knownikko
Well-Known Member
All,
I recently brewed up a slightly modified version of the bourbon vanilla porter posted in the recipes area and appear to have a fermentation stuck at 1.040 after a couple weeks.
I made a partial mash version of the recipe, substituting all of the 2-row malt for LME. All of the other grains were mashed at ~152 for 60 minutes and then batch sparged. I hit a starting gravity of 1.082.
Here's where things got fun. I know that I drastically underpitched by using a single smack-pack of Wyeast 1056 without making a starter. I had every intention of making a starter, but made the mistake of not buying some DME when I was at the LHBS with which to make one (thought I had some at home). The brew store is about a 35 mile trip for me, so I decided to just pitch it and see how it went.
I started the fermentation in my garage, temp was about 62 degrees. After 9 days I took a gravity reading, 1.040. Fermentation activity appeared to have stopped at that point, so I took the carboy inside, brought it up to ~74 degrees and gave it a swirl to get things going again. It appeared to pick back up, but apparently it didn't as a week later I'm still at exactly 1.040.
So I've been doing some reading about stuck fermentations and one of the suggested remedies was to make a second batch (this time with a big and proper starter of course), and then rack ~5% of the new beer onto the old one at high krausen to get things going again. Anybody have thoughts on or experience with this method? This seems like my preferred approach at this point, as finishing up with 10 gallons of what seems to be a fantastic beer wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.
I do have a packet of montrachet wine yeast in the fridge, but I'm worried that's just gonna funk up my beer and won't get the gravity down low enough anyway.
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
I recently brewed up a slightly modified version of the bourbon vanilla porter posted in the recipes area and appear to have a fermentation stuck at 1.040 after a couple weeks.
I made a partial mash version of the recipe, substituting all of the 2-row malt for LME. All of the other grains were mashed at ~152 for 60 minutes and then batch sparged. I hit a starting gravity of 1.082.
Here's where things got fun. I know that I drastically underpitched by using a single smack-pack of Wyeast 1056 without making a starter. I had every intention of making a starter, but made the mistake of not buying some DME when I was at the LHBS with which to make one (thought I had some at home). The brew store is about a 35 mile trip for me, so I decided to just pitch it and see how it went.
I started the fermentation in my garage, temp was about 62 degrees. After 9 days I took a gravity reading, 1.040. Fermentation activity appeared to have stopped at that point, so I took the carboy inside, brought it up to ~74 degrees and gave it a swirl to get things going again. It appeared to pick back up, but apparently it didn't as a week later I'm still at exactly 1.040.
So I've been doing some reading about stuck fermentations and one of the suggested remedies was to make a second batch (this time with a big and proper starter of course), and then rack ~5% of the new beer onto the old one at high krausen to get things going again. Anybody have thoughts on or experience with this method? This seems like my preferred approach at this point, as finishing up with 10 gallons of what seems to be a fantastic beer wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.
I do have a packet of montrachet wine yeast in the fridge, but I'm worried that's just gonna funk up my beer and won't get the gravity down low enough anyway.
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Thanks