Beer isn't fermenting?

I know this has probably been asked numerous times but I have ran out of ideas.

I have two Pale Ales both of which were partial mashes using DME. One of the recipies is my own using nottingham and the other is the SimCade Pale Ale using wyeast 1272 featured on this forum.

I've had both of these ales in the primary for a month now and the gravity is stuck at 1.030 and 1.040 respectively.

I did a few things to try and get the yeast going.

1) shook the bucket
2) the first recipe i pitched another packet of nottingham. I don't wanna pitch a wyeast 1272 into the simcade because they are so damn expensive.

My room temperature is at 21 degC.

I have run out of ideas here, any ideas? Seems like every partial mash i do the beer takes a difficult time to ferment.

Interesting... just a few questions to help us help you:

1) At what temperature of wort did you pitch the yeast?
2) What were the expiration dates on the yeast containers?
3) Did you rehydrate the notty and make a starter for the 1272?
4) What were the original gravities?
5) Is your room temperature a constant 21*C? If not what's the range? I'm sure it gets colder than that at night

This information should help troubleshoot your problem. I doubt it's your actual partial mash process... there must be something else going on.

On top of what reno has said, have you checked to make sure the hydrometer is working correctly?

What were your original specific gravities. Does it smell like beer?

1) Yep my hydrometer is working correctly. Just did two other batches one of which was beirmunchers the cream of 3 crops cream ale which i was bang on with the OG/FG.

2) I dont remember the exact temps when I pitched both yeasts, but I typically will pitch after it drops to 77 degF.

3) My room is at a constant 21 degrees and is heater by a baseboard heater. Also the temperature guage is digital and i monitor it daily.

4) The OG were misplaced on a sheet of paper I wrote down. Which really sucks.

5) I didn't check the expiration of the yeast for the notty but I remember the 1272 not being expired.

The only logical answer I can think of is that the beer isn't aerated enough and the yeast doesnt have enough oxygen. Should i give both a really good stir?


I might simply pitch another 1272 into the Simcade and leave the pale ale for another week and check another gravity reading.

i've been without beer for over a month and wouldnt mind having these in the kegs asap!

thanks again

Also for next time, how do you aerate your wort?

What temp did you do the partial mash at?
Some types of DME will also have higher final gravities.

boo boo said:

Also for next time, how do you aerate your wort?

What temp did you do the partial mash at?
Some types of DME will also have higher final gravities.

Click to expand...

sorry my bad wasn't a partial mash it was an extract using DME.

i typically just give the yeast + wort a stir in the bucket. perhaps i just didn't aerate the wort enough.

I pour my wort from the boil pot into the fermenter from a couple feet in the air. I also have been pouring it a couple times between fermeting buckets to get the wort homogenous between the first runnings and the last sparges. It is still pretty warm when I do this for what its worth.

Dynachrome said:

I pour my wort from the boil pot into the fermenter from a couple feet in the air. I also have been pouring it a couple times between fermeting buckets to get the wort homogenous between the first runnings and the last sparges. It is still pretty warm when I do this for what its worth.

Click to expand...

i typically will pour pretty high as well, but i dont exchange the wort between buckets.

i asked for an aerator for xmas so hopefully santa will be nice.

i decided to pitch a safale-05 and another wyeast 1272.

will report back in 2 weeks with my findings