Re-starting a stall.

[pernox]

Hello,

I brewed my first batch of beer from an extract kit on 2/6. It's an IPA kit from True Brew that consisted of the following...

Two cans of Amber LME - Munton's
One pound of steeping grains
Two packets of hops, one for 60m and one for 15m
One packet of yeast - Munton's

I differed my process from the directions a little, steeping the grains in their own pot with ~1.5gal, then adding that to 3.5 gallons that I had just gotten to a boil after twenty minutes, and boiled that with the two cans of LME and one oz. of hops for 45 minutes before adding the last packet of hops for 15 minutes, and finishing with about four gallons of wort. I cooled my wort, involving lots of sloshing, aeration, stirring, and general adding-of-oxygen, took my gravity reading (which I remembered to adjust for temp) and pitched it into my primary fermenting bucket on top of the yeast, which I had given a bit of LME and some warm water to munch on at the beginning of the process.

I had noticed that the yeast was not particularly active. I make my own bread often, and this yeast looked downright lethargic compared to what I'm used to seeing. So I pitched at a high temperature to see if I could get them to liven up a bit, and capped 'er off with a blowoff tube. The fermentation got going in earnest the next day during the Super Bowl, and bubbled well for about 36hrs. I took a gravity reading on 2/13, switched to an airlock, and noticed a tiny bit of activity for the next couple hours. I took another gravity reading yesterday, and the number remains unchanged from the 2/13 reading.

OG: 1.059
2/13: 1.0245
2/19: 1.0245

It may be worth noting that I did another, similar kit a week after starting the first one, but with an extra packet of yeast that came out of my LHBS' fridge, and had a nice activity going before I pitched on it.. They've been fermenting in the same place, and the readings on that one were 1.053/1.018 so far.

Sooo... I'm thinking of trying to put this in a hot water bath for starters, to see if I can get the yeasties to wake up again and get back to work. My fermenting area is on the cool side; about 60*. What's a good temperature/time for the warm water to try and kick start things?

If this doesn't work, I guess from reading a lot here that my best bet is to pitch onto another yeast cake, right? I'd feel okay moving the other batch into a carboy to set around for a couple weeks and pitching this stalled batch onto its cake to see if I can get the gravity down a bit before adding my dry-hop and oak chips. If I do this, should I re-aerate, or treat it carefully and try to move the beer in an oxygen-depleted environment, as much as is possible?

Thanks so much for the valuable resources here on HBT.

 

[randyisrad]

I wouldn't do anything. Just be patient. Wait another week or so then just bottle/keg. Don't do anything rash

 

[Corkster]

Don't do anything rash

Agreed.... one of my favorite sayings is Don't make any rash decisions... Rashes always itch.

That said...If you do re-rack onto the yeast cake.. just be careful not to splash.

 

[jbambuti]

I had an RIS with an apparent stuck fermentation at 1.032. I did everything I could (waited, swirled, warmed, repitched, finally racked onto a fresh yeast cake). In the end, it came down 2 more points and, after 4 and a half weeks, I decided that it must have finished, and just had more unfermentables than expected. It's been bottled for over a week now, and is carbing up, but I haven't had a bomb. I have it in a sealed tupperware container just in case, but sometimes these things just finish higher than we'd like.

I'd say wait another week before doing anything. Maybe a higher temp would help, but if you do too much, you might end up harming a beer that might just finish a little high. You're not too far off your expected FG.

Just my two bits.

 

[coryforsenate]

You could always add half a pound of dextrose or some wort (a la incremental feeding) and raise the temp to the upper 60's.

I've started doing incremental feeding in all my beers and it generally gets the attenuation 3-5 points higher than predicted using beer calculators.

 

[pernox]

Thanks for the advice!

I'll give it another week to see if it comes back to life on its own, and rather than risk pissing it off I'll just do my additions and move it over to clarify for another week before kegging and carbing.