Typical "My fermentation is stuck" thread :)

I've waited a full 7 days on my Extract Kit Russian Imperial Stout. At 36 hours, Krausen was looking mighty fine at about 1.5 inches high then it just stopped and has remained there.. I'm using 5 gallon carboys so have a blow-off hose installed but krausen hasn't hit the top of the headspace yet

I'm still getting bubbles into my blow-off bucket (not always THE indicator of ferm I know)

Do you thiink the 10 ounces of Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars I added at 15 minutes before boil termination are messing things up? I know now you're supposed to use Nibs but I thought it's still sugar. yeast will eat at it.

Anyway, it looks like this



OG was 1.084 so it's a pretty big beer. I would imagine the included dry yeast is just having some problems getting started.

Here's the instructions. I followed it all exactly except for adding a motherload of hershey milk chocolate bars that were sitting around from a recent camping rip - http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1046 Russian Imperial Stout Recipe.pdf.

I would think at 7 days, I'd have a lot more activity than I'm seeing. Was going to ferment for 4 weeks given the size of this and the fact I don't have any spare kegs available.

Chocolate isn't all sugar. Sugar is just the first ingredient by weight. It also has cocoa butter, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin and artificial flavors (vanillin). I would wager you're not going to have any head on the beer with all the fat that would have come from the chocolate.

The plus side is you know what to do next time. You could use chocolate malt as well as the nibs. I have had fantastic results letting a 10 gallon batch of double porter rest on a couple pounds of nibs for 6 weeks. I'd check that out next time.

Double_D said:

Chocolate isn't all sugar. Sugar is just the first ingredient by weight. It also has cocoa butter, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin and artificial flavors (vanillin). I would wager you're not going to have any head on the beer with all the fat that would have come from the chocolate.

The plus side is you know what to do next time. You could use chocolate malt as well as the nibs. I have had fantastic results letting a 10 gallon batch of double porter rest on a couple pounds of nibs for 6 weeks. I'd check that out next time.

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Thanks. I may go ahead and do another batch of this next week and instead rely on nibs or something else.

Yeah for sure, the head retention I've heard and this is why you shouldn't drink too much home brew WHILE home brewing cause you go off and add things that are not recommended

So even if head retention is bad, is this fermentation normal for being 7 days in? I'll still get beer, right?

I'm not sure I understand. What makes you think the ferm is stuck? It sounds like it's doing OK. Like you said, it's not a sure sign, but if you DO see bubbles in your blowoff tube/airlock, I would assume the ferm is going fine.
A four week fermentation is pretty long, even on high gravity beers, I wouldn't expect it to take more then a week and a half.

So, what is the current gravity? Have you measured it or are you just assuming something's wrong because it's not behaving the way you've decided a proper fermentation is supposed to behave?

Shooter said:

So, what is the current gravity? Have you measured it or are you just assuming something's wrong because it's not behaving the way you've decided a proper fermentation is supposed to behave?

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Your analysis is correct. I'm a n00b who isn't seeing some insanely huge krausen and thinking something must be wrong.

My first few badges ALL had serious blow-off issues so I assumed this would suffer the same fate and, since it's not, I did wait a full week but wanted to ask. I can take a gravity ready but wanted to reduce the amount of times I open the airlock.

I'm not even sure where to start with this, but here goes.

You added fat to your beer (chocolate bars). Best case scenario for you is that the fat is messing with the Krausen and that's why it's not as big as you expect.

Also, I've got a 1.080 tripel that's been going for 3 days and fermentation is starting to wind down already...I have complete faith that it will finish out. Most of my beers are done with visible fermentation within 3 days. The only way to know if its stuck is to check the gravity, but I'd give it at least another week before checking.

Good luck

you'll get beer alright. As far as the fat in the chocolate being a problem with head retention, it may be a bit of a problem, but I wouldn't sweat it. If you watch this video, there is a section where the guy uses baker's chocolate in a similar stout and has no problem. So I wouldn't worry.
Video: http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/episode/brewing-tv-episode-55-all-about-stout/

Give it a couple more days. Maybe at ten days check the gravity and see where it is, but I wouldn't worry too much about it in the meantime.

+1 on the fats affecting krausen. My ferms only go for a few days no matter what, as far as highly active signs go. Gravity readings are in order!