My first stuck fermentation

[jpgilman]

I've returned to brewing after a seven year absence, my son's old enough to drink and share the labor now For my first batch I picked a simple extract weizen. I've tried to record the salient points of my problem.

Edme and Store Wheat/Barley malt extract
Yeast: Dry Safale WB-06
Water: Walmart bottled spring water - no treatment

Thursday
3pm - O.G. 1052. Pitched at 84F (I know it was too high). No Aeration
8am - 62F - Air lock bubbling

Friday
8pm - 68F - (I raised temp to 68F because of the negative things I read about WB-06 particularly at low temps.)

Saturday
8am - 68F - Stuck Fermentation Gravity = 1.030
9am - tried swirling carboy adding Bru-vigor, etc.
2pm - trip to LHBS for Wyeast 3068
3pm - Smacked very fresh 3068 pack.
6pm - 70F pitched 3068
9pm - Air lock bubbling every 5 seconds

Sunday
8am - 70F - Air lock bubbling every 10 seconds
3pm - 70F - Stuck Fermentation Gravity = 1.020. Beer does not taste infected.
6pm - Carboy on washing machine to agitate, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thoughts? Miracles? Criticisms?

Thanks, John

 

[Aleforge]

Wait, so things started off well but slowed down after only 2 days and you decided it was stuck? Maybe I am reading this wrong. If you had early activity with-in a few days of pitching you should of just left it alone for at least a week or two before checking the gravity. Once you got a few consecutive gravity readings a few weeks in then you can compare and see if it fermented down as low as it needed to.

This is a huge case of RDWHAHB. I would wait a few more weeks before giving up on it.

 

[Revvy]

I don't get why you think you had stuck fermentation...none of those readings indicate to me anything but normal fermentation....You brewed on Tursday and it is only Sunday and you're down to 1.020 that's pretty darn good...

Most of us wait a week to ten days before even taking the next gravity reading after the OG....And we're usually happy to see 1.020 after the first week....

Patience, patience...everything's fine.

The only thing I can see is that you panicked and re-pitched and added bru-vigor (whatever that is) when nothing was wrong....You didn't need to do that..

 

[jpgilman]

Thanks for the responses. I guess I made a mistake. I guess my memory is faulty, but I don't remember ever seeing a bubbler stop dead like this. I mean dead, dead, dead. No visible activity. I've watched for minutes. FWIW, I did call my LHBS and got their advice before I bought the Wyeast.

 

[Revvy]

Thanks for the responses. I guess I made a mistake. I guess my memory is faulty, but I don't remember ever seeing a bubbler stop dead like this. I mean dead, dead, dead. No visible activity. I've watched for minutes. FWIW, I did call my LHBS and got their advice before I bought the Wyeast.

The airlock should never be used as a sign of fermentation activity...it is too faulty of a design...to many variables come into play...from loose grommet, or bad seals on buckets, yadda yadda yadda...the hydrometer is really the only real way to tell...and like I said most of us wait at least a week before even taking one...

 

[paul_h]

What does the beer look like? Any krausen, foam, bubbles, yeast activity?
I agree with all the others, don't rely on airlock activity.
Are you using your old equipment? The seals might not be so good.
Dropping to 1020 in a few days is good, all my brews run for 2 weeks because I keep them at 16-18*C.
Just recheck in another 4 days.

 

[jpgilman]

Still has krausen and foam. No visible bubbles. Yeast still in suspension, but WB-06 isn't very flocculant so no surprises there. I am using an old drilled rubber stopper in glass carboy so it is certainly conceivable that co2 is venting around the edges.

 

[jpgilman]

I will report back with gravity on Thursday or Friday. Thanks everyone for talking me off the cliff.