Cannonball Stout stuck at 1.040

I would appreciate some advice on what to do next with my stuck fermentation.

About 5 weeks ago, I brewed the AHS Cannonball Stout (extract with all DME) which has an estimated OG of 1.100 (which I hit exactly) and FG of around 1.023. I pitched a 4L starter (WLP007), and fermentation took off with a huge blowoff within 24 hours. After 2 weeks in the primary, I took hydrometer readings for several days, and it was stuck at 1.045. I swirled the bucket to get the yeast cake back into suspension, but that did not make any difference in gravity.

I searched through threads here and found the suggestion to use a yeast cake to restart a stuck fermentation. I made a Pale Ale using the same yeast strain (WLP007), and after 1 week, I racked the Pale Ale to a secondary and racked the Cannonball Stout onto the yeast cake. There appeared to be some fermentation activity, and after 1 week the gravity had dropped to 1.040. However, after several days the gravity is now stuck at 1.040.

I am not sure what to do next to try to get the gravity lower. My guess is that my wort was lacking oxygen since I never bothered to focus on aeration before. I think I will try adding some champagne yeast, but I'm not sure if this will actually accomplish anything. Can anybody recommend a particular yeast for this? Or is there anything else I could/should try?

Thanks for the advice.

what is the temp of the beer? if its to cold the yeast are not going to do much.

TipsyDragon said:

what is the temp of the beer? if its to cold the yeast are not going to do much.

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It was at 67 F during initial fermentation, and it's been at 68-69 F since then.

What would the attenuation percent be from 1.1 to 1.04? You may just be done. What does it taste like?

You can always swirl it up to get some yeast back in solution and warm it up to 73.

Hardleft said:

What would the attenuation percent be from 1.1 to 1.04?

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It's 60% Kind of low considering White Labs says the expected attenuation is 70%-80%.

You could try adding some dry Notty yeast.

mojotele said:

It's 60% Kind of low considering White Labs says the expected attenuation is 70%-80%.

You could try adding some dry Notty yeast.

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I was worried that an Ale yeast may not work since the ABV is already close to 8%. Do you think this matters?

What was the OG of your starter? Do you think this might have thrown off your numbers? A gallon sized starter could have skewed your numbers if its OG was high IMO.

rwiseman63 said:

I was worried that an Ale yeast may not work since the ABV is already close to 8%. Do you think this matters?

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I don't entirely understand your question since WLP007 is itself an ale yeast. Perhaps you're asking if Nottingham has an appropriate alcohol tolerance, and, as far as I know, Nottingham has pretty high alcohol tolerance.

Or perhaps you're asking if WLP007 is crapping out because of the alcohol. According to White Labs, WLP007 can get up to 10% ABV with no problems, so I doubt that's the problem.

mojotele said:

I don't entirely understand your question since WLP007 is itself an ale yeast. Perhaps you're asking if Nottingham has an appropriate alcohol tolerance, and, as far as I know, Nottingham has pretty high alcohol tolerance.

Or perhaps you're asking if WLP007 is crapping out because of the alcohol. According to White Labs, WLP007 can get up to 10% ABV with no problems, so I doubt that's the problem.

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I think Notty is good to 12%

Did you use a starter? You could always try adding some more fresh yeast to continue. The attenuation does seem low. You can probably get it a bit lower.

mojotele said:

I don't entirely understand your question since WLP007 is itself an ale yeast. Perhaps you're asking if Nottingham has an appropriate alcohol tolerance, and, as far as I know, Nottingham has pretty high alcohol tolerance.

Or perhaps you're asking if WLP007 is crapping out because of the alcohol. According to White Labs, WLP007 can get up to 10% ABV with no problems, so I doubt that's the problem.

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Sorry. I guess I wasn't clear about my concern, and maybe it's unwarranted.

My thinking was that even if a yeast strain like Nottingham is tolerant of high percentages, it might struggle to restart a stuck fermentation if pitched into beer that is already 8%, and therefore something with a higher tolerance would work better. I have read some suggestions in other threads to try champagne yeast for this purpose since it is tolerant of very high alcohol percentages.

I think I'll try using Nottingham.

I don't think that'll stop the Notty. I've seen pitching Notty suggested to help stuck ferments as well as champagne yeast. I've seen Notty suggested more often than not, though. Probably because you're sticking with "beer" yeast while still using a rather neutral one.

Worst cast scenario - it doesn't work. Which leaves you right where you are now!

Let us know how it works out for you!!