Stuck fermentation on a strong kettle sour...

[Bisco_Ben]

Greetings. So I have been extensively brewing hoppy kettle soured beers both at home and commercially for the last year or so. Most have been around 5-6% abv and have never had an issue fully attenuating with us-05/cali ale. At home the other week I decided to brew my first Imperial kettle sour which landed me with an OG of 1.073. I added 8 capsules of L. Plantarum probiotics which after 4 days got me down to 3.2ish pH. When I opened the lid to my kettle I had an unfortunate sight of active fermentation which doesn't usually happen with these capsules. I took a gravity reading before heating and I was down to 1.060. I only heated to 165*F to kill anything before fermenting hoping it would kill whatever got in there and maintain the alcohol produced. I just took a gravity reading now which is about 9 days after getting it into the carboy and while the beer tastes great and clean, I am stuck at about 1.020 and would like to get it down into the 1.010-1.012 range. I used US-05 for fermentation. I just spun the carboy back and forth the suspend some yeast but am looking for any suggestions on finishing this beer thinking that rousing the yeast isn't going to quite cut it here. Any insight is much appreciated!

 

[chrilr]

Maybe an active starter of super high gravity yeast, and if that doesn't work, throw Brett at it

 

[timdillon36]

Some Red Star Pasteur Blanc (champagne) yeast?

 

[Blurryface]

Belle saison yeast would be my suggestion before wine yeast.

 

[oceanic_brew]

This subject comes up quite a bit, not specifically to your recipe but the consensus is that wine yeast can be killer yeasts. So if they happen to not do the job then it puts you in an even bigger predicament.

Correct?

 

[MagicMatt]

I think it may be done. US-05 has an attenuation of around 75%. Taking your OG of 1.073, that would put it at about 1.018.

I can vouch for Belle Saison yeast too - takes my 1.070 saison to 1.000-1.001 every time.

 

[Bisco_Ben]

So I added not one, but two packets of fresh belle saison dry yeast to this beer almost 2 weeks ago and just took a gravity reading. I am exactly where I was before, stuck at 1.020. I thought I saw bubbles coming up hinting at some fermentation but gravity isn't lying here. Do I have any other options at this point? The beer tastes good but I am just scared that 1.020 on a sour is going to make it sweet and rather unenjoyable when finished.

 

[505-Brewer]

Pitch a rehydrated wine or champagne yeast. Warm the beer up some too? There's no mention of ferm temps - what temp are you at now?

 

[Bisco_Ben]

505, i used a heat wrap before adding the belle saison for about a week and it did nothing. Probably got it close to 80*F. Im going to go with champage/wine yeast and see what happens.

 

[505-Brewer]

Good luck!