A Stuck Fermentation

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Salanis

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
103
Reaction score
3
Location
Sacramento, CA
Yeah, I'm sure these came up a lot. Anyway, I appear to have a stuck fermentation on my American Pale Ale. Partial Mash APA, fermented for 3 weeks. O.G. 1.052. I'm figuring it should finish about .012 or generally in the .010-.016 range. Instead, it appears to have stopped at 1.020.

It's fermented on WLP001 ale yeast, and it was well aerated. Fermentation took off fine. I wonder if maybe my mash temps are a bit too low or not long enough. I'm mashing in an over at about 148-152 for 60minutes. Do I need to mash for longer? Fermentation temps have been kept under control by immersing the carboy in a big bucket of cool water.

Whatever the case may be, it's okay, but just a bit too sweet. It's not a good start for what I'm doing right now.

This is the first of a series of single-hop beers I'm attempting. I'm just changing hops between them, and really want to get my other flavors fairly uniform across batches. I know it's homebrew, and I can't expect to beers to turn out exactly the same, but having something sweeter will be a significant outlier.
 
Try repitching a little dry ale yeast on it. I had a stuck ferm on a Brown Ale and after 4 weeks the SG was .021. I repitched a small pack of dry ale yeast on it and 4 days later it was perfect!
 
The thing about a stuck ferm that you have to worry about is that once it is in the bottle, something could happen (ie temp change) that could cause the fermentation to restart and then you have bottle bombs!! I would definitely just repitch the dry yeast straight in.
 
Okay, the one dry yeast packet I have on hand has been sitting in a cupboard for a couple months, not refrigerated as directed. Do you figure it's still okay?
 
Swirl it around gently, and warm it up a bit before you waste more yeast.
 
Yeah. I used a Mr Beer yeast packet. It had been sitting around for a long time without refrigeration. But, just to be sure you could make a starter with it.
 
Back
Top