Is it stuck? What do I do?

I recently brewed a wee heavy. I'll start w/ the grain bill:

8# 2 row
1# Cara-pils
1# Peated Malt
1# Biscuit Malt
1# Crystal 90L
1# Roasted barley (I know, too much. I screwed up the order and it was all mixed up so I had to use it as is.)

Promash gave me a target OG of 1.068, I ended up at 1.062. Moved to primary and pitched rehydrated Danstar Nottinghoma yeast. I left it in the primary for a week and transferred to a carboy. When I transferred, gravity had only dropped to 1.034. I added another pack of dry yeast trying to re-start the fermentation. I chekced it again today (after a week in the secondary) and it only dropped to 1.032!! When I transferred and re-pitched the airlock bubbled for a day and stopped. The room where I keep my fermenters usually stays around 68-70 degrees and I've never had a problem with fermentation.
Any ideas or suggestions about what I should do? Am I just going to have live with it or is there a way to save it?

What was your mash temp?

Holy GOD, man! You're worried about that pound of roasted barley, when what you should be concerned about is the POUND, I'll say it again for effect, POUND of peated malt!!!! Traditional wee heavies have NO peated malt, much less a whole pound.

The roasted barley won't matter. Nothing else will matter. You will have 5 whole gallons of smoke juice. The most peated I've used was 5oz, and it was reallllly smoky.

Get ready, you're in for a surprise. I hope you like liquid smoke.

I have never had good luck with a stuck ferment. When you add more yeast it must be at high kaurzen before you pitch, even then you wont have a lot of luck getting it down. Been there done that .

I second Evan's comments. That's a LOT of peated malt. I use 4 oz in mine and it gives a nice smoked presence in the palate that is not overwhelming at all.

Back to the OP, I've never had a stuck fermentation so I'm not sure how much help I can be. Did yougive your fermenter a few gentle shakes before you repitched?

Put it in a secondary and let it sit for 3 months.

Or, aerate vigorously and repitch with fresh yeast. You'll run the risk of oxidizing the beer, but that might not matter much. You're only at about 50% attenuation so there could be a good bit of fermentation to go yet that would scrub out the O2. Also, there is so much smoked malt and roasted barley in there that you probably won't taste a little oxidation.

Or, brew another beer and pitch this one on the full yeast cake from that one.

FWIW, I've had one stuck ferment and no matter what I did it would not budge. The only thing I didn't try was re-aerating, which I think might have worked. But it probably would have ruined the beer, too.

Mashed with strike water at 170, mash held at 160 for the enitre time. I've tried shaking it, I've treid stirring it...nothing seems to work. I guess I'll just let it sit and keg it in a month or so and force carb (I was going to bottle it, but there's probably not enough yeast in there to carbonate if it won't finish fermenting).

As far as the peated malt, this is my first attempt at an AG Wee Heavy, I lifted bits and pieces of the grain bill from other recipes online. I'll see how this turns out and adjust from there. Thanks for the advice!!

With a mash temperature of 160F, you have a VERY unfermentable wort. I would recommend you place it in a quiet spot for 12 months. It will take at least that long for the peat to back-off, maybe 18. You could add some alpha amylase, there is plenty of time to order some.

Yeah, get some alpha amylase. I have used that trick before and it worked beautifully. I have no experience with smoked malts, but I do know that a pound is a lot. Even after you add amylase and finish fermenting, you may want to consider blending that batch with something else. I dont know if time is going to be good enough.

I really starting to lean in the direction of dumping it and trying again...Hate to let it sit that long with the possibility of it not being drinkable. Rather just re-load and try again.

Bad Shark Brew said:

I really starting to lean in the direction of dumping it and trying again...Hate to let it sit that long with the possibility of it not being drinkable. Rather just re-load and try again.

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Never throw away beer! Just make a complementary batch and blend.

carnevoodoo said:

Never throw away beer! Just make a complementary batch and blend.

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Exactly! Don't dump $20.00 worth of beer so you can use your $13.00 bucket!

I think you smoked out the Notty...

Let this be a lesson, kids...8 homebrews and promash are a bad combination!!

No one will blame you if you dumped it and started over. I've dumped two batches so far. Not every beer is worth the hassle of seeing through to the bitter end.