Fermentation halted?

[shredthrash]

Hello all!

I am new to home brewing, and I have completed my first partial mash not too long ago. It was my third time brewing, so I thought that I would try doing a little more than I was doing with beer kits and actually purchase some hops, specialty grains, etc. I followed a recipe and everything was going as I had expected, BUT! ....

After about 4 days in my primary bucket, there was virtually no activity whatsoever in the airlock (once every 2 - 3 minutes) , so I thought "great! time to test the gravity and rack it into my secondary carboy!" ... but my gravity was still rather high! ... my initial starting gravity was 1.046, which was normal for what I was brewing, but my gravity before racking was about 1.022, which I'm sure is a lot higher than normal.

I called my local home brew store, and the lady suggested pouring about a cup of hot tap water into my carboy and shaking it around to "wake up" the yeast a bit. I just wanted to get the thoughts of the homebrewtalk community on all of this and maybe figure out a solution / what I did wrong, etc. Here is all of the specifics about the beer that I brewed before anyone asks...

Type: Porter
Batch size: 5 gal
Extract used: 3.3 lbs pale syrup, 500g extra pale dry, 500g dark dry
Specialty grains: 8oz roasted barley
Hops: 1.1 oz 9% AAU Northern Brewer, boiled for 45 mins
Yeast used: 11.5g ale yeast (safale s-04)
Pitch temperature: 23 degrees celsius

I hope this is enough information!

 

[shredthrash]

and just so that I'm being as clear as possible, I did as prescribed by my local home brew lady, and the beer now resides in its new home, in my secondary carboy.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I could not disagree more with the advice you got from the store. I can't understand why she thought adding unsantiary water from the tap -- coming out of your hot water tank no less -- would be good for your beer. That's asking for off flavors and contamination. I don't even see how one cup of hot water is going to raise the temperature enough to have an effect.

Just because bubbling stopped did not mean fermentation stopped. The only way to know fermentation has ended is by taking gravity readings on multiple days. Fermentation was probably not done although with extract beers it's not uncommon to finish around 1.020. Your beer will probably be ok but racking while fermentation is ongoing risks arresting fermentation and leaving you with exactly the result you didn't want in the first place.

What is the final gravity supposed to be for this recipe? You can't just guess at what you think it should be and what you want it to be. The ingredients will dictate final gravity as much or more than fermentation.

 

[shredthrash]

The final gravity was supposed to be around 1.010 - 1.012 ish

 

[Draken]

I could not disagree more with the advice you got from the store. I can't understand why she thought adding unsantiary water from the tap -- coming out of your hot water tank no less -- would be good for your beer. That's asking for off flavors and contamination. I don't even see how one cup of hot water is going to raise the temperature enough to have an effect.

Just because bubbling stopped did not mean fermentation stopped. The only way to know fermentation has ended is by taking gravity readings on multiple days. Fermentation was probably not done although with extract beers it's not uncommon to finish around 1.020. Your beer will probably be ok but racking while fermentation is ongoing risks arresting fermentation and leaving you with exactly the result you didn't want in the first place.

What is the final gravity supposed to be for this recipe? You can't just guess at what you think it should be and what you want it to be. The ingredients will dictate final gravity as much or more than fermentation.

You forgot the fact shaking it probably oxidized the beer....

 

[shredthrash]

So basically what you're saying is that if I could go back in time, I should not have followed the instructions and simply left it in the primary fermenter when I realized that the gravity was still so high?

...but since I do not understand the secrets of time travel either, and am still a beginner, is there anything practical that someone can recommend I do to salvage my beer?

 

[Gush]

So basically what you're saying is that if I could go back in time, I should not have followed the instructions and simply left it in the primary fermenter when I realized that the gravity was still so high?

...but since I do not understand the secrets of time travel either, and am still a beginner, is there anything practical that someone can recommend I do to salvage my beer?

Maybe you should sit back, have a beer and calm down before posting rants about people trying help you. There is an endless supply of information available to you with the search function on both this forum and using google. Being sarcastic will get you no where except in a hole where no one will want to help you. I have been at this only a year myself, and I can tell you just by reading the forums you can figure out how to improve your process and make your beers better. Making mistakes is part of becomming better.

Just my 2 cents.

P.s. My beers don't usually ferment out all the way in 4 days. I actually skip secondary and let the beer sit in primary for 2-3 Weeks, and all my beers come out pretty good and roughly on target fg or lower. Maybe given some more time the FG will drop a bit more.

 

[Draken]

So basically what you're saying is that if I could go back in time, I should not have followed the instructions and simply left it in the primary fermenter when I realized that the gravity was still so high?

...but since I do not understand the secrets of time travel either, and am still a beginner, is there anything practical that someone can recommend I do to salvage my beer?

Actually yes. Check the gravity the next few days, if it's stable go ahead and bottle. You might have oxidized the beer shaking it, but maybe not. Once its carbed I would start tasting them, if you taste anything resembling cardboard drink them quick.

 

[shredthrash]

lol, I didn't realize that sarcasm was offensive. My bad! *hugs all who have been scarred by said "sarcasm"*

 

[BuddyWeiser]

I have a recipe guide book that explains lack of oxygen or nutrients is the most common cause for yeast to stop working before reaching final gravity. The book recommends shaking or adding a pack of dry champagne yeast. This book seems to have quality info, and even has a forward by Charlie Papazian, so I'd guess the advice to try "shaking it up" once is probably not that far off base/out of line.

If you wanted, you could check the gravity after you're done letting it sit in the secondary to see if it came down to what you'd expect it to be.

Also, +1 for search function.

 

[BWN]

I would not shake it, I would just leave it alone or maybe move it to a warmer location. What temperature is it at? I certainly would not add water to it. If you feel you really need to rouse the yeast you could put a sanitized spoon in there and slowly stir it a little. I also wouldn't bother with racking to a secondary either. Take a gravity reading then another in 2-3 days and see if it has changed that way you will know if fermentation is complete or not.