Help: Partial ferment ended up in bottle

[codcaper]

Got myself an undesirable situation: I bottled a batch of beer that turns out didn't ferment much.
original gravity of 1.066, final of about 1.04. Realized FG after bottling and started searching for help, but this is such a ridiculous blunder there weren't many good search results. Wondering if the experienced brewers have any suggestions on saving this.

My inclination is to put the beer back in a carboy, get it to 70-75 degrees and pitch more yeast or just try and let it start fermenting again. What's the chance this would work?

here's how I got here:
10 gallon all-grain batch that was split into two carboys with different yeasts pitched. One had WL 001 and one S-05. Both had lots of activity within 16 hours, consistent airlock bubbling for a couple days before slowing down, nothing out of the ordinary in my experience. Moved into secondary and dry hopped for about a week. It sat in the primary for 10 or 11 days.
The WL001 batch got down to 1.02, which was disappointing, but the S-05 ended up at 1.04. Temp where they were fermenting was 65-69 degrees. I thought everything was good to go based on the airlock activity I was seeing. Bottled the WL first and forgot to test gravity on the S-05 before bottling but I'm shocked at the difference between the two yeasts.

Thanks for any help on this!

 

[day_trippr]

How are you measuring the current gravity of this beer?

 

[brewbama]

I believe it's very unusual for S-05 not to finish lower in 11 days, ...and also 001 not to finish lower as well. What was the mash temp? Any unfermentable sugars? Did you take your S-05 measurement after adding sugar to your bottling bucket?

 

[codcaper]

just using a hydrometer with a sample of beer in a plastic tube that the hydrometer gets stored in.

 

[day_trippr]

Very good. I asked because folks will often use a refractometer to check FG without knowing you need to adjust the result to get a decent reading when there's alcohol in the sample.

So you have some legit high FG there. What was the grain bill and mash temperature/duration?

Cheers!

 

[FrozenOcean]

Well, whether you dump those bottles back into a carboy, or just dump 'em down the sink, you'd better do one or the other fast. Because I can't imagine it would be long before bottles start exploding.

 

[Lefou]

I usually give S-05 about two weeks in the primary.
My ambient temp in the house during winter is 58-60F and I tend to ferment my ales at or below 65F. Never had a problem with S-05 getting stuck, it usually tears through. Three weeks max is the longest I've left wort to ferment before bottling and that was using S-04.

 

[flars]

How long has the beer been in the bottles? You could do a quick SG check to see if there has been a change if you bottled a few days ago. Do a quick degas by pouring a sample from one glass to another to eliminate the CO2 for an accurate SG.

 

[ncbrewer]

How long has the beer been in the bottles? You could do a quick SG check to see if there has been a change if you bottled a few days ago. Do a quick degas by pouring a sample from one glass to another to eliminate the CO2 for an accurate SG.

This^
I would add - be really careful with these bottles, including opening. Use goggles/face shield, and gloves or other protection. And I'd say pour from glass to glass several times to de-gas (I do this 20 times).

 

[andycook]

Did you bottle with sugar and measure FG after adding the sugar?

 

[codcaper]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated.

Brewbama - I usually mash for an hour at 150 and I use a kettle with a false bottom to mash. my temp started dipping a bit and I turned on the burner for a quick heat addition but it shot up to 160 surprisingly fast. I took the lid off and stirred a bunch to get back down to 150 but it took about 10-15 minutes. could that left me with some unfermantables?

and yes, I did take the FG after adding priming sugar to my bottling bucket. it was the last bit of beer left in the bucket. from what I read, that would add a few points to the FG (?)

daytripper - Grain bill was 23lb of marris otter and 2lb of crystal 20. 1 hour mash at 150, with that spike mentioned above.

Floris - thanks for the tip.

I didn't have any exploding bottles and just now got to open one up and degas/test. surprisingly the hydrometer reading was 1.020. can't imagine that went down 20 points in the bottle. is that possible? now I'm really wondering how I screwed this up!

 

[kh54s10]

I didn't have any exploding bottles and just now got to open one up and degas/test. surprisingly the hydrometer reading was 1.020. can't imagine that went down 20 points in the bottle. is that possible? now I'm really wondering how I screwed this up!

I seriously doubt that the gravity went down 20 points while in the bottles. That much would certainly have caused bottle bombs. I suspect a measurement reading error.

I would leave them a while and again carefully open a bottle when it should be carbonated. If it is not overcarbonated, taste it. If it is good, proceed as if you always had an FG of 1.020.

 

[codcaper]

They've been bottled for two weeks now so I will try one tomorrow and hope for the best. When I originally tasted a sample right before checking gravity, it was really really sweet and I knew something was off. then the reading came in really high which confirmed my suspicion based on taste. My sample was the final bit of beer out of the bottling bucket; could that have something to do with getting an unrepresentative/high reading (other than the extra few points from the priming sugar)?

Even if it finished at 1.020, both yeasts still really under-performed. could a spike to 160 in mash temp affect fermentation that much?

 

[numberspace]

Worst case scenario you made a pseudo steam beer

 

[PADave]

I believe it's very unusual for S-05 not to finish lower in 11 days, ...and also 001 not to finish lower as well. What was the mash temp? Any unfermentable sugars? Did you take your S-05 measurement after adding sugar to your bottling bucket?

Especially since they are the same strain of yeast.

 

[PADave]

They've been bottled for two weeks now so I will try one tomorrow and hope for the best. When I originally tasted a sample right before checking gravity, it was really really sweet and I knew something was off. then the reading came in really high which confirmed my suspicion based on taste. My sample was the final bit of beer out of the bottling bucket; could that have something to do with getting an unrepresentative/high reading (other than the extra few points from the priming sugar)?

Even if it finished at 1.020, both yeasts still really under-performed. could a spike to 160 in mash temp affect fermentation that much?

I'd be interested to hear how the carbonation between bottles turns out. Sounds like your priming sugar didn't get mixed too well. When taking samples, it's usually not a good idea to use the "bottom of the barrel" if you want a accurate reading. There is no way gravity changed 20 points in the bottle and the bottle is still intact. I would be worried though how many bottles, if any, do have too much sugar in them.

 

[EazyMcBreazy]

If they're not popping in 2 weeks sounds like you just took a gravity with priming sugar. If the carb is good, keep em' cold