I have a problem with mine, i brewed it early october, og 1,093 it started fermenting well but the fermentation stucked at 1,040.
I brewed something else to to rack the stuck brew on the new yeast cake but, when fermentation slowed and i checked my gravity the beer was all ropy, it was the second time it happened to me in almost 20 years of fermenting things, did not know what it was and did not know much about internet the first time it happened. This time i did some research, learned it is a bacteria called Pediococus, it is used in purpose in some sour beers, produce lactic acids and some smells and flavors that can be pretty hard to describe in words. I've added some brett in this new beer and set it aside to forget it hopefully it will turn good or better in a few or several month.
Meanwhile i got a hold of 3787 yeast, added a bit of amylase, some nutriments roused the yeast to no avail, and tought about that infection (i take care to sanitize my stuff well so it made me think about it).
I brewed another batch with 3787 to try to restart fermentation. In 2 days fermentation went from 1,048 to 1.002. Day 5 i racked it and increased the temperature to 80f, wich was the temperature the yeast just fermented the last beer, the stuck beer was at 70 and took a day to heat up. When racking i found that the Westy 12 clone is now smelling sour and tasting a bit sour and horseish, but can't say if it's good or will be because it' way too sweet and the sweetness does not fit with the other flavors.
I know something else now, this one got pediococus in it too, and there is one place where it can come if i put it in 2 brews in a row and if it is my yeast, its a starter i stepped up from a bottle took almost a week to get enough yeast it may have gotten infected in that time, still have some left i think i'll keep it and label it as home pediococcus might be interesting later on.
Back to the stuck Westy 12 a week later it's still at 1,040. I'm wondering how come it did not ferment more, my only guess is that it's too acidic for the saccharomyces, sure there was a big lot of healthy yeast and should be enough nutriment, sugar should be fermentable too i did step mash with glucan, protein rest (i had a lot of unmalted grains)then 2 hour at 144 before climbing up staying for 20 min at 165 then mash out i also added a bit of amylase enzyme 2 or 3 weeks before racking just in case i've been wrong.
Wondering what to do next, i tought of 3 options to save it as a brew:
1-Make a third fermentartation restarter brew but this time with wlp 099,
2-pitch some orval dregs in and hope time and brett will do the job,
3-Same than 1 but with brett since there is still a lot left to ferment, or maybe i can top crop a good quantity of brett if i primary ferment a brew with it, i heard it ferment pretty fast but does not attenuate as much as brett in secondary but i've never been there...
I still need to brew a quad with that, my good ol 54l Damme Jeanne died in the process and i can't replace her so i now need a conical