Stuck fermentation - Denny's Favorite 50

[hoppypoppe]

Hello all,

I've been lurking for awhile. My husband and I started homebrewing in June and we've made a few successful batches already, but this one seems to have gotten stuck. We are trying to make a butterscotch cream ale, so we added 2 bags of melted butter rum lifesavers during the last 15 minutes of the boil. We broke our hydrometer so we were not able to take an OG right away. We took a sample and stored it for 2 days while we waited for the LHBS to open. (When we finally took the OG it was 1.054.) Left it sit overnight and by the time we woke up there was already vigorous airlock activity. This lasted for about 2 days and then slowed significantly. On the 8th day, we went to rack it to secondary and the SG was 1.026. Figuring we were fermenting too warm (room temperature between 72-76*), we shook it up and put it in front of our a/c unit at 66* for 2 days. Took another reading, and it was the same. Went to the LHBS on Tuesday and the guy suggested racking onto 5 oz of corn sugar to try to get it going again. There was some activity in the blowoff but not vigorous. We left it for 2 days and took another reading, exactly the same, 1.026. At this point, we are figuring on re-pitching with US-05. Is there anything else we can do? It's been in primary now for 13 days.

6.6 lbs—Briess CBW® Golden Light LME
0.75 lbs—Corn Sugar
0.75 oz—Cascade (5.0% AA hop)—60 minute boil
0.5 oz—Cascade (5.0% AA hop)—20 minute boil
1 smack pack Denny's Favorite 50
2 bags of Butter Rum Lifesavers melted in vodka

 

[kh54s10]

It sounds like it is possible there were a lot of unfermentable sugars in the lifesavers. Since you added sugar, and it fermented back to the same gravity, it may be done. If so adding more yeast will not do anything. I guess I would try the re-pitch with the US05 and hope. If it stays the same it is done and if it tastes OK go ahead and bottle it.

I would suggest making a starter whenever using liquid yeast, unless you are doing small batches or very low gravity beers.

 

[hoppypoppe]

Thanks for the info! Should I rack it back into a bucket to re-pitch? (it's currently in a 5 gal carboy)

 

[elbinwyp]

Hello all,

I've been lurking for awhile. My husband and I started homebrewing in June and we've made a few successful batches already, but this one seems to have gotten stuck. We are trying to make a butterscotch cream ale, so we added 2 bags of melted butter rum lifesavers during the last 15 minutes of the boil. We broke our hydrometer so we were not able to take an OG right away. We took a sample and stored it for 2 days while we waited for the LHBS to open. (When we finally took the OG it was 1.054.) Left it sit overnight and by the time we woke up there was already vigorous airlock activity. This lasted for about 2 days and then slowed significantly. On the 8th day, we went to rack it to secondary and the SG was 1.026. Figuring we were fermenting too warm (room temperature between 72-76*), we shook it up and put it in front of our a/c unit at 66* for 2 days. Took another reading, and it was the same. Went to the LHBS on Tuesday and the guy suggested racking onto 5 oz of corn sugar to try to get it going again. There was some activity in the blowoff but not vigorous. We left it for 2 days and took another reading, exactly the same, 1.026. At this point, we are figuring on re-pitching with US-05. Is there anything else we can do? It's been in primary now for 13 days.

6.6 lbs—Briess CBW® Golden Light LME
0.75 lbs—Corn Sugar
0.75 oz—Cascade (5.0% AA hop)—60 minute boil
0.5 oz—Cascade (5.0% AA hop)—20 minute boil
1 smack pack Denny's Favorite 50
2 bags of Butter Rum Lifesavers melted in vodka

Additionally, I would point out that your warm fermentation temperatures would actually encourage fermentation, not inhibit. A lot of people will start their fermentation at temperatures in the mid 60's and then increase it after the first 4-5 days to temperatures in the low 70's to try to encourage the yeast to finish. If you have the ability to keep your ale's in the mid 60's during the main fermentation period, this will be a huge step in improving the quality of your beer.

 

[kh54s10]

Thanks for the info! Should I rack it back into a bucket to re-pitch? (it's currently in a 5 gal carboy)

NO! The more you move a beer the more you risk oxidizing it. That is why many, myself included, don't do secondaries. Besides skipping a step that has proven to be pretty much unnecessary.

Add the yeast to the secondary. There is not much to ferment so it should not be vigorous, but I would set up a blow off tube just in case...

 

[user 70770]

Figuring we were fermenting too warm (room temperature between 72-76*), we shook it up and put it in front of our a/c unit at 66* for 2 days.

