Help With a Last Stab at a Stuck Fermentation

[peregrinebio]

Hi all,

I've posted about this beer a couple of months ago and I'm still fighting with it. I'd like some input on my current idea for reviving this beer. Here is its history up to now.

I'm brewing a beefed up version of the Kentucky Breakfast Stout clone for the 2nd time. 1st time went great, went from 1.11 to 1.029 with only a vial of WLP001 being pitched (forgot to make a starter until too late).

Anyhow this time I pitched a 1L starter of WLP001 into a 1.115 wort on July 24th. On Aug 15th the grav was only at 1.042 and I'm aiming for a 1.030 FG. I tried rousing with no success. On Aug 22nd the grav was the same so I pitched another 1L of WLP001, well aerated, and at high Krausen. As of today, 8/30, she hasn't budged.

On 9/14 I racked her on to the yeast cake of a 6.4% IPA. The gravity still didn't budge. I'm thinking there was too little O2 and too much alcohol for the yeast to restart.

So now I've finally gotten around to getting a vial of wlp099 high grav yeast. I've already made a 1.5 liter starter with it. Now I'm going to make another 2 1.5 liter starters.

My idea is when these starters are at high krausen, aerate the hell out of them and put them in a carboy. Then add an equal amount of my stout w/o aerating. After 6-12 hours add an equal amount of stout. Repeat this method until all my stout is in the carboy. This will allow my starter yeast to ramp up to the high alcohol environment. Any thoughts???

Cheers!

 

[Fat_Bastard]

maybe it's done?

 

[Kaz]

I don't deal much with high OG brews or stuck fermentations, but my first reaction is that if re-pitching the 2nd starter and racking onto a fresh yeast cake didn't get the gravity to budge then its done. Perhaps something was off that is keeping you at 60% attenuation....mash temp was off (bad thermometer etc) wrong grain bill mixed up etc. The 099 is worth a try, but I would wonder if it doesn't work, all the racking to another carboy will further oxygenate this brew and ruin it more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Revvy]

You can keep yeastig til you're blue in the face, but if there are no fermentable sugars left for them to eat, then the beer is done, regardless.

My 1.170 og barlewine is finished at 1.040.

You can try to break the chains on the unfermentables, but you could end up drying the beer out. I think you've done enough.

 

[zepolmot]

I'm gonna throw my vote into the "Its done" bucket. Was this all grain? Maybe you mashed a little hotter than you thought and there really are that many unfermentables?

 

[peregrinebio]

All grain. I recorded my mash temp at 152. Same as the first time I brewed this beer. Maybe with my 10 gallon mash tun completely maxed out, 23.5 lbs, the temperature at the top where my thermometer was wasn't representative of the whole mash.

So I guess I'm too stubborn or ignorant. I solicited advice, but I'm not taking it. Thanks for the feedback all. but after hearing back from y'all I took another sample and it is too sweet for me to be convinced it is finished. So I went through with my original plan. I'll let you guys know how it turned out. The first batch was awesome!

 

[Revvy]

....

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...

 

[peregrinebio]

Meant to update this thread a while ago. This technique was successful. I was able to take her all the way down to 1.020!!! I'd definitely recommend this method for stuck fermentations on big beers.

I guess insanity sometimes pays off Although, it really wasn't the same thing.