Not another stuck fermentation thread...yet

Hello all,

On sunday I tried my hand at a strong ale. The recipe is an adaptation of another recipe. As my LHBS didnt have the exact ingredients.

Recipe:

extract:
7lbs Pale LME
3lbs DME Amber
2lbs DME extra light

grains:1lb of munich, and 1lb of English Carmel 50-70L steeped @ 155

Hops: 1oz Vanguard 60 min 1oz Fuggles 45 min 1 oz Vanguard 15 min 1 oz Fuggles 3 min

So I cooled to 67 degrees. I then siphoned the wort out of my keggle and into my fermentor. There was almost 3 gallons of wort. I topped of with two gallons of water. I then poured all 5 gallons form one bucket into another sanitized bucket to properly aerate the wort. I then pitched whitelabs english ale that had been sitting in two cups of water with a 1/3 cup of dex. At this time there is now visible signs of fermentation. I am going to take a hydro reading tomorrow to see if the gravity has lowered. The OG was 1.070, but how does this process sound? Did I go wrong some where?

TIA

Mr Malty says 3 liters of yeast would be ideal for a 1.070 ale, assuming 1 vial of White Labs yeast. Was your starter sitting on a stir plate? How long did you let your starter go?

I get the feeling you didn't pitch nearly enough yeast for this beer. I hate to make you paranoid, as this beer may very well come out just fine, but I see a stuck fermentation at about 1.020 in your future. What FG are you shooting for?

Also, don't go messing with the beer now. It's way to soon to be thinking about hydro readings in a beer this big. Leave it alone for at least a month, and see where it's at then.

I was shooting for an FG from 1.012. Thats not that far off the mark, but i was really looking into fine tuning things so that my OG and FG come out as what it perdicted with these recipies. With that in mind should i pitch another tube?

Just curious, will While Labs 002 give you that much attenuation?

From White Labs: Attenuation: 63-70%

According to my calculations you would need to have an appeareant attenuation of 82% to reach 1.012!

Are my calculations correct? Still learning....

I used 002 on a Smoked Porter OG 1.060 and FG 1.019 (recipe called for FG of 1.018)

I checked my ale today and when i opened the closet door there was an immediate smell of beer fermenting! I popped open the air lock to take a look see and the krausen is close to the top. So my seal must have a leak. However, does anyone think that i might benefit from pitching another tube? I'll probably leave as is, but i would like to know for future brews.

TIA

Looking at that recipe, I don't think you mixed your top off water enough. Beersmith says that for 5 gal, that should be around 1.094, not 1.070. This means w/ the attenuation rates from woollybugger2's post your F.G. should be in the range of 1.034-1.028 which seems very high. You'd need almost 88% attenuation to reach 1.012.

Slomo:
I'd let it be for a while. Check a reading at 7 and 10 days and see where you are/where you're going. Most of this scientician talk about attenuation rates goes a bit above my head, but it seems to me that either way you'll want to wait a while to see what yeast you did pitch does. If you're not reaching target, might be better to deal with it then.
-aaron

Thanks for all the replies everyone! It is possible that my OG was higher. When i was aerating my wort by pouring it for one bucket to another it created a huge head, which made it hard to get a clear look at the hydro. So my OG could be higher. So I am leaning towards not doing anything and seeing what happens. Or does anyone think that pitching more yeast might be smart. Thanks .