Stuck Fermentation???

[UncleBeardyBeer]

Howdy Folks,

Yet another newbie seeking advice on a stuck (maybe?) fermentation.

The culprit:
Brewer's Best Belgian Wit Kit from LHBS (extract). Subbed fresh orange zest (3 sweet oranges, no pith) and coriander (~1oz, fresh) rather than what came in the package. Brewed on 6/28, OG 1.048.

Yeast:
White Labs 380, out of the LHBS fridge (was the closest they had to what I wanted). Was only a week short of use by date. Did not know that I should have used a starter when I made it. Pitched @ ~72F.

Pertinent facts (I'm sure I'm missing some info though):
Left town the day after I brewed it. I checked it before hitting the road and fermentation had begun nicely. Good airlock activity and a krausen appeared to be forming. Was gone about a week. A friend checked in on it a few times but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. My other batches have held steady in the basement at about 68-72F depending on where they were in fermentation process. Upon arriving home I noticed a bit of krausen in the airlock and some stickiness to the sides, assuming I had a minor overflow. I changed to a fresh air lock after taking a sample. G=1.021. Checked again a few days later, still 1.020ish. Another week, 1.02. Tried swirling it, raising the temp a few degrees, still 1.02. Gave it another week as we were in the process of moving. Its been in the new basement about a week, still 1.02. The kit says it should finish at about 1.01-1.014.

Other faux pas:
1. Used a turkey baster with a length of tube as a thief. Not an elegant solution and I ended up blowing some air into the beer as I tried to get it out.


Where I'm at now:
1. I'm thirsty and it tastes good even in its current state.
2. I want my fermenter back to brew something else.
3. I want to bottle it but I've seen plenty of "don't rack or bottle until FG is reached!!" statements on the forum.

Questions:
1. Is it safe to bottle or will I end up with bombs? Again, I'm fine with a less than perfect beer at this point. I feel like I've learned some lessons about yeast and careful monitoring.
2. If #1 is a bad option, any advice for how to get it to finish up beyond what I've already tried?

Thanks in advance for any input. Cheers!

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

No expert by any means here, but it sounds like you're done. If the SG reading has been the same for two weeks it's likely not going to finish out.

Question though, have you been consistently swirling the carboy and disturbing the sediment (yeast, hops, etc) at the bottom of the carboy? If you disturb that and really work it back into the beer it could be showing a higher gravity reading than what is actually there. In other words the higher SG isn't indicating some fermentable sugars that haven't been eaten yet, it's just indicating that there's a heavier volume of stuff in the beer because...well because there's stuff that isn't settled any more.

How does it look? Is it cloudy or clear?

 

[Ster]

I have had 2 brews this near not drop below 1.02. They tasted great, just were slightly less alcoholic than I hoped for.

Don't worry, I binged them and got nicely lit.

Bottle it.

The only thing in common that I noticed between these 2 brews: used dark liquid malt extract. I have a theory that the process of making these extracts are not as dependable as dry extract or light LME.

I now try to use XLight for most brews.

Bottom line: you likely made tastey beer, just drink it in greater quantities.

 

[Ster]

One more think.. On one of these I did repitch yeast, and the gravity still did not drop.

 

[freisste]

It's likely the extract. Lots of times it finished at 1.020. It is very common. If it was me, I would feel comfortable bottling.

 

[freisste]

Question though, have you been consistently swirling the carboy and disturbing the sediment (yeast, hops, etc) at the bottom of the carboy? If you disturb that and really work it back into the beer it could be showing a higher gravity reading than what is actually there. In other words the higher SG isn't indicating some fermentable sugars that haven't been eaten yet, it's just indicating that there's a heavier volume of stuff in the beer because...well because there's stuff that isn't settled any more.

To affect gravity, it has to be a SOLUTION (ie. dissolved). I keep telling people, adding boats to a lake doesn't increase the density of the lake water.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Interesting...learn something new every day I guess. Thanks for the correction.