Are there any drawbacks, to a second pitching of the same yeast strain (slurry) if you have a weak/slow ferment?
Adding more yeast to primary
- Thread starter okiedog
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
johnsnownw
Well-Known Member
In general, no. Why do you think it's slow or weak?
vinylrooster
Well-Known Member
I prefer slow fermentation
-Rooster
-Rooster
Yep. You'll have yeasty beer if you do so needlessly.
Slow is fine. Simply leave it alone to finish. Stuck is a problem. Depending on where it hangs, you can pursue different options. Unless it completely failed to ferment due to dead yeast and is still at OG, simply tossing in more yeast typically won't do any good.
ariebsomer
Member
Slow fermentation isn't necessarily a bad thing. 
I have had luck on a couple of occasions with a stuck fermentation by pitching a 'neutral' yeast and giving a gentle swirl to get things going again. Stuck fermentations can kind of be the luck of the draw in this regard.
If ABV isn't too high, you can use a cask conditioning yeast (though they're not super-aggressive) or an American Ale yeast to avoid messing up your yeast profile too much.
If you're stuck with a high ABV, a champagne yeast can help, but will significantly dry your beer out. I've also used WLP099 Super High Grav to help with big beers and stuck fermentations - with varying results.
But honestly - I'm with everyone else here. If it isn't stuck, and your gravity is dropping, let it ride.
I have had luck on a couple of occasions with a stuck fermentation by pitching a 'neutral' yeast and giving a gentle swirl to get things going again. Stuck fermentations can kind of be the luck of the draw in this regard.
If ABV isn't too high, you can use a cask conditioning yeast (though they're not super-aggressive) or an American Ale yeast to avoid messing up your yeast profile too much.
If you're stuck with a high ABV, a champagne yeast can help, but will significantly dry your beer out. I've also used WLP099 Super High Grav to help with big beers and stuck fermentations - with varying results.
But honestly - I'm with everyone else here. If it isn't stuck, and your gravity is dropping, let it ride.
Not to hijact this thread, but it seems very similar to my question. I'm experiencing an apparent stuck fermentation now. The beer started around 1.090 and seems stuck at 1.030 - I expected it to finish at 1.017. I tried pitching more yeast and gently rousing the trub, but it didn't move. The problem is I'm not sure if it's stuck or if it's finished and I just had a lousy mash. What I'm doing now is I pulled out about 12 ounces and added a small amount of dry yeast to that to see if it'll ferment out a little more. My dilemma is what to do if this test tells me it's not finished. I've seen posts saying to pitch onto another beer's yeast cake. Is that truly a good option?
Depending on the recipe, mash temp and yeast strain, a 1.090 beer finishing at 1.030 may be done.
amatomation
Member
I'm having a similar issue with an extract oatmeal milk stout. OG was 1.065, and on two readings on days 7 and 10 I'm stuck at 1.032. Seems pretty pathetic. Yeast is windsor, which I understand does not have the greatest attenuation. Pitched a 1L starter and had crazy activity within several hours of pitching. Does not taste contaminated. Fermentation has been a little on the cooler side overall 65F (goal 70F). Quite a few non or low fermentables: lactose 1lb, roasted barley 0.5lb, carapils 0.5 lb, chocolate 0.75 lb, black patent 0.75 lb plus a pound of oats and 4.5 lb amber dme. Still the calculated ABV from my readings (4.3%) is in line with what the virtual recipe comes out to using recipe calculators. However, both my OG and FG numbers are higher than that predicted (by Brewer's Friend recipe calculator) by +0.010 or so. Debating if I should rack to secondary, stir it up some more, or even repitch?
