Another sweet fermentation question

I know, I've seen lots of similiar questions-- my airlock bubbling stopped and I want to know what's going on.

I looked around and of course saw many posts that you guys surely love to answer every day. However, I couldn't seem to find any with my timeframe/gravity range so I'm still a bit concerned. You see, it took about 6 hours for my 1.044 OG ale to start going and bubbled hard. 24 hours after the brewing time (so 18 hours after it started fermenting) my gravity is 1.024 and bubbling has stopped. My last batch, under similar conditions and recipe, bubbled for a couple more days and had much more of a gravity difference when the bubbling stopped.

Given the general response to similar questions, it seems like the general response is that us newbies are just freaking out and need to relax-- so although my heart tells me to be concerned, my head is level on this. But if there's not something wrong, why the big difference in behavior of these two batches?

give it a few more days and take another sample... if it is still at 1.024, looks like you are stuck. What yeast did you use?

"Windsor". Homebrew shop said they were out of stock of the "good stuff". That's one of the big reasons I'm concerned...

If I am stuck in a couple days, do I just pitch more yeast?

I had a similar situation recently. Gravity seemed to have stopped at 1.026 at day 5 (OG was 1.058) so I let it sit for a few more days, took a gravity reading, then gently roused the yeast back into solution (gently rocked carboy back and forth). After another week the gravity dropped down to 1.015.

Also, Windsor has relatively low attenuation, so the end beer will generally have more body and be sweeter. If worst comes to worst and you cant get the gravity down after waiting and or/rousing the yeast, you could pitch more yeast, say Notty or S-05.

Just my 2 cents...

Sounds like it's stuck. It happens. Rouse it a bit like the previous poster said.

Dougan said:

"Windsor". Homebrew shop said they were out of stock of the "good stuff". That's one of the big reasons I'm concerned...

If I am stuck in a couple days, do I just pitch more yeast?

Click to expand...

They were probably out of Nottingham...most LHBS are right now due to a short term shortage.

Windsor isn't bad, its just a little more fruity than Nottingham.

The airlock doesn't really mean much. It'll bubble when fermentation is done...or it won't bubble during heavy fermentation.

in other words, the damn thing lies like a politician, so you can ONLY trust your hydrometer readings and tastebuds.

Maybe give the fermenter a gentle swirl to suspend yeast, and let it ride another 4 days.

Yeah, I "roused" the yeast this morning and my gravity's still at 1.022 tonight. I'm going to give it a couple days, but I'm guessing there's something wrong. I tasted the sample I took and it tasted like I would imagine a half-fermented sample of wort/beer would taste like, but I don't really know what infected beer tastes like so I don't know.

So I'll probably pick up some more of the same kind of yeast from the local home brew supply shop on thursday... do I put the whole pack in or like half? Will the extra qty of yeast be an issue when I go to prime for bottling?

Also, I bought some campden tablets today to stabilize a separate batch of cider. Would i want to use this in case there are some sort of wild yeasts at work in my stuck batch?

If there were wild yeasts at work I don't think your batch would be stuck, they'd be eating it.

Pitched some yeast awhile ago (> 24hr) and gravity's still looking the same... pending a bit more waiting to see if something starts, I'm guessing something's wrong. Think this batch is screwed?

did you do a full boil or partial boil and topped off?

Dougan said:

Pitched some yeast awhile ago (> 24hr) and gravity's still looking the same... pending a bit more waiting to see if something starts, I'm guessing something's wrong. Think this batch is screwed?

Click to expand...

You really need to relax a little bit. I know it's hard and we've all been there. This batch is not ruined but it will be if you do not stop messing with it. If you tried waking up the yeast with a gentle swirl, it will take a while for them to come out of their slumber (please don't take that as advice to vigorously shake your fermenter). Yeast go through a process and sometimes it just takes awhile. Wait a couple of more days and then check your gravity. If it is definitely stuck, just pitch some more yeast. If you are really worried about this batch, do not throw it out, ride it out and I think you will be surprised. Start another batch as soon as you can.

Dougan said:

Pitched some yeast awhile ago (> 24hr) and gravity's still looking the same... pending a bit more waiting to see if something starts, I'm guessing something's wrong. Think this batch is screwed?

Click to expand...

I doubt the batch is screwed. Personally, I've never had a stuck fermentation. some take much longer than others, but in the end they've all finished off. It's really quite hard to actually ruin a batch of ale.

IMO, the best thing you can do for your beer is forget that it exists for about 2 weeks (easier said than done). Then rack to secondary and forget about it for another couple of weeks.

JoMarky said:

did you do a full boil or partial boil and topped off?

Click to expand...

partial, topped off with boiled and cooled tapwater

Dougan said:

partial, topped off with boiled and cooled tapwater

Click to expand...

So in essence that is a full boil. Boiling eliminates nearly all oxygen from water and so aeration is much larger of an issue for full boilers vs. partial boilers. If the yeast do not have enough oxygen to create a sizable colony before going anaerobic then fermentation can take much longer.

I do partial boils and top off with a combination of store bought ice (roughly 13lbs) which I use to cold break and then I generally need about another gallon of tap water. I've never had a problem with infection from using unboiled top off water and god knows what kind of water the ice is from.

JoMarky said:

So in essence that is a full boil. Boiling eliminates nearly all oxygen from water and so aeration is much larger of an issue for full boilers vs. partial boilers. If the yeast do not have enough oxygen to create a sizable colony before going anaerobic then fermentation can take much longer.

I do partial boils and top off with a combination of store bought ice (roughly 13lbs) which I use to cold break and then I generally need about another gallon of tap water. I've never had a problem with infection from using unboiled top off water and god knows what kind of water the ice is from.

Click to expand...

Good to know. Not that I intend to get lax on sanitation but it seems like there's never a time when you're going to be perfect-- your'e going to forget to sanitize this, or bump that... good to know it's not terrible if you aren't perfect.

I figured that with the oxygen as well so when I put the wort in the bucket, I shook it vigorously as well as added the extra water by dropping it in from my bottling bucket 3' up to get some splashing. Given that it started fermenting so quickly and so strong, I think that oxygen wasn't an issue this time. My main concern was that I didn't wait until it was fully cooled to pitch the yeast-- it was probably 80 to 85 degrees but I was in a hurry to get somewhere so I figured that was good-- however, I repitched awhile ago and it's behaving the same so I think that wasn't it either.

It seems like it's still stuck. I think I'm going to leave it be for a week or two just to make sure, but I've moved on from this. I'll finish it out either way-- it's still got -some- alcohol and it tastes OK. I suppose if there really are problems, it won't carbonate... oh well, I'll figure that out when the time comes.

The pitching temp most likely wasn't the problem. What were your ingredients?

Dougan said:

It seems like it's still stuck. I think I'm going to leave it be for a week or two just to make sure...

Click to expand...

Yes, good idea. The last thing you want is the fermentation to kickstart after you've bottled it. That could be disastrous. :drunk

Seriously, turn your back on the fermenter for two weeks.

You've poked and prodded and generally messed with it something like daily for a week now, based on your posts. Yet you ignore the evidence even as you post it - "it's stuck at 1.024" ... followed by "it's still stuck at 1.022" - no , it dropped two points between those readings, meaning the yeast are working. If you open the fermenter enough times, you will get something in there you don't want, and you will manage to ruin the batch.

Leave it the heck alone. Let the yeast get on with their business. The fact that it doesn't look like the last batch - not a big deal. Batches differ, weather differs, yeast differ. Give it two or three weeks and it will sort itself out.

in your first post you said the SG was 1.024 then a day later you said it was1.022. The yeasties are working. What is the SG at now? Updates?