yeast/wort

[AdamLucko]

I had a batch with a decent o.g of 1.057 and the f.g of 1.042. not good. I asked the guy at the brew shop and he went over everything that we did (like 1/2 hour of talking) and his suggestion was to try and re-activate the wort with more yeast. I asked him about all the grains and whatnot but he said everything was fine because of my initial gravity was pretty good. He assumed it was a temp thing. Anyways... I tossed more yeast in. It however is not fermenting again! So what now. IF the yeast didn't activate, will I still be able to drink this brew? How long would you think it would take to reactivate, and well. any other comments would be good .

Thanks dudes!

 

[kevinb]

What temp are you fermenting at? Too cold might make it stall.

How do you knu the new yeast is not working?

 

[flars]

Did you find FG with a refractometer or a hydrometer? Refractometers will not give an accurate SG reading in the presence of alcohol. Online correction tables are available to correct for the alcohol in the sample.

 

[schokie]

What's the recipe? What yeast?

If you're pitching additional yeast to restart the fermentation, it's best to make a small starter first to get them activated. Pitch it at high krausen. However, if your gravity only dropped 15 points though you probably won't even need to do that.

How long have you been fermenting and at what temp?

 

[AdamLucko]

We don't know the yeast is not working... we are trial and erroring it. Everything seems to right on the money except possible dead yeast! temp is 75F. So what about yeast flavours.. are they gonna be there or whats gonna happen? Should I filter thrugh a .1 micron to get rid of any yeast uf no second fermentation works?

 

[schokie]

Well, 75F is a bit high for most yeasts as far as optimal flavor is concerned. So it might be throwing off flavors, but it should certainly be fermenting. You can expect some fruity flavors, depending on the yeast strain.

How long has it been since you initially pitched yeast?

I wouldn't bother filtering. If your yeast are actually dead, they'll act as nutrient for the new yeast.

Boil about 50g extract (or sugar if you don't have any extract) in about 500ml water. One cooled to about 20c or so, pitch your yeast. Give it a day, or until it starts foaming, then pour the whole thing into the fermentor.

You already have it quite warm, so I wouldn't change that. You could also try taking a sanitized spoon and gently stir to rouse the existing yeast.