Big Belgian Quad IPA help

My fermentation is stuck and I am getting worried. I need some ideas...
Here is my recipe

Belgian Pale Malt 22.00 Lbs
Candi Sugar, Dark Sugar 2.50 Lbs
Carapils (Dextrine) Grain 2.00 Lbs
Caravienna 2.00 Lbs
Crystal 10 2.00 Lbs
Crystal 40 2.00 Lbs
Special-B Grain 2.00 Lbs

Mashed at 149 for 60 minutes with 7.5 gallons
Starged at 170 for 60 minutes with 5 gallons

120 minute boil
Added 1 lb of candy sugar after 60
Added 1 lb of candy sugar after 90
added 0.5 lb of candy sugar after 105 (added yeast nutrient at this point too)

Pitched two 30-34 ounce starters of Wyeast 1388

After 8 days in Primary I made a small starter with the following and mixed in the following:

Candi Sugar, Dark Sugar 0.50 Lbs
Dry Malt Extract - Light Extract 0.50 Lbs


My O.G. was 1.122 (Which seemed a little low considering my grain bill)
Now after 19 days I am stuck at 1.050. Last night I added some Champagne 1118- Lalvin 5 to try and get the gravity near the target 1.023...but my airlock isn't moving.


Any other ideas? Thanks in advance!

Add some alpha amylase enzyme if you can get your hands on it. Overall I think you were very overzealous with this beer, though. There's definitely no need for 8lb of specialty malts in a beer this big.

Is this a 5 or 10 gal recipe. Besides that you have 8 pounds of crystal malt. The only way you might get it started again is to pitch on an active yeast cake.

whatsleftofyou said:

Add some alpha amylase enzyme if you can get your hands on it. Overall I think you were very overzealous with this beer, though. There's definitely no need for 8lb of specialty malts in a beer this big.

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Agreed. That much crystal malt probably isn't stuck, it's likely done. That thing is approaching 50 pct between crystal and actual sugar. I'm guessing that is going to be a madly cloying beer. Belgian styles should derive the most noticeable flavor qualities from the yeast. I realize a quad may have more malt character than a Dubbel, but I fear this one has problems that might not be correctable...

Ok thanks for the ideas and feedback. I was trying for big, but it may have got the best of me.

you're well over the recommended max of 20% for crystal (10lbs!), so I think you're just done not stalled

for future reference, champagne yeast can only eat simple sugars, and cant break down some of the more complex sugars that brewers yeast can, so its not too useful for a stuck fermentation

10 lbs of crystal in 10 gallons will probably give you about 20 points of unfermentables. That means your yeast has got to roughly 70% attenuation on the remaining sugars. I realize this is low for this yeast, but I think you are done. Pitching any new yeast into this will shock it due to the 9.5% abv.

Take this a as learning experience. If you have a recipe that uses more than 1 lb of specialty grain (crystal) per 5 gallons, make sure you know what you are going to get before you brew it.