attenuation. Get it up into the range (~68F should be good) and hold it there for a week or so. Then check to see what the SG reading is.

BTW, I would never trust magazine articles, or recipes, to post up the correct information when concerning yeast. I would always check against the manufacturer's listing.
 
ajf said:
I don't think it's done yet. 1968 should give much better than 59% attenuation.
Warm it up a few degrees and give it a gentle stir or swirl to rouse the yeast, then check the gravity after another 3 - 4 days.

-a.
Click to expand...

I don't know how you are calculating attenuation but he has
about 15 points of mostly unfermentables in his specialty malts,
leaving about 8 from the pale malt, which sounds right to me
for 6lbs in a 4 gallon batch.

Ray
 
I calculate attenuation as (OG - FG) * 100 / OG with the gravities expressed in points.
I forecast expected attenuation by comparing the brew to similar brews that I have made before. In the case of 1968 (or WLP002), I regularly get > 80% attenuation with brews containing 95% pale malt and 5% crystal malt.
In this case, assuming 70% efficiency, the pale malt by itself would yield an OG of about 1.040, and the specialty malts would yield an additional 15 points giving a gravity of 1.055 which is very close to his 1.057.
If the pale malt portion got 80% attenuation, that would give a FG of 1.008. Add the 15 points from the specialty malts to 1.008 and you get his FG of 1.023 which would indicate that the specialty malts were completely unfermentable, hence I don't think it's done yet.

-a.
 
ajf said:
I calculate attenuation as (OG - FG) * 100 / OG with the gravities expressed in points.
I forecast expected attenuation by comparing the brew to similar brews that I have made before. In the case of 1968 (or WLP002), I regularly get > 80% attenuation with brews containing 95% pale malt and 5% crystal malt.
In this case, assuming 70% efficiency, the pale malt by itself would yield an OG of about 1.040, and the specialty malts would yield an additional 15 points giving a gravity of 1.055 which is very close to his 1.057.
If the pale malt portion got 80% attenuation, that would give a FG of 1.008. Add the 15 points from the specialty malts to 1.008 and you get his FG of 1.023 which would indicate that the specialty malts were completely unfermentable, hence I don't think it's done yet.

-a.
Click to expand...

Ok, but the wyeast site says 67-71% attenuation is what you should
expect from 1968.

Ray
 
rayg said:
Ok, but the wyeast site says 67-71% attenuation is what you should
expect from 1968.

Ray
Click to expand...

I contacted Wyeast about that very point when I found that I was getting much higher attenuation than their specs indicated.
Their response was that their figures were based on their standard wort, piching rate, and fermentation schedule, and mine must be different.
I'm not the only one getting similar attenuation. See https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/your-rye-ipa-157999/ (the first beer in the Pale Ale database that used that yeast). He is also getting 80% + attenuation.

-a.
 
I believe you but we don't know what the op got for attenuation.
If it was the "typical" 70% that wyeast says you get, his gravity
makes sense. At that low og, I think it would be pretty strange for a fermentation to stop after about 90% complete rather than keep going.
If you have a bad fermentation it usually stops long before then, unless
you have a really high og and a yeast that can't handle the high
alcohol content.

Ray
 
I brewed this same beer (from the article on Fuller's). I got the same exact numbers, I mean exact. I was perplexed because I actually used a started and it "stalled" out at 1.023. I kegged it after waiting a week to see if there would be any change (there wasn't) This beer is fantastic; roasty chocolate all the way. Wait a week and bottle!
 
How does this compare to Fuller's? Love to brew a batch of this, it's one of my favorite porters.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 

Similar threads

N
Yeast Cake Size
2
Replies
46
Views
2K
ninkwood
N
Hoochin'Fool
beer finished high
Replies
10
Views
996
Hoochin'Fool
Hoochin'Fool
C
Finished or stuck fermentation?
Replies
4
Views
850
hotbeer
hotbeer
K
Fermentation went from 100 to zero -- LalBrew London Yeast
Replies
32
Views
2K
BrewnWKopperKat
BrewnWKopperKat
W
English Bitter - Partial Mash - finally got back into brewing
Replies
1
Views
517
mbauer013
M

Latest posts

Back
Top