Lost too much yeast during fermentation? Stuck Fermentation, should i water down?

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aorloski

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I was brewing an imperial stout that had an OG of 1.090 with a very explosive fermentation. I had a blowoff valve going but it looks like a lot of krausen and yeast came up and out of the tube. Its been 9 days and the gravity is 1.036 and not moving. With the recent cold here in New England the temperature of the beer is 58 degrees (not good, i know) so i dont think i am getting much out of this yeast anymore. I have been advised not to repitch yeast as it will not live in this environment.

So, i am thinking about adding about a gallon or two of sanitized water to the beer when i transfer to secondary to bring the gravity down, albeit ill lose some of the abv i would rather drink a lighter beer than a super sweet mollasses bomb. I was thinking about transfering to secondary with some cocao nibs, vanilla beans and cold brewed coffee as well. Would this be a good idea? Any help would be awesome, thanks guys!
 
You need to warm that poor thing up! If you used ale yeast, you've essentially put it to sleep with the cold! Warm it up, give it a swirl and relax, it'll take off again.
 
i swirled it today with a little sign of bubbles. i double pitched danstar nottingham dry yeast. you dont think the yeast is crashed due to temperature? i mean, i guess its worth a shot, im going to move it somewhere warmer as we speak.
 
Solve the fermentation issue first. You need to get that temp up into the high 60's then rouse the yeast for 2-3 days until they are back up and running again.
 
okay so i got the beer up to about 69 degrees and swirled it around in the bucket a bunch with some good results. i was getting about a bubble every 2 seconds for a few hours but it has ultimately haulted or slowed down very considerably even after continuing to swirl the bucket. should i just keep slowly letting it run its course thinking that i kicked the yeast back into shape or is there something better to do at this stage?

thanks again for the help guys!
 
Now you just need to wait for the yeast to wake back up. Yes, when they got down that cool, most of the yeast went dormant. Now, you have to wait for the entire fermenter to warm up (it's not nearly an instantaneous thing for the whole of that volume to raise to the new temp). So, once all of the beer itself is up to 69, rather than just sitting in a room that's 69, then give it a gentle swirl or three - don't slosh it around like crazy, just gently swirl it enough to get some of the yeast cake back into suspension - and give it a few days time, and it should take back off again.
 
Okay so my roommate turned the heat off in the house and the beer got down to 60 degrees again, I tested the gravity and it dropped 2 points. I heated it back up and gave it another swirl and I was getting some bubbles in the first hour but since then halted once again. Should I just keep letting it sit at this temperature and see if the yeast becomes active again or am I screwed because it got down to 60 degrees again?
 
aorloski said:
Okay so my roommate turned the heat off in the house and the beer got down to 60 degrees again, I tested the gravity and it dropped 2 points. I heated it back up and gave it another swirl and I was getting some bubbles in the first hour but since then halted once again. Should I just keep letting it sit at this temperature and see if the yeast becomes active again or am I screwed because it got down to 60 degrees again?

If you are super concerned about it, you could re-pitch. Maybe not a bad idea. But if you can't keep it warm enough, not much is going to happen!
 
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