It's better to start cool and warm up towards the end. Near the end of fermentation, the yeast can be a little stressed. The food is running out, it's bathing in toxic (delicious) alcohol and there's little oxygen left. Cooling the temperature at this point would stress the yeast even more.

Looking at your recipe, all your ingredients are highly fermentable. The LME is very fermentable, the corn sugar is nearly 100% fermentable and the lifesavers are pure sugar so also highly fermentable. From a recipe standpoint, you should have a pretty low FG. I'm thinking you got a bad pack of yeast. Liquid yeast can be awesome but if not stored properly, the viability can be affected. For example, 've gotten packs of wyeast frozen from my homebrew shop before... not good. I'd say your next step would be to pitch some US-05 before you do anything else with the beer. If there are more fermentables left (and I believe there are), the US-05 will take care of them.

 

[hoppypoppe]

Thanks for the info! I looked at the ingredients in the lifesavers and it appears to be mostly sugar but it has palm kernel oil as one of the ingredients. I'm wondering if that was maybe the cause of it? I'll definitely try the US05 and see what happens. We did taste it after adding the corn sugar and leaving it for 2 days and it's very sweet. Not in a good way either.

 

[yourlastchance89]

Sorry if I missed it, but I didn't see an intended target OG or a yeast count to account for that. What was the target OG? What was the targeted yeast count aimed for? Did you use dry yeast packets? If not did you do a yeast starter that calculated meeting the count requirement?

 

[hoppypoppe]

Oops! I knew I forgot something! The intended OG was 1.052 and the expected FG is 1.011. Actual OG was 1.054. I used a smack pack. I followed the instructions on the package and let it sit for an hour and a half during the boil.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Listen to KH, everything he has said is spot on. My advice from here on, less is more. less on recipes, less on worry, less on freaking out, this creates great creativeness. It may end up sweet, but you made it. There is a heck of a lot of truth to Relax and have a Homebrew. The batch actually sounds good. Maybe take what you have learned and go with .75 of a bag and see where you are. Welcome to the community.

 

[yourlastchance89]

Oops! I knew I forgot something! The intended OG was 1.052 and the expected FG is 1.011. Actual OG was 1.054. I used a smack pack. I followed the instructions on the package and let it sit for an hour and a half during the boil.

How fresh was the smack pack? I would still say a smack pack is underpitching, but you can get away with a smack pack if it's a very fresh one at that gravity. However as they age the yeast within them die off. I would recommend always doing a starter with liquid yeast or buying multiple smack packs. Underpitching your yeast may be the culprit and that can result in unfinished gravities

 

[Comfort_Zone]

Worst case scenario: pitch a vial of WLP099, but I don't think that will be necessary. Try some US-05 and let your palate be the judge.

 

[hoppypoppe]

How fresh was the smack pack? I would still say a smack pack is underpitching, but you can get away with a smack pack if it's a very fresh one at that gravity. However as they age the yeast within them die off. I would recommend always doing a starter with liquid yeast or buying multiple smack packs. Underpitching your yeast may be the culprit and that can result in unfinished gravities

That's good information to know. The recipe originally called for a yeast blend but the LHBS said that was a special order item and said that this yeast would be perfect. He didn't tell me how to use it though so we went in blind. I'll be doing some more research on liquid yeast before i use it again.

 

[bolus14]

My experience with Denny's Fav is similar to this, except I've always started in the mid 60's not in the 70's. I usually get good fermentation for a week or two and then it stalls. Raising the temp 5-10 degrees , give the fermenter a gentle swirl and it starts fermenting again. I started planning a min of 3 weeks for fermentation to complete and then a week for "cleanup" time.

I started using WY1272 because of this and it shares some of the same stalling characteristics as 1450 on higher OG, roughly anything over 1.070 in my experience. Anything under that typically ferments in 7-10 days for me and then I give it another 7-10 days for cleanup. Over 1.070 I give it 4-5 days to get through it's more rigorous fermentation at lower temps and then move it to 70-72 degrees.

 

[kh54s10]

I have used Denny's Favorite 50 a couple of times. I didn't get any unusual fermentation. It went about as normal, in those days I fermented all brews for 3 weeks. I suspect it was completely done in 14 days or even less.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Favorite 50 can be a little sluggish on 1st generation. I've used 20 times I guess. I've never had any issues with it. It gets stronger with every gen.

 

[hoppypoppe]

Update: so we pitched the us05 on Friday night. Took a reading just now and it's down to 1.020. I tasted it and it tastes like actual beer now. I added butterscotch syrup to give it the butterscotch flavor boost (since you can't taste the candy that was added during the boil).