Some issues with a big beer, what's your opinion..

[CraigH78]

Tried making a very big Porter, OG was 1.085 and this poor batch has had a rough life already.. Half way through the hour boil I lost power (electric stove) for about 5 min. Came back on and continued boil.. Then a warm day snuck up on me a few days into fermentation and got up to 78*.. Well after 3.5 weeks in primary I opened it to keg and could tell just from the look it was still too thick (mind you there was no airlock activity for about 17 days). Measured and it was as 1.030 and taisted as sweet as root beer and obviously very green. SOOO I wracked it to a glass secondary to see if there was any minor foam which may indicate activity yet.. 2 days later not a single bubble.

I used Wyeast 1056 and it went crazy for a couple days.. Too much alcohol for it? Wyeast says it's good to 10% abv. Thought about re pitching but I would imagine that a billion cells is nothing compared to what's already there.

Interested in any ideas/suggestions..

 

[Ben_Persitz]

Tried making a very big Porter, OG was 1.085 and this poor batch has had a rough life already.. Half way through the hour boil I lost power (electric stove) for about 5 min. Came back on and continued boil.. Then a warm day snuck up on me a few days into fermentation and got up to 78*.. Well after 3.5 weeks in primary I opened it to keg and could tell just from the look it was still too thick (mind you there was no airlock activity for about 17 days). Measured and it was as 1.030 and taisted as sweet as root beer and obviously very green. SOOO I wracked it to a glass secondary to see if there was any minor foam which may indicate activity yet.. 2 days later not a single bubble.

I used Wyeast 1056 and it went crazy for a couple days.. Too much alcohol for it? Wyeast says it's good to 10% abv. Thought about re pitching but I would imagine that a billion cells is nothing compared to what's already there.

Interested in any ideas/suggestions..

Sounds like you needed to use a starter to me. But ask someone with more experience how to fix it.

One yeast packet (I assume you only used one) would have a tough time in a 1.085 beer.

 

[olivergothe]

was this an extract batch? I don't think any of the issues that you mentioned should cause such low attenuation. I do agree with the yeast issue though. A bear this big requires a starter or multiple yeast packs. I suggest a starter

 

[CraigH78]

Yea I'm a noob so still on extract. So re pitch or is it too late for that?

 

[olivergothe]

First try to swirl your carboy to get the yeast bag into suspension. If this doesn't restart fermentation pick up some champagne yeast at your homebrew store. boil a pint of water with a table spoon of sugar. Fill it into a sanitized bottle and cool to room temperature. Then add the champagne yeast and cover the bottle with sanitized aluminum foil. Wait about 12 hours until you see evidence of fermentation and then add the contents of the bottle to your fermenter.

Champagne yeast is an excellent strain to restart fermentation and considering that you have already chewed through the large majority of the the fermentable sugars it won't affect your flavor profile too much.

 

[lumpher]

you can add yeast energizer (not yeast nutrient) at this stage. it'll give a stuck fermentation a kick in the a@@