Day 24, stuck at 1.02

[blokeyhighlander]

I'm brewing a Red Ale (extract with steeping grains) that had an OG of 1.04 and an expected FG of 1.011 according to BeerSmith. Yeast is Nottingham.

I got everything ready to keg today on Day 24 after Cold Crashing at 38F for three days. Of course, I never took an FG reading before crashing or prepping and was pretty shocked when it read 1.02. I tasted it and yep, it was too sweet.

Do I still have a chance to save this beer? I'm warming it up now with the hopes of the yeast reactivating and trying to finish in the upper 60s. I had it at 62F for 3 weeks. This was my first experimentation with temperature control so I may have been too ambitious with the temps.

 

[SteveHeff]

Chances are that it is done doing what you want it to do. Who knows, you may have had a lower attenuation than expected...perhaps due to sub par oxygenation of the wort prior to pitching the yeast. I've found, in my own personal experiences with beersmith, that I'm always (ALWAYS) over FG by .003-.007 points. I do not use pure oxygen to make my wort happy. I do the hard pour and the bucket shake methods.

Nottingham can also be a bit of a PITA yeast. Get it too warm (high 60's) and you'll get fusels. To cool and you'll have a slow fermentation. Unfortunately I don't know much about yeast other than basics (and my own misshaps with notty). Maybe try champange yeast. I've never tried this method myself but I don't doubt that there is plenty of info on the subject over in the yeast/fermentation subtab.

Good luck on the brew.

 

[Chadwick]

Chances are that it is done doing what you want it to do. Who knows, you may have had a lower attenuation than expected...perhaps due to sub par oxygenation of the wort prior to pitching the yeast. I've found, in my own personal experiences with beersmith, that I'm always (ALWAYS) over FG by .003-.007 points. I do not use pure oxygen to make my wort happy. I do the hard pour and the bucket shake methods.

Nottingham can also be a bit of a PITA yeast. Get it too warm (high 60's) and you'll get fusels. To cool and you'll have a slow fermentation. Unfortunately I don't know much about yeast other than basics (and my own misshaps with notty). Maybe try champange yeast. I've never tried this method myself but I don't doubt that there is plenty of info on the subject over in the yeast/fermentation subtab.

Good luck on the brew.

+1 on the Notty points. It is a picky yeast. I quit using it because of these reasons. I use US-05 in about 90% of my beers. I've found it can take the gravity down beyond what you expect if you give it time and warm it up a little bit. Best of all, it is a forgiving yeast with temps. Less fusels, more beer goodness. Of course this is just my opinion. But I'll bargain many others will agree.

 

[blokeyhighlander]

Thanks guys. It's been a good lesson in when to take gravity readings, and that's preferably not when kegs are cleaned and sanitized with gelatin pitched only to realize it's not time. I'll give it a few days.

After that, is it a bad idea to pitch Mutons? I have a spare pack of that since it came with the kit.

 

[boydster]

Warm it up and rouse the yeast once it is warm. Wait a few days, check gravity. If it still hasn't moved, pitching a pack of Munton's won't really help. Since your beer is now devoid of oxygen and nutrients, and also has alcohol present, you need to get your yeast prepared for that environment by making a starter and pitching it at high krausen. Otherwise, the new yeast you add will want to sink directly to the bottom and remain sleeping.

 

[balrog]

I've only done a dozen batches, half with english (Notty-ish) yeast and my experience has always been that they poke along at a slower pace than S05, Steam or Hefe yeasts I've tried.

The worst case I had I finally racked to a secondary 21 days in because I wanted to use the primary for something else. Lo and behold the secondary, after that rousing racking, started bubbling and came down another 10 points.

YMMV

 

[IslandLizard]

Boydster's advice on pitching a starter at high krausen maybe the only way to resurrect it if Notty doesn't resume. You could make a starter from the existing Notty, but that means you have to rack the beer off.

 

[crazyirishman34]

My go to English yeast is S-04. Only problem with it is if you don't oxygenate well it will throw a ton of diacetyl.

 

[peterj]

Are you using a refractometer for the FG reading?

 

[blokeyhighlander]

Are you using a refractometer for the FG reading?

Yes.

I threw a space heater in my ferm chamber this morning to help speed up the warm-up process. As it warmed up, I saw a little activity in the airlock, but I'm not sure if that's the yeast doing it's work or some other kind of reaction. For now I am in wait and see mode.

 

[peterj]

Yes.

I threw a space heater in my ferm chamber this morning to help speed up the warm-up process. As it warmed up, I saw a little activity in the airlock, but I'm not sure if that's the yeast doing it's work or some other kind of reaction. For now I am in wait and see mode.

I thought so, that's usually the case in about 90% of "stuck" fermentation threads. Refractometers are not accurate when alcohol is present so you can't use them after fermentation has begun without accounting for that with a correction calculator (like this one). Looks like your FG is about 1.010. 1 point below where you wanted it, nice!

Hydrometers are much more accurate post fermentation but a refractometer with a correction calculator will get you a pretty good estimate.

 

[blokeyhighlander]

I thought so, that's usually the case in about 90% of "stuck" fermentation threads. Refractometers are not accurate when alcohol is present so you can't use them after fermentation has begun without accounting for that with a correction calculator (like this one). Looks like your FG is about 1.010. 1 point below where you wanted it, nice!

Hydrometers are much more accurate post fermentation but a refractometer with a correction calculator will get you a pretty good estimate.

Oh wow, it didn't even occur to me to think about that - at least I posted this in the right section!

I'll let the yeast work for a couple days just in case there's more to go, because it did taste a little too sweet to me.

 

[boydster]

Good call, peterj, I wasn't even thinking about the refractometer compensation.

blokeyhighlander, I'd be willing to bet that the action you are seeing in the airlock is just CO2 off-gassing due to the temperature increase. As your beer temperature increases, CO2 becomes less soluble and will bubble out the airlock.

 

[crazyirishman34]

That could just be the CO2 coming out of solution as the beer warms.

 

[blokeyhighlander]

I'll take a hydrometer tonight, then. If all good from there, I will cold crash for 24 hours and keg... finally.

 

[IslandLizard]

Just for reference, here's a very good method posted recently to resuscitate a stuck fermentation.

It could work with any yeast, but WLP099 is known to go where others haven't, without leaving bad off-flavors.

 

[blokeyhighlander]

Just to close this out, I took a FG reading with a hydrometer and came up with 1.011 - which was my target FG. Beer still tastes too sweet, but I'll see how it rounds out with carb and time.