Massive underattenuation

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TheMerkle

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I attempted to propagate yeast from a bottle of Bell's. I'm not sure where I went wrong but I only got about 50% attenuation from the strain and my beer is stuck at 1.030. Should I rack to a new primary and pitch another yeast? If so, then what yeast would work for my Bell's Two Hearted IPA clone?
 
Did you only harvest the yeast from one bottle? If so, did you do this without a starter? If so, you severely underpitched your yeast. There just isn't enough in it. If I'm correct about what you did, you need to pitch a fresh, lively, and large-enough batch of yeast.
 
At this point, you shouldn't worry too much about fermentation character from the yeast that you add. The big thing is to make sure that the finishing yeast matches Bell's in relative dryness. If Bell's a a dry finishing IPA, WLP001/1056 is your yeast, if it's more medium-dry, then use a slightly sweeter yeast, such as East Coast Ale. (I don't know Bell's well out here in the west.) Make a starter with that yeast and pitch it into your beer when it is actively fermenting the starter (about 8-12 hours) for best results. But before you bother, taste the beer. There's a good chance that other fermentation flaws in the beer are serious and the beer isn't worth keeping. (Sorry. It's happened to me more than once too.) Of course, it would cost about $8 to try to fix the beer and cross your fingers, so don't toss it too hastily.

As far as what went wrong, the most likely problem is yeast health, which is actually more important than cell count according to White Lab's Chris White. (White is insistent that you should get everything right for optimal beer, but he says yeast health is the number one thing that produces bad beer, with cell count, low oxygen, and temperature being close behind.) Yeast that has bottle conditioned a beer is living in it's own piss and probably also a few months old. To successfully use such yeast without laboratory techniques, you need to make a very small starter (100mL) with a low gravity, like 1.030, and add the yeast from one six pack. Then pitch that into a slightly larger (like 500 mL) of similar starter, then pitch that into a 1000 mL starter. That will get you something like 75 billion cells, slightly less than a yeast pack. You then use that in a starter as you would normally for the yeast style you're using.

Good luck.
 
Don't rack it. Re-pitch with any American Ale strain, just one packet, vial, what have you, no starter, and rouse the beer after pitching.

Good luck!
 
As far as what went wrong, the most likely problem is yeast health, which is actually more important than cell count according to White Lab's Chris White. (White is insistent that you should get everything right for optimal beer, but he says yeast health is the number one thing that produces bad beer, with cell count, low oxygen, and temperature being close behind.)

Very good point. However, and this might be semantics, yeast health and ACTIVE cell count are strongly correlated, are they not? Bottle conditioned yeast has completed it's job of carbonating the beer by eating priming sugar and any residual fermentables. It's spent. You are losing active cells daily. Combine that with the fact that you are pitching a very small amount (1 bottle's dregs is not enough), and you will get a stalled fermentation.
 
I used four bottles worth of yeast into a 250ml starter of 1.040, then stepped to 600ml, and finally, 900ml. The fermentation appeared active, with a strong krausen, tons of airlock activity (including a blowout) and swirling particles in the beer.

I did taste it, and while it is much too sweet to enjoy, and the hop profile of an unfinished IPA is always very different from the finished product, it certainly doesn't taste ruined.

The LHBS recommends a good ole packet of us-05 safale and shake her up. Any arguments with that? I'm looking for a final gravity around 1.010
 
I used four bottles worth of yeast into a 250ml starter of 1.040, then stepped to 600ml, and finally, 900ml. The fermentation appeared active, with a strong krausen, tons of airlock activity (including a blowout) and swirling particles in the beer.

Well, given your statement, I retract a bit. I guess it's possible that you got a starter of very tired, unhealthy yeast. My only other guess as to the root cause is temperature. Did you have a lot of temp swings? Low temp?
 
Yes. I stored the warm, freshly boiled wort, in my fermentation chamber overnight then pitched the following day. Another day later, I realized that the chest was not set to the intended 62 degrees, but rather to 38. I took the carboy out, let it warm in my garage for a day, then swirled it up and returned it to the (temp coreected) chest.
 
I used four bottles worth of yeast into a 250ml starter of 1.040, then stepped to 600ml, and finally, 900ml. The fermentation appeared active, with a strong krausen, tons of airlock activity (including a blowout) and swirling particles in the beer.

I did taste it, and while it is much too sweet to enjoy, and the hop profile of an unfinished IPA is always very different from the finished product, it certainly doesn't taste ruined.

The LHBS recommends a good ole packet of us-05 safale and shake her up. Any arguments with that? I'm looking for a final gravity around 1.010

That should work, but follow the instructions for rehydrating the yeast, don't just dump the packet straight to the fermenter.
 
I was strongly advised to shake very aggressively for sometime to degas and re-aerate the beer when pitching US-05, and I did just that. I shook this thing and relieved the gas, shook and degassed, shook and degassed for the better part of an hour... and it was still spitting out gas everytime. Now it's been three days with no signs of fermentation. Am I just being a paranoid newbie?
 
I was strongly advised to shake very aggressively for sometime to degas and re-aerate the beer when pitching US-05, and I did just that. I shook this thing and relieved the gas, shook and degassed, shook and degassed for the better part of an hour... and it was still spitting out gas everytime. Now it's been three days with no signs of fermentation. Am I just being a paranoid newbie?

Fermentation doesn't always throw out overt signs. Take a hydrometer reading and check it ever few days. You should see the gravity decreasing.
 
Am I right to be concerned about being unable to totally degas the beer? Will that hinder the aeration process?
 
Am I right to be concerned about being unable to totally degas the beer? Will that hinder the aeration process?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "degas" the beer. You shook your wort prior to pitching the US05 because you wanted to provide some oxygen for the yeast to use to do their business. Most of the O2 that was in there was likely consumed by the original yeast. The natural byproduct is going to be CO2, which will eliminate itself through your airlock. How were you degassing it when you went through your hour-long progression? Was your goal to eliminate residual CO2 or oxygen?

I think before you worry yourself about the aeration of your beer, take a gravity reading. You may find that you are already where you should be.
 
I'll take a reading tomorrow night before I worry anymore. What I meant by "degas" was removing CO2 that was in suspension, so that I may be able to get Oxygen into the carboy. I'm operating on the fact that CO2 is heavier than air, and that with it in the carboy air cant get in. Am I thinking of this too metaphysically? lol
 
I'll take a reading tomorrow night before I worry anymore. What I meant by "degas" was removing CO2 that was in suspension, so that I may be able to get Oxygen into the carboy. I'm operating on the fact that CO2 is heavier than air, and that with it in the carboy air cant get in. Am I thinking of this too metaphysically? lol

You might be overthinking it. It is true that CO2 does provide a gaseous barrier in a carboy...it's what is taking up the airspace. However, you surely introduced oxygen into the mix by violently shaking your carboy for an hour.

I would syphon, measure, and relax. You're probably already on your way to a good, unstuck fermentation. :mug:
 

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