Mashing Pumkin Saison help

[BigBlueBrad]

Brewed this beer on 09/02. My first brew in five years. Forgot to take OG. Used Wyeast 3724. Fermented great for three days and then stalled. Raised temp from 75 to 90 and fermentation started again but weakly.

Brewed another beer and broke my hydrometer. Got nervous about it being on the yeast cake for four weeks and transferred into a secondary on 9/27 at 85 degrees. Took a sample today with new hydrometer and Gravity is still at 1.038.

What can I do now that it is in the secondary? As you can probably tell, first saison I've brewed.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Did you give some nutrient?

 

[JordanKnudson]

Ah the ol' Dupont strain stall. I would have just left it in primary, but what's done is done. If you try everything and just can't get it to start up again, the classic solution to this problem is to add a healthy, active pitch of clean attenuative yeast like wlp001/wy1056/US-05.

On a side note, there has been some interesting discussion/experimentation recently that suggests that this yeast strain is CO2 and/or pressure sensitive, and that that is what causes the stall -- the solution being open fermentation. Not relevant to you at the moment, but perhaps an interesting avenue to pursue next time if you are so inclined.

 

[BigBlueBrad]

Did you give some nutrient?

No nutrient.

 

[BigBlueBrad]

I'll go grab some fresh yeast this AM. Thanks!

 

[oli-aus]

The French saison strain from wyeast is a great alternative choice.
Doesn't mess you about with stalled fermentations and also gives a really nice creamy mouth.

 

[BigBlueBrad]

Ah the ol' Dupont strain stall. I would have just left it in primary, but what's done is done. If you try everything and just can't get it to start up again, the classic solution to this problem is to add a healthy, active pitch of clean attenuative yeast like wlp001/wy1056/US-05.

On a side note, there has been some interesting discussion/experimentation recently that suggests that this yeast strain is CO2 and/or pressure sensitive, and that that is what causes the stall -- the solution being open fermentation. Not relevant to you at the moment, but perhaps an interesting avenue to pursue next time if you are so inclined.

I added the wy 1056 on 10/3 and it is still fermenting and burping this morning once every 20 seconds. I'm surprised it is still active over two weeks later. Any thoughts anyone?

 

[JordanKnudson]

Could be that it's just working very slowly. Another possibility that comes to mind is that the leftover 3724 became active again in secondary and is now slowly eating the last of the sugars that the 1056 couldn't consume.

Of course, there is the possibility of an infection, too (obviously we hope this isn't the case).

I would take a gravity reading to see where it is, and smell/taste the sample to see if there are any signs of infection. Good luck and let us know!