Seriously, these yeasties are holding my porter hostage

[nebben]

Long story short, I'm becoming more aggravated every day. The yeasts went on strike after 3 hard working weeks in my Bee Cave Porter's (which tastes excellent every damn time I take a hydrometer reading!) fermentation. The yeasts at the time decided to "walk off the line" at 1.031 . Hydrometer tests about 7 days apart confirmed this labor walkout. I thought I, as management, perhaps I didn't provide adequate health care (no yeast nutrient or energizer at this point), but I did provide hella good working conditions by way of a carboy in a temp controlled cooler between 65F-69F. So I brought in some new workers (are these new yeasts, Danstar Windor, called "scabs" in this case?) to see if they would do the job that the WL002 yeasts decided they were sick of. I made a 1.040 starter, let them go right through it, then pitched maybe a cup or two of yeast of decanted yeast, this time with nutrients.

Well, it seems that the WL002 yeasts got to talking to the new Danstar Windsors, and they're all just having a good sleepy time. I bet there are probably 10 actual yeast cells that are still working their butts off, but come on- 5 gallons would be like 10 of us trying to drink a pool of beer as big as Yankee Stadium. To their credit, after almost 2 weeks, the 10 remaining active yeast cells have continued to produce bubbles in the airlock and yesterday had lowered the beer to 1.025 .

BUT COME ON!??? As manager of these yeast laborers, how long is too long before I bring in the robot laborers (Lavlin 1118)? As it sits, we're almost a month overdue on this stuff. !@!?#!$

 

[phatuna]

Sounds to me like you have a full blown yeast union strike on your hands. I'm no expert on negotiating with these little bastards, but perhaps a few ounces of sugar and a little swirl might get them back on the line.

 

[aidanpryde18]

Is this extract or grain?

If it is grain, you could have gotten bad conversion and now have a bunch of unfermentable sugars in there.

 

[ericm]

you'd probably have better luck with pitching an actively fermenting starter. once those little workers have gone to sleep (ie in a fermented out/decanted starter) they really don't like waking up again when pitched into a hostile work environment (already containing alcohol and low in O2). if you pitch 'em at high krausen they're already in full munch mode and will generally keep going despite the working conditions.

 

[beerjunky828]

try to give the carboy a little rocking to wake them back up. I recently moved the carboy and took a reading. it read 1.020. i thought great. not time to bottle. but while transferring the carboy, i had waken up the yeast and now I have a little krausen on the top of the beer. the rate of co2 release is twice as fast. give it a little shake. come on.

 

[nebben]

I've rocked the carboy every few days, and more bubbles do emerge from the beer, but it hasn't really made much of a change. I moved it to the kitchen in preparation for bottling over the weekend and tested SG at 1.027. Yesterday (thursday), I tested it at 1.025 . The airlock still bubbles on its own after 24 hours post-swirling...so I guess I'll leave the 10 yeasties to continue working until they're utterly pooped. Just .005 to go for the recipe...c'mon little guys!

 

[user 22118]

Your beer my friend, is finished fermentation. It only takes a couple of days to ferment the primary amount. I usually find that if my beer isn't where I want it to be after 5 days (at the gravity you were beginning at) then it isn't going to get to where I want it. It isn't a high gravity beer where you are praying for that last 3 degrees to go down. It is finished doing what it does and no amount of coaxing will get it out. Whatever you do, don't add the wine yeast or you will get a dry, dry, dry porter that will not be any better. I made up a stout and a porter a couple months back and the amount of coffee and bitter makes 1.020 good and 1.025 not too far off the mark.

My advice is to bottle this batch up, brew another one and try to get it to hit 1.020. I didn't see an answer as to whether you did extract or AG, but try again with the same method. You will get a delicious beer in the end!

So start allowing flocculation of the yeast, bottle it up with a low amount of priming sugar (otherwise the carbonation will be out of whack) and get another one going ASAP.

 

[david_42]

Two words of wisdom for the yeasties: Chapter 11

 

[Arkador]

you'd probably have better luck with pitching an actively fermenting starter.

You are promoting SCAB workers? You better hope the Yeast Union officials don't hear your remarks!

 

[SchizoFilly]

Is that a challenge or just something I would love to try?


No peeing in the pool.

 

[double_e5]

Your beer my friend, is finished fermentation.

How can you say this if his gravity is still dropping?

 

[fastricky]

To the OP: HA! Well written thread!