Stopped (stuck fermentation)?

[Razorback_Jack]

So excited to use my Chronical fermenter and FTSs with a water cooler for pump, and everything went GREAT!!!..... for two days.

After wort cooled I took a SG reading. 1.064, AWESOME! When transferring the cooled wort to my fermenter, I used a wort aerator attached to the end of the siphon hose (the kind that disperses the wort around, by splashing). Tossed two packets of Safale-05 into it, then closed it up. First two days my blowoff saw heavy activity, and when it slowed on day three I dumped a little trub from the bottom valve... probably a pint and a half. So far so good. The temp stabilizer was doing a beautiful job, when the weather was high. Then on day 3 the temp outside dropped into the 30’s and my wort (in the garage) went down to 54 degrees. I didn’t get the FTSs with heating, just cooling. I have read that safale-05 works into the lower 50’s so I left it. After that third day, all activity seemed to stop. I waited another few days and took SG. Reading was 1.030. A few days later, another reading still at 1.030. That’s not a very far drop from 1.064. I do not have any more yeast on hand and it would take a while to get here. It has only been 10 days, and I’ve never kegged before 3 weeks in a fermenter. Should I call it though? Or see if anything changes? The wort was in the mid-50’s for a couple days, and has been in the mid- to low-60’s since. Kinda bummed. I was looking forward to a 6.8%, and now it’s probably gonna be 4.5% at best.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone have good experiences getting safale 05 via Amazon? I’ve always bought it at LHBS and put in the fridge as soon as I got home. I’m somewhat worried that while shipping, the temps might render the yeast useless. But I would like to possibly get some yeast and hops in bulk, store in the garage fridge and freezer. Thoughts?

 

[brownni5]

Not enough info. What was the initial fermenting temp? All-grain or extract? Stout, pale, brown ale?

I'm inclined to say that the drop in temp caused the yeast to go night-night. Rouse the yeast and put it on heat and it will likely ferment more. Low 50s is pretty low.

I've gotten dry yeast from Amazon before. No complaints here.

 

[Yooper]

You're taking readings with a calibrated hydrometer, right, and not a refractometer? Even if the beer got into the 50s, if it's in the mid 60s now, it should start up again.

 

[Razorback_Jack]

Kölsch, all-grain, and initial ferm temp was 66. I don’t have a way to heat it up. It was only in the 50’s for two days... back up to mid-60’s after that, but I don’t have a way to heat it any higher. I take readings with both a refractometer and a hydrometer to back it up.

 

[hottpeper13]

Where did you get the umlau above the O in Kolsch? I can't find it on my keyboard.

 

[Razorback_Jack]

On the iPhone, if you hold down the “o” for a sec on your keyboard, options come up for other o’s... like the umlaut. You slide your finger to the one you want before letting go.

Screen shot:

 

[hottpeper13]

Cool