I am I stuck or being impatient?

[MNcoldbreak]

I am wondering if I have a stuck fermentation and should add some more yeast and warm my carboy or if I am being too impatient.

I just started brewing and this is my 3rd batch

Recipe:
I used the Northern Brewer Dunkelweizen Extract Kit. I had a few hiccups that I think may not have been critical detriments to my brew.

Boil:
I added some caramunich to the base kit to darken it somewhat pre-boil around 160F for 15 minutes. I just went to full boils with the dark star 2.0 burner. I assumed I would need to use 6.5 gallons starting to achieve 5 gallons at the end of the boil. I ended up losing a lot less, perhaps because of my cold Minnesota garage, and after an hour boil still had 6 gallons with a gravity of 1.045 (target gravity 1.051). Maybe I should have just boiled it longer, but instead I added some regular sugar from the pantry to get up to 1.051.

Yeast:
I used a 1.5 L starter on a stirplate for 30 hours before pitching it at around 68 degrees. I used white labs 300 hefeweizen ale liquid yeast.

Ferment:
I put it in a 6.5 gallon carboy in my basement with a steady temperature of 62 degrees. I don’t have a way to oxygenate the wort yet. I had a insanely vigorous ferment on day two that blew my airlock off (again I had 6 gallons in there) and started bubbling on the ground. I think I caught it within 4-5 hours of happening and switched to a blow off tube into an Erlenmeyer flask. Since it was so vigorous a ferment and continued to be vigorous I am not too worried about contamination.

Airlock activity stopped around day 6 and Krausen maybe a day later I believe. I took a gravity reading on day 8 that was 1.028 and again on day 9 that was 1.028. I was not planning on using a secondary even though the NB recipe says to primary ferment for 1 week and then secondary ferment for 2 weeks.

1. Do I just need to wait longer and keep it at 62
2. Do I wait longer and bring it up to 64 degrees
3. Should I add some more yeast and bring it up to 64 degrees
4. Other ideas

I appreciate it!

 

[davidabcd]

A restaurant level (very large) wire whisk or a long-handled slotted spoon serve well to aerate as a start. Also closing the fermenter and rocking it aggressively is an option.
Edit: I suppose you could have meant "all-grain" and not "extract" in your original post. I'd be interested to know.
Edit: Yeah, I'm going to delete most of the above regarding it being an extract.

 

[kh54s10]

Attenuation:
72.00-76.00
Flocculation:
Low
Alcohol Tolerance:
Medium (5 - 10%)
Optimum Fermentation Temperature:
68.00-72.00

I would swirl up the yeast and trub at the bottom with something well sanitized. The raise the temperature to about 70F. You fermented too cold and that could have added to the cause your problems.

 

[IslandLizard]

I took a gravity reading on day 8 that was 1.028 and again on day 9 that was 1.028.

Are you using a hydrometer or refractometer for those readings?

 

[IslandLizard]

Edit: I suppose you could have meant "all-grain" and not "extract" in your original post. I'd be interested to know.
Edit: Yeah, I'm going to delete most of the above regarding it being an extract.

Sorry you wrote all that, then decided to delete it for being superfluous.
I hear you, but it is the Beginners Forum, extract brewing is to be expected, unless...

After reading the OP 2 more times I found it was mentioned, just not very prominently:

I used the Northern Brewer Dunkelweizen Extract Kit.

 

[IslandLizard]

Optimum Fermentation Temperature:
68.00-72.00

This yeast can be fermented somewhat cooler than that , around 64F, but will need much more time, 10-14 days. Cooler ferm temps restrain the heavy output of Amyl Acetate (banana flavor) typically produced at her nominal temps, so the inherent clove character (due to being POF+) becomes more prominent. Larger pitches and good wort oxygenation also help suppress the banana flavor, as does anything else that prevents stressing her.

There's a lot of good info here, also click on the various tabs in the bottom table:
https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp300-hefeweizen-ale-yeast

 

[MNcoldbreak]

I am using a refractometer for readings

I added the grain in the beginning because a reviewer on northern brewer website for this extract kit suggested it

I ended up fermenting at 62 because I was listening to a podcast on brewing network who suggested that temp. I'll admit I dont know which strain of yeast they were using. I can bring it out of the basement and get it to around 68

So it sounds like I should warm it up somewhat and mix up the trub, but that I may have some unfermentable sugars in there I may not be able to do anything about.

May not be worth pitching more yeast?

I appreciate it!

 

[IslandLizard]

I am using a refractometer for readings

There's your answer!
You need to use a refractometer (correction) calculator. Once alcohol is present the refractive index changes and your readings will be too high. Chances are your batch is done or mostly done, and A-OK.

http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/

 

[IslandLizard]

I added the grain in the beginning because a reviewer on northern brewer website for this extract kit suggested it

I ended up fermenting at 62 because I was listening to a podcast on brewing network who suggested that temp. I'll admit I dont know which strain of yeast they were using. I can bring it out of the basement and get it to around 68

So it sounds like I should warm it up somewhat and mix up the trub, but that I may have some unfermentable sugars in there I may not be able to do anything about.

May not be worth pitching more yeast?

I appreciate it!

Nothing wrong with tweaking recipes. Especially kits, which tend to aim at the middle of the road, in order to appeal to the masses, and not to offend anyone. But sadly, they're not very enticing for many others.
All their IPA kits are skimpy on hops.

Forget secondaries!

I'm surprised you had blow off at 62F. Maybe the beer was still somewhat warmer that set it off.

You could warm it up toward the end of fermentation, going into the conditioning phase. It's usually advised, mostly to ensure it ferments out. Especially when you are on the lower end of her comfort range. Actually a couple degrees below in this case.

Warm her up first to 70F. Then stir her up, gently and slowly, don't whip air into the beer. Use the back end of your long plastic brew spoon. It has a small paddle with a hole in it. Together with the bit higher temps, she should finish out if she hasn't yet.

Pitching more yeast is futile, it won't do a thing. There's plenty of yeast in there already, 3-5x of what you pitched.
All the excess will all drop out and settle on the bottom once she's done.

 

[wallyLOZ]

A refractometer is OK for use for your initial reading (original gravity) but will be too high for the final reading as @IslandLizard pointed out. If you plug your numbers into the calculator, you're gravity reading is ~ 1.014. Done or almost done. You need to take readings a few days apart to be sure the readings are stable. I typically leave all my batches in the fermenter for three weeks before checking gravity, YMMV.

 

[davidabcd]

Thanks. Yeah, I did see that part you quoted. Extract was what I was expecting until the 6.5 gallon starting volume remark made me think it more likely it was all-grain.
Anyway, I wasn't bummed or anything; I just wanted clarification and not to confuse someone who's new (I don't mind being confused by posts). And since it is extract, the amount of water should probably be mentioned.

I found it was mentioned,

 

[IslandLizard]

Extract was what I was expecting until the 6.5 gallon starting volume remark

That can surely throw one off.

I always did full 6.5 gallon volume boils with extract too. I had glanced at Palmer's partial boil instructions using the 4 gallon canning pot, but I had the 8 gallon kettle with the fancy valve on the bottom, so why not fill it up?

It wasn't until many years later, I found out it had made everything needlessly more complicated doing just that. However, the best part, it was a minor step getting into all grain. Having done partial mashes for a couple years also helped a lot.