Cooler fermentation?

I have a hefeweizen in primary that I brewed on March 25 and pitched onto WLP320 yeast. OG = 1.057 (BeerSmith Estimated 1.056).

Fermentation temp according to the temp strip on the outside of the Carboy = 63 degrees. WhiteLabs recommends 65-69 degrees for the yeast.

I just took a gravity and it was only down to 1.028 today which would be 15 days in primary. (BeerSmith is predicting a FG of 1.015)

So is this just fermenting slower because it's 2 degrees cooler than the bottom end of the fermentation range, or has the colder temp possibly caused a stuck fermentation?

I'm going to wait a week and take another gravity reading, but was just curious what the more experienced brewers thoughts are on this.

Thank you in advance!

since you don't have a second SG reading to compair ill have to go with slow fermentation.

I highly doubt it's stuck. I've always questioned the accuracy of those fermometers anyways. Since you're using the low end of the fermentation scale for that yeast, it will take longer. I suspect it should be finished in a few days.

It will have slowed your fermentation some, cooler temps have caused stalled fermentations for me in the past, but I think you are doing right by waiting a few more days and taking another SG reading.

If you still havent reached your target FG there are only a few reasons that may cause that.

1. low temps stalled/slowed fermentation
2. your thermo was off when you mashed
3. you have a large amount of unfermantables in your grainbill.

I'm leaning towards #1.

Schnitzengiggle said:

It will have slowed your fermentation some, cooler temps have caused stalled fermentations for me in the past, but I think you are doing right by waiting a few more days and taking another SG reading.

If you still havent reached your target FG there are only a few reasons that may cause that.

1. low temps stalled/slowed fermentation
2. your thermo was off when you mashed
3. you have a large amount of unfermantables in your grainbill.

I'm leaning towards #1.

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Oh, and I forgot to mention, this is an extract brew. So I'm thinking #2 & #3 probably aren't the culprits...though maybe a bad bag of DME, guess I'll have to wait and see

dummkauf said:

Oh, and I forgot to mention, this is an extract brew. So I'm thinking #2 & #3 probably aren't the culprits...though maybe a bad bag of DME, guess I'll have to wait and see

Click to expand...

actually 2 and 3 do apply. you just have no control over or knowledge of them because your extract (wort) was made by someone else.

Also, since it's an extract recipe, I'd expect the FG to be around 1.020. Extract will usually finish a bit higher than predicted all-grain beers.

Yep, as usual I needed to RDWHAHB. Just took a gravity reading and it's down to 1.015, exactly what BeerSmith predicted the final gravity to be Going to check it again in a few days and if it's steady, it's off to secondary for a couple of weeks to clear........FINALLY!!! I'm all out of Yoopers DFH 60 min clone and need my primary back to start another batch