Stuck Fermentation?

I am a pretty new home brewer, just did my 4th batch, it was a Brewers Best Scottish Ale. I brewed it last Sunday, pitched the dry yeast in the evening and last Monday it was bubbling away nicely. I had it setup with a blow off tube going into a bucket. Unfortunately, by last Tuesday, it had completely stopped. There was only 24 hours of activity. Could it be done or is it a case of stuck fermentation? If it's stuck, what do I do?

One possible issue is that we have a programmable thermostat that let's the house get down to 62 during the week when we are at work. Normally, I override it while I have beer that is fermenting but I forgot to do it this time. I kept the house at a constant temperature and agitated my carboy a bit but nothing has happened.

What should I be doing to get this going again or find out if it's finished?

First thing would be to know what your original gravity was, whether you measured it or know what it supposed to be approximately. Knowing that, you can measure your current gravity is, and figure out how much attenuation you've had so far. If you're around 65-70%, you're pretty good. If so, I'd leave it another week and measure again to see if it's changed. If it's the same, it's done. Of course, if your gravity is still high, something else might need to be done.

Have you checked the specific gravity to see if you are really stuck or just fermenting slowly. Check it now and then in a few days to see what is going on.

I didn't check it, my hydrometer broke so I don't know what the original gravity was. I ordered a new one that should arrive at my house today or tomorrow. What is the best way to get a sample of the wort out of the carboy and into the tube that the hydrometer goes in without introducing potentially bad stuff to the wort?

yearlylesson said:

I didn't check it, my hydrometer broke so I don't know what the original gravity was. I ordered a new one that should arrive at my house today or tomorrow. What is the best way to get a sample of the wort out of the carboy and into the tube that the hydrometer goes in without introducing potentially bad stuff to the wort?

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Then all you really know is that your airlock isn't venting excess co2, NOT whether or not you have a stuck fermentation!

There's a big difference between those two conditions.

Just because your airlock isn't bubbling doesn't mean that fermentation is finished, or stuck, or anything.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2.

More than likely the peak of fermentation has already wound down, so there's simply no need to vent off any excess co2.

"Bubbling action" is not a good way to tell if anything is happening, plenty of beers ferment without a single bubble from the airlock.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years..

The bubbling just means that it is venting excess CO2, nothing more. If it's not bubbling, that only means that it is not producing enough co2 to need to vent.

If your airlock was bubbling and stopped---It doesn't mean fermentation has stopped.

If you airlock isn't bubbling, it doesn't mean your fermentation hasn't started....

If your airlock starts bubbling, it really doesn't matter.

If your airlock NEVER bubbles, it doesn't mean anything is wrong or right.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on. It's exactly the same thing when you try to go by airlock....

I would suggest you get a replacement hydromter. And also that you get out of the habit od declaring a situation like stuckness by your airlock bubbles or lack of them.

I have a wine thief that I use. A simple way to get your sample is to sanitize a turkey baster and us that.

This is what I use, and it works with both buckets and carboys



And



Here's what I do....

1) With a spray bottle filled with starsan I spray the lid of my bucket, or the mouth of the carboy, including the bung. Then I spray my turkey baster inside and out with sanitize (or dunking it in a container of sanitizer).

2) Open fermenter.

3) Draw Sample

4) fill sample jar (usualy 2-3 turky baster draws

5)Spray bung or lid with sanitizer again

6) Close lid or bung

6) take reading

It is less than 30 seconds from the time the lid is removed until it is closed again.

Probably less if you have help.

And unless a bird swoops down and poops in your fermenter, you wont have any trouble.

Yes, I do basically the same thing as Revvy for measuring specific gravity. It's really quite easy once you've done it a couple of times and get into the routine. Make sure you adjust your hydrometer reading for the temperature, as most are calibrated to be accurate at 60ºF.

I like the 30 second time for lid off the bucket. Starsan spray is a good idea, too.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I am not sure what to do next. I bought a new hydrometer and took a reading. It looks to me that it's only at 1.10. My last hydrometer broke before my last brew session so I don't know what the original gravity was but the Brewers Best kit suggests it should have been at 1.034 - 1.038. 1.10 doesn't seem like much movement and it's been in the carboy for a month now. Any suggestions on what I should do?

Brian

Revvy said:

Then all you really know is that your airlock isn't venting excess co2, NOT whether or not you have a stuck fermentation!

There's a big difference between those two conditions.

And so on....

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Man, that was GREAT! Can I adopt you?

I wonder if I am reading the hydrometer wrong, it's different from my last one and as I mentioned, I am very new at this.

The hydrometer has several areas on it, I will give you what I am reading and hopefully you can tell me if I am doing it right.

The specific gravity starts at 0.990 at the very top and then below that it is 1.000 and then below that it is 10. I am at that ten. Is that 1.10 or is that 1.010?

It's saying on the hydrometer that the potential alcohol % is only 1.5 or so.

The Balling measurement is at about 2.5

That should be 1.010. If you look lower, there will be a bigger 1.1 marker.

At least, that's the way mine is.

Ahh, okay, thanks, I see that now. Thanks. Any suggestions on what to do to get fermentation going again?

yearlylesson said:

Ahh, okay, thanks, I see that now. Thanks. Any suggestions on what to do to get fermentation going again?

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If you are at 1.010....more than likey you are done! Just let it sit in the fermenter for a couple more weeks so that the yeast can clean up all their byproducts and you'll be good to go!

Like other people have said, you need to check to make sure your fermentation is actually stuck. What is the FG supposed to be? If your current hydrometer reading is really around 1.010, and you're OG was supposed to be 1.034 - 1.038 (as I think you said), it may not actually be stuck, but that is definitely not much movement. As the above poster said, you may even be done. My current brew was supposed to be 1.053 initially with an FG of 1.016; this is for a stout with around 5% ABV. I'm just a beginner myself, so I don't know that I can help you all that well, but if you post your recipe with OG/FG etc, someone should be able to tell you if your fermentation really is stuck.

I don't know how else to check to see if it's stuck or not. It's Brewers Best Kit and it does not tell me what the final gravity is supposed to be, just the original gravity.

The recipe was

3.3 lb Amber LME
1 lb Amber DME

4 oz. of Crystal 60L
4 oz. of Smoked
4 oz. of Chocolate
1 oz. of Roasted Barley

.5 oz of bittering hops
.5 oz of Aroma hops

1 pack of dry yeast

I missed the thread above your saying I was most likely done. I think you might be right. I guess I was expecting the beer to be a bit stronger but the Brewers Best sheet says the original gravity should have been at 1.034 - 1.038 and the ABV% should be 3.25% - 3.5%.

if I am calculating it right, (1.034 - 1.010) x 131.25 is 3.15% which is pretty close to what it was supposed to be. I guess I just assumed it would be a higher alcohol beer.

Nevermind, you figured it out while I was finding time to do the calculation.



Ah, that is a little harder. You can calculate your FG using the ABV and OG, which I show that the brewer's best kits recipes do give.

Is this your recipe?

ABV = (OG - FG) *131

So, if the recipe linked above is correct, ABV is 3.25 - 3.5. I'll just go ahead and pick the upper range of everything since we don't have any measurements. Assuming 3.5 ABV and 1.038 OG, your FG should be around 1.011, which is approximately where you're at. So your fermentation almost certainly wasn't stuck, and you could probably bottle now since it's been in primary for a month.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!

Not a problem.

Denny said:

Man, that was GREAT! Can I adopt you?

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Only if you then impart all YOUR brewing wisdom on me.:rockin:

Actually you have done a lot of that already.