"Stuck Stout"

After 23 beers I have got my first "Stuck Stout", in fact I think I am going to nickname it that.

It is a Sweet Stout and the S.G. was 1.059, I used Wyeast British Ale 1098. It was in the Primary for three weeks and I was going to move it to a bright tank to clear and age for a while. I pulled a gravity reading and it was 1.028. I shook it up a bit and warmed it up to 72 degrees and left it for five days, still 1.028.

So I transfered it to a carboy and left it a week giving it a nudge every day, still 1.028. I have been thinking about repitching another pack of yeast but it taste pretty darn good. It is very malty and it is sweet.

I may just leave it alone, keg it and live with a very sweet 4% campfire Stout.

Proper yeast pitching rates, proper mash temperature & proper fermentation temperature control should make it so this doesn't happen...If you are going to pitch more yeast I'd suggest making a starter and pitching at high krausen.

You may want to add some flavoring to make it a dessert beer. One of my top winning beers was Jamil's oatmeal stout that stuck at 1025. I bottled twelve and then added cold brewed espresso and a vanilla bean to the rest. I won a couple of seconds and a third with the sweet stout and two firsts with the vanilla espresso sweet stout. I hope I can make this mistake again!

Is this an AG or extract recipe?

I bottled a stuck porter at 1.020, it should have dropped to 1.013-1.014, I rolled it in the carboy first several times, had it at 70-72 degrees let it sit two more weeks...About a month after I put it in the bottle the yeast decided to finish its work. I now have geysers, By the time these things stop gushing the is hardly a quarter of a beer left. I'm lucky not to have any bombs. If your recipe should finish lower then definitely pitch another yeast or something, anything to get it where it needs to be. With a keg you can let out excess pressure so you would be safe but it would still be a PITA. Good luck.

This just happened to me. I am stuck @ 1.035 with Denny's Imperial Van. Bourbon Porter. It should be @ 1.022 or so. The best info I found was to brew another batch of beer and @ high krausen take 5% and add to the stuck beer. You do this because you DO NOT want to add more O2 to fermented beer, yeast needs O2, beer needs active yeast. If you can't brew another then make a BIG starter (1-2 Qts) and pitch that.

Did you add any none fermentables that can raise the gravity?

michael.berta said:

Proper yeast pitching rates, proper mash temperature & proper fermentation temperature control should make it so this doesn't happen...If you are going to pitch more yeast I'd suggest making a starter and pitching at high krausen.

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I pitched a two litre starter at 72 degree's (because the starter was 72 degree's), according to my notes I mashed for 50 minutes at 154F, I then batch sparged for 15 minutes at 168. I boiled 6.3 gallons and came up with a little under 5.25 gallons (what I was shooting for). It was fermented at 65 degrees for three weeks. The only thing I did different with this one is usually after two weeks I warm the beer up to around 70 to get the yeast active to clean up a bit before I transfer to a bright tank.

Is this an AG or extract recipe?

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This recipe is actually a partial Mash:

5 pounds dark LME
2 pounds Maris Otter
.5 pounds Carapils
.25 pounds Black Patent
.25 pounds Black Barley
.25 pounds Chocolate Malt
1 pound lactose

Did you add any none fermentables that can raise the gravity?

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I added one pound of Lactose during the boil

The best info I found was to brew another batch of beer and @ high krausen take 5% and add to the stuck beer.

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That is a great idea, I have been back and forth about pitching some more yeast. The only reason I brewed it was because all my bud light drinking buddies all talk about how bad "black beer" is so I was doing it for them. My previos stout was a Dry Stout and was a little much for them, great for me it may last a while. They should really love this one it is more like a double chocolate latte from starbucks.

I was just curious as to why this one didn't finish. All my other beers have actually finished better than expected. I pour the cooled wort through a strainer into the fermentor very roughly to get 02 into the mixture. I then pitch the starter and give it a little shake and off to the ferment chamber it goes. I wonder if it had something to do with the Lactose?

I pulled another gravity reading and it is still 1.028. I guess since I was going after a sweet stout I am just going to keg it. I tasted it again and it has a nice coffee like flavor and funny enough the hops are still strong enough to give it a nice bitter/sweet after taste, though more on the sweet. I was the afraid that the sweetness would dominate but it is not bad at all. The smell is dominated by a very strong chocolate aroma. I finshed the sample with breakfast, it was great with peanut butter toast. I think I am going to keg it and carb a little heavier than I normally would. I think my light beer drinking buddies will love it.