Fermentation Woes

[cayergeau]

I have a carboy of Coffee Stout that I made the recipe for myself. It's been fermenting in the primary for two weeks now, and it seems that it hasn't gone anywhere in the past week. When I pitched the yeast, it had a Specific Grav of 1.051, with a Balling of 12 and a Potential Alcohol of 7%. After one week, the Gravity was down to 1.020, the Balling was at 6, and the Potential Alc. was at 3%. Its been a week, and I just took another measurement and the readings are exactly the same.

My question is whether it would be a good idea to rack it into another fermenter and add more yeast, since I know that there's still sugars in there from the Balling reading. I don't know if those are unfermentable sugars that are going to aid in the other flavorings or if those are sugars that I can get converted into alcohol with more yeast. What would you suggest?

Regardless, there's a very thick layer of inactive yeast and sediment at the bottom of my primary and I'll be racking it anyway for maturing.

 

[TipsyDragon]

what's its current temp? if need be heat it up to around 70F. you could try giving it a gentile shake to get the yeast off the bottom and into your brew again.

 

[Revvy]

Ignore the potential alcohol or balling scales, the only one we use in brewing is the gravity reading on a tripel scale hydrometer. The other scales are for wine and distilling, but with beer those numbers get scewered by the presence of co2 in the fermenter.

Your beer is down to 10.20, nothing wrong with that, if it's an extract recipe it might not get much lower. It might go a couple points lower. But it's common for some batches to stick at 1.020.

I wouldn't rack off the main yeast...that's the biggest amount of yeast best suited to finish the job. I would do what tipsy said and gently swirl the fermenter to rouse the yeast, and maybe warm it up a bit. But I would do nothing else.

 

[cayergeau]

Currently the beer is 62 degrees, which is the temperature of my house. Any recommendations for heating it up a bit aside from turning up the heat in my house?

Also as for the hydrometer, I take the measurements in the hydrometer flask that came with it by siphoning a bit out of the fermenter, so there shouldn't be any "skewering" of the measurements would there?

The biggest reason I was going to rack it was because I don't want any dead yeast flavors or particles dissolving into the beer, and I won't be able to bottle until at least next weekend, which would be two weeks with no changes in the Grav readings. You'd suggest leaving it in the primary with all the trub at the bottom? Because it's a thicker layer for sure than what I'm used to seeing on the bottom of my carboy...

 

[Revvy]

Currently the beer is 62 degrees, which is the temperature of my house. Any recommendations for heating it up a bit aside from turning up the heat in my house?

Wrap a blanket or a sleeping bag around it. Or even pu a heating blanket on for a couple hours.

The biggest reason I was going to rack it was because I don't want any dead yeast flavors or particles dissolving into the beer, and I won't be able to bottle until at least next weekend, which would be two weeks with no changes in the Grav readings. You'd suggest leaving it in the primary with all the trub at the bottom? Because it's a thicker layer for sure than what I'm used to seeing on the bottom of my carboy...

Actually that's outdated information, about 30 years out of date. Skipping secondary and opting for month long primaries, on the yeast is actually quite common. And many of us think it makes for better beer because of it.

Everything you need to know to make up your own mind has been discussed here- To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

 

[cayergeau]

I guess I'll just leave it in the primary fermenter and bring it upstairs. Hopefully the few degrees warmer that it hopefully is upstairs will help it out a bit.

I know that the beer shouldn't be in any direct sunlight, but I'm concerned that since I'm brewing somewhere else than where I'm living, and I don't want to be heating the house if I'm not here just for the beer to be at a bit of a higher temperature. Do you think that it may help if I left it wrapped up in a blanket next to a window where it may get some sunlight during the day that that would warm it up? Last thing I need though would be for it to get too hot while I'm not there...

 

[Revvy]

Stick a t-shirt over the carboy...if it's in a bucket it doesn't matter.

 

[cayergeau]

Alright, so what I'm going to do is leave this by the window where it can get several hours of sunlight to warm it up. I'm going to wrap something such as a blanket or a coat around it so that it has the dual purpose of protecting from direct sunlight as well as hopefully insulating it and keeping the heat from the sun in, since the house will probably be around 60 degrees. Does this sound logical or should I just leave it upstairs in a dark corner and hope for the best?

 

[WVbrewer]

Before you do anything, post your recipe (including yeast type). The beer may just be done....in which case bottle....or let it condition for a bit more.

 

[cayergeau]

4 lbs light malt extract
3.5 lbs dark malt extract
12 oz chocolate malt
12 oz roasted barley
4 oz 90L crystal malt
4 oz 40L crystal malt
4 oz carapils malt
2 oz Cascade Hops
1 oz Goldings Hops (finishing)
1 tsp Gypsum
yeast

.5 lbs whole coffee beans

The yeast was a liquid yeast, Irish Ale. I believe that this was the one that I used
http://brewstock.enstore.com/item/wyeast-irish-ale-activator-pack-liquid-yeast

I'm going to bottle it next weekend, since I don't have the time this weekend. I guess my worst case scenario is that my beer is only 4%, and there are fates far worse than that.

 

[WVbrewer]

I'd say it's done looking at the recipe. Over 2lbs of specialty grains and 3 pounds of dark extract will leave a bunch of unfermentables. Looks tasty though. Enjoy

 

[cayergeau]

Sounds good. Ill have to let everyone know how it turns out once its ready. Thanks for all the advice