prevent RIS yeast stall

i brewed a russian imperial stout on sunday and pitched a smack pack of wlp002. the recipe is from the byo clone mag. i had quick and aggressive co2 production, which i foresaw and used a blow off tube.
after searching the archives on hbt i realized this beer is going to take around 6 months. the og was 1.09. i also give the bucket a swirl every other day. my question is was this enough yeast? i havent gotten in to making starters yet but it does seem like something i would be open to doing in the future. is there something i could do to make sure the yeast doesnt poop out. the target fg is 1.02. how about yeast nutrients and energizer? am i missing anything else??

thank you hbt fellas. you have been a great resource for me.

mark

No, it wasn't enough yeast. You tossed in about 100 billion cells and you would want around 300 billion...there are more reasons than hitting your attenuation to pitch a proper starter too. To ferment out that big a beer you really want to start thinking about yeast days ahead of brew day. Make your starter, use nutrients in your starter, us pure O2 in it and use a stir plate (ideally). Then, hit your wort with more O2 and yeast nutrients and you should be set for a solid fermentation. However, obviously that is in the past for you and you need help with what you can do.

If you mean sunday, as in today sunday (props for brewing a beer already, its 7 am for me in Seattle) then I would run down to the store and pick up another couple smack packs and hit it with the proper pitch along with some yeast nutrient. If you have the money I would also grab an O2 setup and oxygenate the wort.

If you mean a week ago sunday then never mind about the O2. I have no experience with yeast nutrient or energizer helping a week into a fermentation if you are already a week in. However, I doubt it would hurt anything to try. You could also pick up another pack of yeast and smack it and when it gets going strong dump that into beer to give it another shot of good healthy yeast and hope for the best.

As the yeast near the finish the temp will drop (the yeast themselves make heat.) Temp drops can make then flocculat out. So as fermentation slows monitor the temp and don't let it fall--even let it rise a bit. It will help them finish and clean up.

i think im going to hit it up with another smack pack, nutrients and energizer. i also like the temp idea. i have a small radiator i can put in my fermentation box to keep the temp in the upper 60's. i hope this will finish out the fermentation!

Yes, +1 to Conroe, keep that temp up. Yeast nutrients and energizer are very similar. Look into it some because you don't want to over do it or you will taste it in the finished product.