Fermentation problem... WTF mate???

[dbriggs10]

Let me start from the beginning...

It was three weeks ago (as of tomorrow) that I brewed an IPA. It was an extract clone from AHS. I used the "Texas Two-Step" method for the first time.

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Everything seemed to be OK during & after the brew day. I re-hydrated a packet of Nottingham yeast & once cooled, I pitched it to the wort. OG was 1.062. (a bit lower then the expected 1.066, but I wound up with over 5 gal. & figured that was why it was lower) Anyway, The first 24 to 36 hours it was fermenting as expected (at 70 F degrees). The temperature dropped overnight to about 65 F degrees and the fermentation stopped at 1.032.

Here is a list of what I did since then (in timeline order):

Once the Fermentation stalled - Shook the beer & heated it up to ~75 F degrees.

1 and 1/2 weeks after brew day, I re-racked the beer to aerate it & pitched new yeast (re-hydrated Nottingham).

4 days later - crushed up two Beano tabs, boiled them, cooled them, added to the beer... Shook and / or stirred the beer every other day or so since.

It is now a week after I added the Beano tabs & the gravity is still stuck at 1.032. I'm at a loss and I'm not sure what else to do.

Any & all feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[rod]

fyi - boiling beano will de-activate the enzymes.

 

[krispy d]

??!!??!!beano!!??!!??

 

[kornkob]

That is what I was going to say. While there is a tendancy for the Homebrew world to think that "everything that touches the beer must be hospital sanitary" the fact is beer is a pretty resilient little bugger. Throwing unsanitized beano into a brew to kick start a ferment is not going to hurt anything. In fact a rigorous fermentation process is a damn fine way to ensure your beer avoids infections. There are few infections that can survive contact with yeasties when they get all worked up.


However, you might be in a bad spot anyway. Reaerating partially fermented wort is probably the death blow. Often I hear people refer to it this way: you can aerate wort but you only oxidate beer. aeration = good, oxidate= bad. I predict wet cardboard flavors based on your steps.

kripy: do a search for beano on the forums. There are several threads describing what it is good for.

 

[krispy d]

thnx kornkob, Just when you think you've seen/heard of it all.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Yeah, the re-aerating was a mistake. Not sure what to tell you. I would have just re-pitched a packet of yeast, but I'm not sure why you're still stuck after that and warming up the vessel.

 

[BierMuncher]

Sounds like you may have tried a little to hard to fix a good beer. I had an APA stop at a 30point drop and ended up with a nice rich, malty session ale.

Beware the beano. Bean there done that. Now I have to pour my beer out of the bottle, into a glass, into another glass, go mow the yard and then come back and it's drinkable.

That beer is some bubbly @ss stuff. Course, I read where one would do the trick, so I figured three would really do the trick better. IMHO, not worth it.

 

[dbriggs10]

So boiling the beano was a mistake... Noted.

Should I add more at this point???

Or should I just consider it a learning experience and let it go?


Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[kornkob]

I'd say keg it and see what happens after a month or 2. If it tastes like cardboard, you've got a dumper.

 

[david_42]

Keg it with four tablets of Beano. Or just add the Beano to the secondary, if you don't keg. Give it a month. Plan on releasing pressure every couple days if it is kegged.

If it drinkable in a month, you'll probably want to think about a bit of dry hopping to freshen the nose.

As to why this happened, I'm quit puzzled. I've only done mini-mashes from AHB, but I've never seen such poor attenuation on one. Actually, I've never seen 50% attenuation on any batch.

 

[dbriggs10]

So yesterday I took a gravity reading and found the SG at 1.020. Definite progress two weeks after adding 4 Beano tabs... So, I transferred it to my secondary Carboy and threw in some hop pellets for dry hopping. I plan to leave it for another two weeks before I take another reading and consider bottling.

Question: With the addition of the four Beano tabs, should I expect my FG to be lower than originally expected (1.012)?? How should that affect my bottling decision?

I did taste it & it wasn't as bad as I had feared. There is a weird aftertaste & I'm hoping that it will dissipate in the upcoming weeks.

 

[BierMuncher]

So yesterday I took a gravity reading and found the SG at 1.020. Definite progress two weeks after adding 4 Beano tabs... So, I transferred it to my secondary Carboy and threw in some hop pellets for dry hopping. I plan to leave it for another two weeks before I take another reading and consider bottling.

Question: With the addition of the four Beano tabs, should I expect my FG to be lower than originally expected (1.012)?? How should that affect my bottling decision?

I did taste it & it wasn't as bad as I had feared. There is a weird aftertaste & I'm hoping that it will dissipate in the upcoming weeks.

FWIW, I added 3 beanos to a brew that was stuck at 1.020. The gravity did go down over about two weeks and appeared to stop. I bottled and now I have gushers.

If I had it to do over again, I would have waited at least 4 weeks. That beano really creates a low, slow fermentation that seems to go on forever.

Just don't be in a hurry.

 

[dbriggs10]

I checked the beer again yesterday. Gravity reading was 1.010. The taste was pretty good (much less of an aftertaste then last time). I'm still getting bubbles in the airlock, about 4 a minute.

I was thinking about bottling this weekend (Saturday will be 4 weeks)... Too soon??? If I do, should I expect gushers, or even worse, bottle bombs?

 

[mgt2000]

Gravity-wise there probably isn't much more to go, but if you are still getting airlock bubbles every 15 seconds on Saturday, I would wait to be on the safe side.