What are my options for stuck fermentation

I have been brewing for almost a year now and i do believe that I have my first stuck fermentation. I brewed a cherry wood smoked porter 2 weeks ago starting gravity of 1.066, used wyeast 1450 dennys favorite 50 ( the guy at northern brewer suggested it, they were having a sale on it) Fermentation started fast and furious, and i thought all was well. I decided to take a hydrometer reading at 10 days, 1.042. I thought that seemed a little high, so i swirled the fermenter and decided to check back in a few days. Tonight i took another reading and it is at 1.041 or so. I have been fermenting in the 66-68 degree range. So I am now wondering what my next step is. I have seen posts that recommend pitching more yeast, racking onto another cake ( i dont have one currently) warming the fermenter... what do you think my best option is. I have heard that the 1450 is a little slow fermenting, but this seems way to slow! Please HELP!

Yeah, after 10 days you should be a lot lower. I suspect you underpitched. My thought is that you try tossing in a couple packets of Nottingham or US-05 to try to spur some more fermentation without adding a different yeast flavor.

i tossed in a little yeast energizer and swirled the fermenter. this morning i had a little airlock activity, one bubble every 25 sec or so. should i just leave it alone for a few days and see what happens, or should i re pitch some yeast?

I'm dealing with a stuck fermentation on a barleywine right now. My LHBS guys recommended stirring and dosing with a packet of Nottingham and yeast nutrient, which I did. No effect - still at 1.050. The "last resort" is to add wine (champagne?) yeast, which I also did. I haven't checked the gravity yet, but airlock activity right after adding it was slow but steady. If the gravity is still too high, I'm considering adding amylase enzyme. I hear that will really dry it up, but it's too sweet to drink now, so I've nothing to lose. My $.02.

I just used 1450 for an IPA. After 3 weeks, it had gone from 1.073 to 1.023. 5 more days and it was 1.013. Be patient.

Alpha Amylase. Make a starter and pitch at high krausen.

I checked the gravity again today... no change. went to the Norther Brewer today and picked up some nottingham. gonna toss that in and see what happens... Im hoping for the best!

+1 on Alpha-Amylase: Probably the only thing that will get the gravity down. Some will suggest Beano, but that will take the beer too low.

I keep Alpha-Amylase and Gluco-Amylase on hand. Good Luck.

well i t looks as if the notty is doing it thing, just took a peek a few hours after dumping the yeast in, and it looks promising there is a little airlock activity and some bubbles are beginning to form i can not believe that stuff went to work so quickly! Ill keep this thread up to date.

little to no activity this morning... life is not good. I am wondering what the causes of my troubles could be.

I've got a "stuck" problem too maybe you guys could help with. I just brewed and my OG was way too low (1.020). I'm hopeful that the flavors will turn out still, but concerned without enough fermentables there won't be any alcohol to it. I contemplated boiling a little sugar and adding it to the fermenter to give the yeast something to work with, and it's a very hoppy beer so I don't think it'll affect the beer itself much, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Did you by any chance to a partial boil and add top off water before taking a reading?

Denny that is exactly what I did. I have done that with probably 7 or 8 batched previously (which all turned out great) but never had to top off as much volume as I did on this batch.

Mike: Is this an all grain or extract brew? Your symptoms are pretty typical of unfermentables. Alpha amylase will work on that and give your yeast something to eat.

OK, so likely what happened is that the wort and water weren't mixed as well as you thought. The wort, being heavier, sank to the bottom and the reading you took from the top was watered down. If you used an extract recipe and your volume was correct, then you actually got the OG that was intended.

Denny - I'm hoping the mixture issue is what I experienced.

Mighty - I've never used alpha amylase before...what do I need to do? I'll do just about anything to try to save this beer! The brew was a bit of a hybrid between all grain and extract in that I used a simplified process even though I used grains and not extract. After steeping grains for 45 minutes I did a 75 minute boil with several hop additions before cooling/topping off/pitching yeast.

I didn't have much airlock activity yesterday (24 hours after pitching) so after work today I'll shake up the fermenter and hope that helps. In the meantime if you have advice on the alpha amylase or any other recommendations they sure would be appreciated!

Most home brew stores will carry alpha amylase enzyme. Purchase a bottle and administer it according to the directions. You will probably be adding a teaspoon or so to the primary and letting it sit as the amylase does its thing.

it was an all grain brew, hit my mash temp of 154 the brew went well, im not sure what went wrong, and im not sure how to correct it. This was by no means my first all grain brew.

If alpha amylase doesn't do the trick then I'd start worrying. Until then RDWHAHB.

Right on Mighty. After work I gave the fermenter a good shaking, and a while later checking on it noticed a fair amount of airlock activity (giving me hope I got a false reading from not having wort and water mixed up enough initially). I didn't want to open it up to check, figuring leaving it alone would be best. Think I should check SG and see if I need the alpha amylase? Or do you think I should let chemistry run it's course and hope for the best?

Thanks for the help...

is there another name or commercially available brand? Im having a hard time finding alpha Amylase?!?!?!?

You might find it under amylase enzyme but you should probably call your LHBS.

i just pitched the enzyme. I used one teaspoon of enzyme for my five gallon batch as directed. I was wondering if anybody has used this and what the time frame for it to finish working is?? cheers!

WE HAVE FERMENTATION!!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD.

Thank all of you guys for the ideas and help!

cheers mate!

finally got the gravity down to 1.023 so life is good again! thanks agin to everybody who posted