Stuck Fermentation Help!

I am in the middle of creating an extract IPA.
The primary fermentation was ravenous and I had to attatch a blow off hose within 12 hours. After four days I racked it to a secondary fermenter and added a bunch of air by using a bottling wand (thought air was a good thing, oops!). After racking it to the secondary fermenter, it completely stopped in its tracks.

What can I do to fix this and save this beer?!

Please help.

After the first few days, fermentation will DRAMATICALLY slow down and may appear to be stuck (although I'll say you have a good chance of having some oxidized beer with adding the air into the secondary). There is also a chance you may have killed off the yeast if any nasties got into the secondary when you were adding air; that will depend on how much converted alcohol was present when you racked it. If you're sure there's no activity, you could always buy more yeast and pitch it in. The worst thing that could happen would be that you have more yeast floating around. If all is well, it will settle out at the end, anyway.

Good luck and keep us posted!

BREW ON

Welcome to the forum Russel,

But I'm afraid that you don't fully understand the process. The beer should stay in the primary until airlock activity slows down significantly. This can happen after a few days. Most brewers leave the beer in the primary for about one week. Then you may rack to the secondary. There the beer won't really ferment anymore. The yeast drops out further and flavor mellow. But you should not get any air into the beer as soon as it has started fermenting. Hopefully the yeast took up all the new O2 before it was able to oxidize your beer.

Kai

Thanks for the replies.
I haven't brewed for a couple of years and I guess I jot got a little excited. The beer went from bubbling a few times a minute, to nada after transferring it. My question is, what should I do now? Leave it? Pitch more yeast? I am confident the problem is due to over airating as I added a lot of air in the process. Like I said, it has been a while and I'm getting back into the swing.

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it.

Well, I guess one question to ask is this: Had the krausen fallen back into the beer before you racked it to the secondary? That would give you a little indication of how far the fermentation process is. After I rack, the bubbles in the airlock slow down greatly...once every couple minutes...if you're watching for minutes on end and see nothing, then I might take a hydrometer reading. If the beer doesn't seem done (SG is above 1.025 or so), then I'd repitch...otherwise, I'd let it run its course and see what happens. This is a tough situation...sorry I can't be of more help.

The only way the oxygen will be used up is for the yeast to revert to a growth stage. Since you had a strong ferment, there probably isn't any food left. Add a 1/2 cup of priming sugar. This will let the existing yeast start growing again. When the oxygen is gone, they will convert the remaining sugar to CO2 and alcohol.

Thanks for the advice. I added the priming sugar last night and am waiting for signs of activity. If there is no sign of activity by tonight I will add more yeast also. That should cover all the bases and hopefully things will turn out OK.
Out of curiosity, what is the negative effect of having oxygen introduced at this stage, besides creating an environment in which bacteria can reproduce? I realize that alone is a very bad thing, but are there any other negatives that go along with this?

Thanks again and I'll keep you guys posted.

OK
So here is an update. I went ahead and added more priming sugar and agitated the bucket to stirr up the yeast. Not much in the way of bubbles. Some pressure in the fermentation lock but nothing big. I didn't camp out next to it, but there might have been a bubble every once in a while. So I have waited a few days and decided to check it's specific gravity before messing with it more.

Starting gravity: 1.030
Current gravity: 1.012

Beer has good color and is very clarified. It smells good and besides being a bit sour in the finish, tasts pretty good. The one thing that I don't understand is that it is quite fizzy right now. To check the SG I had to pour my beer between two glasses to kill the head. Is this a sign that it's still fermenting? I have had beer from bottles with less carbonation and head than this one right now.

In the past I have just waited a week or two until there are no more bubbles in the fermentation lock and not checked for SG.
Any advice on proceeding from this point?

Thanks fellas.

Ok, just a quick update.

I brewed another batch a little over a week ago and had some extra yeast.
Pitched it in there and got a little action. I let it be and bottled last night.
I had a a couple of pints more beer than bottles so I did the natural thing and drank it with a buddy. Considering it was flat and young, I was very happy! We both drank it all and enjoyed it.
So pending proper carbonation and patience, I think this episode has a happy ending.
Thank you all who gave advice.