Actual Possible Stuck Fermentation Question

Brewed an American Pale Ale of my own design on 6/5/09 according to the following:

Prepare Ingredients for Mash
Amount Item Type
12.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain

Mash Ingredients
Mash In: Add 15.63 qt of water at 167.7 F
- Hold mash at 152.0 F for 75 min

Drain Mash Tun

Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 4.25 gal of 168.0 F water.

Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.41 gal

Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.061 SG with all grains/extracts added

Boil IngredientsBoil Amount Item Type
60 min 1.00 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (60 min) Hops
20 min 1.00 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (20 min) Hops
5 min 1.00 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (5 min) Hops
1 min 1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (1 min) Hops

Cool, pitch dry Notty etc...

OG of 1.064.

Full disclosure:

I got hammered during the mashing and ended up mashing with 6 gallons of ~167 degree water instead of ~4 as indicated. To compensate I sparged with 2 gallons of 168 degree water.

Pretty sure I mashed at 152 or thereabouts.

Today, fully 6 weeks later, my hydrometer tells me I'm still at 1.030. Expected FG is 1.019 according to Beersmith.

Is it possible given that I am not 100% sure of my mash temp that the grain didn't convert and that I'm stuck at 1.030 because I mashed too high?

Thus, is my fermentation finished and I have a really sweet malty APA?

If it's possible that the fermentation is stuck how do I re-pitch with yeast such that they can do their think with enough oxygen to ferment but not so much that it will oxygenate the beer? Do I pitch dry and hope or rehydrate? Should I make a starter and pitch?

The thing is, it tastes pretty good from the hydrometer reading but it is really too sweet.

Advice will be appreciated.

cytokine said:

Brewed an American Pale Ale of my own design on 6/5/09 according to the following:

I got hammered during the mashing and ended up mashing with 6 gallons of ~167 degree water instead of ~4 as indicated. To compensate I sparged with 2 gallons of 168 degree water.

Pretty sure I mashed at 152 or thereabouts.

Click to expand...

Well, I think if you mashed in with 6 gallons of 167 degree water, you may have been quite a bit higher than 152. If you mashed at say, 159, then your beer wouldn't be very fermentable and you're probably done.

Is your thermometer accuracte?

Accurate enough when I can see it .

159 is done? I have no problem throwing out the batch. 5 gallons out of 130 this year or so won't break my heart. I don't actually believe in stuck fermentation which is why the title is the way it is. I'm pretty sure it's toast but wanted outside counsel before acting.

Thanks.

Any other input? Besides stay frosty enough to follow the recipe...

Don't dump it. Bottle it and see how it turns out, just store it somewhere safe. You can try adding some champagne yeast in case there are still some fermentables hanging around.

If your sig is accurate, you and I are fermenting the same Russian Imperial Stout. I have high hopes for this one because I have never had a Jamil recipe turn out bad...

I'm a scientist. If I can't repeat an experiment I don't know how to interpret the data. This beer will never be what I want it to be, I would never be able to make it again, I know its off and so I'm not going to bother. My pipeline is now fat and so I don't NEED this beer.

Life is too f-ing short to spend any time with something that doesn't make you completely happy.

I'm going to dump it regret free and move on.

I wouldn't dump it! What I was saying is that if your mash temp was higher than you think, then you'll have far more long-chain sugars that won't be as fermentable to the yeast so the beer might be finished fermenting.

Some people have adding beano to their beers to break up the complex sugars into simple sugars.

I don't know if I'd go the Beano route- sometimes once it gets fermentation going again, it doesn't know when to stop! But it might be worth a try if the beer is too sweet at 1.030.

Another route you could use is to increase the amount of fermentable sugars by adding some. Dissolve a pound of corn sugar into a couple of cups of boiling hot water, not boiling. Do not boil the resulting syrup. Pour that in the fermenter and give the fermenter a swirl to stir up some of the yeast. After a day or two, check your specific gravity and give the sample a taste. This can be repeated until you hit your desired gravity/flavor, or your ABV gets too high for the yeast.

YooperBrew said:

I wouldn't dump it! What I was saying is that if your mash temp was higher than you think, then you'll have far more long-chain sugars that won't be as fermentable to the yeast so the beer might be finished fermenting.

Some people have adding beano to their beers to break up the complex sugars into simple sugars.

I don't know if I'd go the Beano route- sometimes once it gets fermentation going again, it doesn't know when to stop! But it might be worth a try if the beer is too sweet at 1.030.

Click to expand...

Oh Mistress of all things beer related, I understood your post and thank you for the insight. Getting it right from the beginning is too easy and fixing this one is not my style.

Let's all take a deep breath and let this one go. I have more beer than I know what to do with so I will not feel the loss.