RIS: Stuck or Done?

Mashed at 152, boiled off more than expected and ended up with a OG of 1.124.

Started on Wednesday (11/2) and now my Tilt says it's teetering around 1.038 - 1.039.

On a potentially related note, I also needed to transfer the beer on Saturday but got as much of the yeast as possible into the new fermenter.

Yeast is US05 and fermented in the low to mid 60s the first few days, but moved it to a warmer room when it started to slow down.

It may be close to done,but I'm guessing it will still drop some more since i'ts only been 5 days. I wouldn't even look at it until it's been 3 weeks.

I just had pretty much the same problem. My RIS started at 1.130 and then the gravity did not move past 1.038 for three weeks. I ended up pitching a pack of US05 and it's now at 1.026.

But like brute said, it's only been a few days. Wait it out before you start messing around with anything.

Yeah, looks like it just slowed way down. This is the first time I've been able to watch a big beer drop like this. Now it's wavering between 1.035 - 1.036.

Wait a total of 4 weeks then check again. What's the rush?

Is 05 alcohol tolerant enough for that big a beer?

Yup.

+1 to waiting it out.

I made a 1.100 RIS a couple of months or so ago with US-05 and it went something like this:

Sep 28, 2016 (5PM): Wort created. 1.100 (original gravity)
Sep 28, 2016 (10PM): Wort chilled to 64F & aerated, hydrated 60g US-05 and pitched (into ~11 gallons). Fermenting fridges set to 62F which gives a wort temp of ~64F.
Oct 2, 2016: Wort at 1.049
Oct 3, 2016: Turned off fermenting fridges to allow wort to rise naturally to 70-72F.
Oct 8, 2016: Wort at 1.023
Oct 16, 2016: Wort at 1.021 (final target gravity), Racked to 5 gallon glass carboys, added oak to let it soak for ~1 month.

So while mine dropped fairly fast at first, it took another good week or so (can sometimes take 2) to go the last 2 points and stabilize/hit final gravity.

Good luck!

Kal

Had one stuck for months in that range. Added champagne yeast and forgot about it for a year. Finished in the mid 20s. The flavor profile was definitely S-05, nothing yeast related from the champagne.

Thanks for this thread. I have been having a similar problem. About 3 weeks ago I made my second RIS, OG of 1.094. Fermented violently with S-04 for two days in the mid-60s then dropped totally off. I have taken 3 hydro readings over the last two weeks and it has been steady at 1.036 even though the estimated FG is 1.026. I was going to wait until the first week of December to bottle, assuming the gravity is the same. (Tastes great, by the way, so that's good.) However, last year I also made a RIS which behaved similar. I bottled when I got stable hydrometer readings that were above my estimated FG and ended up with over-carbed bottles even though I was conservative on the bottling sugar addition. I'm worried this might happen again. Any sage advice?

First off, big beers take a lot longer to finish so never rush.

Second, S-04 and S-05 have a pretty low alcohol tolerance and can die out with fermentables still there

As I said up above, I recommend adding a pack of 1118/champagne yeast that has a tolerance upwards of 20% to get the beer to the mid-20s SG.

The most important thing is how it tastes. I've had beers starting at 1.130-1.145 and finishing 1.027-1.040 that were award winning beers. Most of the ones that finished higher did go into a barrel so the tannins from the wood and the high alcohol made it seem drier but the sample before going into the barrel was great and could stand on its own. Definitely give it time as it will most likely ferment a little further like most have said. A beer that big benefits from some age anyways. You are near the alcohol tolerance of the yeast already but if they are healthy they can go a little further than what's stated on their packaging. Just make sure you taste it first, then if you really want it drier you can try adding additional higher alcohol tolerant yeast.

I have a 10G batch of IS that fell short of expected OG; only hit 1.079.. Anyway, I pitched WLP001 from a starter and was afraid I'd under-pitched but given the lower than intended OG I figured it would be okay. My ferm temp for the first week was 67F.

I checked gravity after 1 week and was only at 1.028 so I raised the temp a few degrees to 71F. I ferment in a conical so I also dumped yeast but honestly was surprised how little I collected!

Now almost a week later, a small drop but still only about 1.024-1.026. I am patient but at this point I'm thinking of adding maybe another pure pitch of WLP001 to see if that helps.

Thoughts?

I've got a chocolate coconut stout that dropped from 1.068 to 1.030 in 2 weeks with WLP004. I had it at 64'F for the first 3 days and then bumped it up to 66'F for the remainder of the 2 weeks. I just swirled it slightly and bumped the temp up to 70'F and I can hear the airlock bubbling away in my fermentation chamber again.

I'm hoping to get down to the low 1.020's but we'll see how things go. Right now it's sitting at just shy of 5% ABV. I'd like to get closer to 6.

There's no question in this post. I just figured I'd contribute that bumping up the temp seems to be helping my yeast get back at it.

Okay, Mr. Malty tells me to use 1 vial of yeast in a 1.38 liter starter for a 10G batch of 1.025 OG. So, I guess I'll do exactly that and pitch at high kraussen and see what happens.

starter made, will pitch after the Cowboy game tomorrow. (Hopefully another VICTORY! :rockin: )

Verified I'm still at 11.8 brix prior to pitching the starter I made last night. It's pitched now and I'll sample gravity again on Tuesday to see if it's helping.

I have read some articles that state Safale 05 is not very good above an initial OG of 1.095. you have probably exceeded the capability of 05 and need to pitch a higher alcohol yeast to finish.

At 4 days since pitching my new yeast starter, gravity has reduced slightly from 1.025 to 1.022. I was hoping for more attenuation but this batch has its own thing going on. I'll check again over the upcoming weekend but I get the feeling that this is as low as the batch will go.

One thing worth noting; I think the flavor had declined since I pitched the starter. In the grand scheme of things, I may have been better off accepting the 1.025 FG and enjoying a delicious brew.

Your best bet when brewing any beer is performing a Forced/Fast Ferment test, then you know the exact limit of attenuation of the wort you made and don't have to ask/guess when your fermentation is done. I now do this with every beer that I brew and know when the fermentation is done, I simply pitch the yeast into my fermenter and then pour some wort into the flask shake it randomly and put it in the warmest room in my house and in a few days it's ready for the gravity reading. Here is a link of how to perform the test, ://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fast_Ferment_Test

I pretty much have same issue. My OG was the same and now it is only down to 1.051 after 10 days. I checked it after 7 days and it was 1.051. Not sure if I should just wait it out or add some champagne yeast. I don't want the champagne yeast to ruin the flavor