Stuck Fermentation? Help/Advice

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alaskajoe

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I brewed the recipe found on this site called Honey Bear Snot, found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/honey-bear-snot-98826/

I am approaching the bottling mark of 3 weeks in primary only (per the recipe), and gravity reading is only at about 1.030. I initially pitched 2 completed slap packs of the scottish ale yeast, and 2 days into it, fermention was pretty violent, so I know something happened.

Should I pitch some more yeast? Advice?

Recipe as follows:
Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: 1728 Scottish Ale
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.097
Final Gravity: 1.015
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 20 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 3 WEEKS @ 65 F
Additional Fermentation: 9 Months of Bottle Conditioning
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): NONE
Tasting Notes: A strong toasted biscuit flavor with a hint of chocolate and finishes with honey

Steeping Grains:
1.0 lbs of Belgian Special B Malt (Crushed)
1.0 lbs of Beligian Biscuit Malt (Crushed)
3.0 oz of Breiss Chocolate Malt (Crushed)

Malt Extract:
5.0 lbs Muntons Light (Dry)
7.7 lbs Northwestern Gold (Liquid)

Hops:
1.0 oz of 13% Alpha Acidity Nugget (pellets)
0.5 oz of 4.5% Alpha Acidity Cascades (leaves)

Yeast:
Scottish Ale 1728 Wyeast Activator Pack

Directions:
1.) Steep all grains at 155 degrees F for 45 minutes in 1/2 gallons of water.
2.) Rinse grains with .25 gallons of 170 degrees F water.
3.) Add all 5.0 lbs of dry maly extract and enough water to create 2.5 gallons of wort and bring to a to a boil.
4.) Once boiling start timer at 60 minutes and add all nugget hops.
5.) Add all Cascade hops and all 7.7 lbs of liquid malt extract at the 20 minute mark.
6.) Once time has expired cool wort to 75 degrees in 45 minutes.
7.) Once the wort is cooled, use a brand new cheese cloth and place over primary fermenter (the use of two people works best to hold and pour cheese cloth and pour) then pour cooled wort into fermenter to filter out trube.
8.) Let ferment in a dark cool area (around 65 degrees F) for 3 weeks.
9.) Bottle using a heavy 1/2 cup of clover honey.
10.) Leave in Bottles for 9 months for best flavoring before serving!
 
That's a pretty big beer. I might leave it in the fermenter for longer than 3 weeks. You might take another hydrometer reading in a week and see if the yeast are still slowly doing some work.

Standard advice for rousing yeast are to carefully (without introducing lots of oxygen) swirl up the yeast and raise the temp of the fermenter.

An unknown here is what is in the extract, especially the Northwestern Gold, specifically the nonfermentables.
 
11pm on 5/15/10 and I am not getting any bubble or visible activity still. It's hanging there at 1.030. On Wednesday last, I gave it some good oxygen and stirring to try and rouse it, and raised the ambient temp as well. Nada. Grr.
 
With Original Gravity at 1.097 you probably should have pitched more yeast to start with... actually, scratch that, you could have made a starter and you would've been fine...

You don't really have stuck fermentation, just not the attenuation you were looking for... it doesn't help that the Scottish Ale 1728 Wyeast is a high flocculating yeast... but not to worry... rack it to a secondary to avoid autolysis and give it time. Worst thing that can happen is that you'll get diacetyl and fruity flavors, which will diminish somewhat with time...
 
you added oxygen when? when it was at 1.030? I think you just oxidized the beer if you did.:(

If you pitched a single smack pack in a 1.097 beer, I think you are done. You needed a really big starter to get you a lot of really healthy yeast to eat away at that big boy.

That being said, I would leave it a couple more weeks as it may drop a couple points. It may still be a very enjoyable beer if you didn't oxidize it.
 
It's all good i think. It dropped a little more after some agitation, then stopped again, so I bottled 'er up. Wort tasted good, and bottle conditioning with honey, so hoping it comes out ok!
 
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