Do I have any more options?

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.

cubbies

Tastes like butterdirt
HBT Supporter
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
1,916
Reaction score
13
Location
St Louis MO
I brewed a porter/stout (never really decided what style it fit into) a couple of weeks ago and fermentation is stuck hard. I originally bought Wyeast's Thames Valley Ale yeast. Smacked the pack at night and woke up early to no swelling. Made a starter anyway that never took off. I figured it had only been about 24 hours so I was going to use it anyway. Used it, it never took off and after 24 hours, I pitched an old packet of Safale-05. This got fermentation off the ground. However, it didn't make it far. I figured that I would try a new fresh packet of yeast since that Safale had been in my fridge for the better part of a year. So I pitched a fresh Cooper's dry ale yeast pack. Again, this got it to budge a little bit, but not far. So, last weekend, I brewed up a American IPA again using Cooper's dry ale yeast, and after re-hydrating and proofing, I split the yeast between the IPA and the porter...the IPA has been fermenting very nicely, and the porter is just stuck and fermentation never took off again. I have not measured the gravity since last Sunday when it was 1.030 (down from 1.056), but there have been no visual signs of fermentation...no airlock bubbles, no krausen, no visually active yeast...nothing. My aeration procedure went just like all my other beers, so I cant imagine that is the issue. The only thing that I think might be an issue is that I did a step infusion in my kettle and on the last infusion I left the burner on too long and it got too high, over 170. So I may have some unfermentable sugars in there. However, this was the last step and the mash had already had over 45 minutes in the proper range, so I would assume there would have been a good amount of fermentable sugars in there too. Anywho, like I said, I haven't taken a reading since Sunday, but I am just about positive that it is going to be right at 1.030. Do I have any other options other than just giving it more time and hoping for a miracle? here is the recipe:

10lb MO
1lb Crystal 90
.5lb Chocolate
.5lb Roasted Barley

20minutes at 148*
45 minutes @ 154*
and about 15-20 minutes at 170+*
 
Your mashing schedule gave you a wort with a lot of unfermentables, plus most of what you get from Crystal, Chocolate and Roasted barley are unfermentable. Since 47% attenuation rots. I'm conducting an experiment with alpha-galactosidase (AKA Beano). This is a very aggressive enzyme that will eventually break down ALL of the carbohydrates in your brew. Which means zero body and zero sweetness. I used it once before and ended up at 0.997 and nasty. The experiment is trying to de-nature the enzyme using heat, without damaging the beer. Won't know the results for a month.
 
Never considered adding an enzyme to break down sugars. Do you think adding an Amylase Enzyme would do the trick? It would likely ferment down too far, but at this point I am willing to try anything. At 1.030, I doubt I drink much of it...if any.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top