Milk Stout High Final Gravity

[duke_of_drink]

I just brewed a chocolate coffee milk stout for the first time and the final gravity was VERY high. I'm going for a big beer, inspired by beers like Keegans Joe Mamma's Milk Stout and Founders Breakfast stout. The OG was 1.083 and the FG was 1.040 after two weeks in the fermenter and 4 days interval of the 1.040 reading. There are a lot of unfermentables in there, like 1lb of lactose and 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa and I suspect possibly the 8 tspns of gypsum and 1/2 lb of flaked oats might even contribute to the higher density. My questions are:
1) any way in hell this is fully fermented? i tasted the warm uncarbonated brew and while it was sweet, it didn't seem that drastically sweet considering the style... hard to tell though as it was warm and uncarbonated.
2) The brew was well oxygenated, using an oxygen tank and I used a yeast starter. It took off quickly and very vigrorously, so i think the yeast was fine. It was foaming through the blowoff tube in only a couple hours and I actually lost approx a gallon of beer. I might try Fermcap next time. I read that some blowoff is good though for removing undesireables. Any opinions on whether it is a good idea to keep that down?
3) I just used Muntons yeast for this brew. I hear it's non uncommon for that to stall. Might I have better luck with a different yeast strain?
4) Any ideas on what else could cause the high FG or is this not unexpected considering the ingredients?

Thanks for any help!

 

[duke_of_drink]

Ok, so the problem was using dry muntons yeast, even with the starter, I never get a really complete fermentation. This time I pitched liquid yeast, Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 and in a week, a similar recipe with a 1.083 OG was down to 1.030 (nearly 7% alcohol). However, it has been almost two weeks since that reading and I'm steadily getting a bubble through the air lock every 22 -23 seconds. It hasn't slowed down at all - you could almost set a clock by it. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow.

Is there reason to concern? I didn't want to keep the brew in the primary for much longer than 3 weeks. Should i rack to a secondary? Would an infection cause the air lock to continue bubbling? I'll take another measurement this weekend i guess and see if it tastes sour.

 

[duboman]

With an OG of 1.083 I would expect FG to come in around 1.027

With the first recipe it is hard to say because of the high amount of un-fermentables in the recipe but at 1.040 I am concerned that is still too high. I would recommend making a new, fresh starter and pitching it at high krausen or using 05 re-hydrated to try and get it down some, maybe even raising the temp a bit.

For the second beer, bubbles at 3 weeks mean nothing other than off gassing which could be due to pressure changes or temperature changes or both-take a gravity reading to see where it really is

You may also want to raise the temp and agitate the vessel a bit to see if you can get the yeast to drop another few points.

 

[duke_of_drink]

Thanks, I'll take a reading tomorrow and then a few days from now. Every 22 seconds seems like more than pressure, but i'll see if it is still fermenting or holding steady. Thanks for your help!

 

[logan3825]

Show your recipe please. I would like to see the fermentables and/or sugars. Hard to give much help without a recipe.