Stuck at 1.018

[Sadu]

Hey everyone, I hate to post one of these threads but here goes.

11 litre / 3 Gallon Coopers Dark Ale prehopped kit - just the LME tin in half the recipe amount of water but with no other fermentables, so basically a toucan. I made this half-batch specifically to grow yeast for a big porter, figured it was cheaper / easier than a huge starter.
Using Denny's favourite Wyeast 1450 yeast. The yeast was 5 months old and took 3 days to arrive on courier, I estimated viability at 34%. Made a 500ml starter and manually shook for a few hours before pitching.

Gravity readings:
OG - 1.042
Day 3 - 1.030
Day 6 - 1.025
Day 8 - 1.024
Day 9 - 1.023 - racked to secondary
Day 11 - 1.020
Day 18 - 1.018
Day 20 - 1.018

I know the reasons why this has stalled - this strain of yeast is slow anyway, it was old yeast and I slightly underpitched, shouldn't have racked to secondary (but I really needed the cake for my porter), swamp cooler has been struggling to keep it warm enough in the cold winter.

What I'm looking for is a course of action to save my batch if I can.

I'm thinking one of these:

1. Wait it out, put on the heat belt and let it warm up - TBH I can't see the gravity dropping any further but who knows.
2. The porter has been in primary 2 weeks using the same yeast - can I scoop a ladle full of healthy yeast cake out of that to try and restart this fermentation?
3. Bottle it anyway in PET bottles with low carbonation (appropriate anyway for a dark ale) and drink it quickly.

Since I toucanned the kit I'm not even sure what FG is supposed to be - I'd welcome any input from people on this. I was expecting to land somewhere around 1.010 - 1.013 or thereabouts, 1.018 just seems a bit too far away for my liking.

I'm in no particular hurry, but it's been 3 weeks now and this iddy biddy low gravity batch is starting to annoy me. I was wanting to have a crack at a RIS sometime soon but if I can't make a 1.042 dark ale then I got some work to do.

SWMBO is going to shut the whole operation down if I get bottle bombs in the house.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[porterpounder]

Purely extract batches without added sugar can finish high like that. I'd go for the scoop some out of the porter and re-pitch, warm up and see if it finishes out.

 

[Chanoc]

I'd go for 3...
It's only 3 gallons...
Bottle in glass with a couple of PET's.
Start drinking the ones in glass and leave the ones in PET for last just to know what could have happened...

 

[kombat]

Extract? 1.018? It's done. Bottle and carb. And next time, you can safely skip the secondary, it doesn't buy you anything in this case.

 

[Sadu]

Thanks for the feedback. I decided to scoop 2 ladles of healthy yeast from the porter into the brew, set the temp controller at 20c and give it another week. If it's done then it will still be done next week, if it's not then maybe this helps.

Interesting to hear that extract batches can finish high like this. Honestly every batch I make has it's own subtle nuances about it. In guess that's part of what makes it so much fun.

 

[Sadu]

Update for anyone following.

Since adding the extra yeast and upping the temperature, the gravity dropped from 1.018 to 1.014 which is a lot closer to what I was expecting. Will check again in 2 days time and bottle if it's the same.