Fermentation Issue

[Millpig]

First time posting here..but have been using this site as a reference for a lot of questions I've had since starting to brew last year. Couldn't find the answer to this one exactly so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm doing the NB bourbon barrel porter and brewed last saturday 9/24/16. I took my reading with they hydro and got an o.g of 1.060. It's been 8 days since I took my first hydro reading and its coming out to 1.034. I had very active fermentation for the first 32 hours then it kind of died off. I'm wondering what my options are. The yeast was hydrated and pitched when the wort was 74 degrees. It was then moved to my basement which has an ambient temperature of 68 degrees. I was wondering if they yeast got too hot during fermentation and died out? Can I pitch another batch of the same yeast; or will that not help? Would love some help on this not really sure where to go from here.

Thanks

 

[porterpounder]

Those temps wouldn't "kill" yeast, but the variations in temp may have made it go dormant early. Warm it up and rouse the yeast (gentle swirling of the fermenter will do it) for a few days and take another reading. What yeast did you use?

 

[ncbrewer]

Those temps would "kill" yeast, but the variations in temp may have made it go dormant early. Warm it up and rouse the yeast (gentle swirling of the fermenter will do it) for a few days and take another reading. What yeast did you use?

I think you might have a typo about killing the yeast.

I agree temp swings wouldn't be good for the yeast. I haven't had a fermentation stall that high, but from many HBT threads it seems to be tough to get fermentation restarted. If rousing doesn't help, I guess pitching more yeast would be worth a try. I would lean toward dry pitching some dried yeast - others prefer a new starter at high kraeusen.

Sorry you're having a problem with this batch, but welcome to HBT.

 

[sniperd]

Those temps are fine and won't kill anything. Give it a swirl, and it can't hurt to pitch more yeast in. I've had it happen to me and I fixed it with pitching more yeast and waiting. I've had beer take a few weeks to get down sub 1.020 for no good reason.

 

[brandonnys]

Extract, or All-Grain?

This was the Danstar Windsor Ale yeast, correct? Did it have a packaging date on it?

 

[dwhite60]

Give it another week. Go get a beer. Bet in six more days is down to where it should be.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Millpig]

I used the Windsor ale dry yeast. It was an extract brew. The exp date on the yeast was good to go.

I went down a couple hours ago and gave it a nice swirl. It seemed to cause the airlock to start moving a little bit again. I'll give it another 24 hrs an take a reading to see where its at.

 

[Pangaia]

The only beer I've ever had not finish was a lower gravity brown ale with Windsor yeast. I've read it has a tendency to not finish out. Consider throwing some WLP099 in there!

 

[brandonnys]

Yeah, just swirl it to rouse it. It should clean up.

 

[porterpounder]

I think you might have a typo about killing the yeast.

I agree temp swings wouldn't be good for the yeast. I haven't had a fermentation stall that high, but from many HBT threads it seems to be tough to get fermentation restarted. If rousing doesn't help, I guess pitching more yeast would be worth a try. I would lean toward dry pitching some dried yeast - others prefer a new starter at high kraeusen.

Sorry you're having a problem with this batch, but welcome to HBT.

Yes "Wouldn't" is correct. Thanks

 

[Millpig]

Well swirling around didn't wake anything up..the yeast was definitely just finished. Attempted to throw another batch of yeast with a starter and as I suspected that didn't do anything. After talking to a brewer in my area I'm convinced that once fermentation craps out theres no way of starting fermentation again. So now its a matter of whether i take this batch and blend it with a dry stout or just dump save myself the hassle and brew another batch.

 

[brandonnys]

If you pitched a second batch of viable yeast, and there are still fermentables left, fermentation should start (barring extreme circumstances), especially if the yeast was activated by way of a starter.

Option 1: Just leave it for a while in secondary and see what happens. Keep it at 68 degrees for a month and see what it looks like then

Option 2: I'm not sure why there would be with an extract recipe, but maybe there's a bunch of unfermentables in there? You could add brett to it and see what happens.

Option 3: It's still beer Carb it and drink it.

Option 4 (NOT RECOMMENDED): Dump it out.

 

[flars]

I had a beer finish with a high FG the first time I used Windsor. I pitched a 500 ml starter of WY 1056 at high krausen to finish the beer at 1. 010 where it would have finished if I had used WY 1332.