New Guy, Porter Stuck at 1.040 after 3 weeks

[kiznile]

Hi All,

I started brewing less than a year ago thanks to someone who gifted me a brooklyn brew shop 1 g kit. I thought I'd try one last "refill" on this kit before starting a full blown 5g brew. I've never tried anything but all grain so far, so here goes.

Chocolate Maple Porter, ingredients supplied by brooklyn brew shop.

Followed the directions to a T, didnt miss a single beat.

OG was 1.060 or just shy of. Very agressive bubbling and good signs of fermentation for the first 48 hours or so. Left it alone for another two weeks, kept it in a dark room at 65*.

Tested at 14 days in and it was at 1.040. Roused the yeast, tried moving it to a dark closet that stays around 68*f and waited another week. Tested again today and it was still at 1.040.

I'm now 3 weeks in.

Questions:

1. What could have gone wrong?
2. What do I test now?
3. Should i transfer to another 1g carboy and pitch new yeast?
4. Am i over reacting and just be patient? (never had one stall like this)

 

[JLeuck64]

I haven't experienced having a batch stall like you did either. Typically what I experience is with a high gravity brew that starts in the 1.090 range and only drops down to the 1.030 range. What I do in those situations is pitch in some champagne yeast to let it finish. That might be overkill in your situation I would think... but I would definitely try re-pitching the same yeast strain used for fermentation again.

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Tested with what? Hydormeter or refractormeter? When alcohol is present refractometers don't give accurate readings at all.

 

[kiznile]

Fantastic, thanks for the feedback.

Firstly, I used a hydrometer to take the readings.

Now, next question:
Since I used a kit, the strain of yeast was not indicated. I have no idea what strain of yeast it was. I have some fresh SafAle US-05, would it be safe to use this?

Update: Only thing i did so far was try raising the temp a little and moved it to an even warmer room of the house, (around 70*F). If no results by Sunday or so, I'll transfer to a secondary and pitch new yeast.

 

[LostBoyScout]

Good plan on raising temp, that's often a good idea to help a ferment finish out. Hopefully it will be all you need, but US-05 seems to me a good plan B. You want to make sure you don't pitch a yeast with too high of attenuation or you'll dry your beer out too much too. I'm not sure what the attenuation is on champagne yeast but personally I wouldn't want more than 75% or so attenuation

 

[PeteNMA]

What does it taste like? It seems very unlikely that it's actually at 1.040 if your fermentation started

 

[z-bob]

What yeast did you use?

 

[kiznile]

No clue what yeast the refill came with. I keep getting free brooklyn brewshop refills from a friend. Comes with all the grains and yeast, but doesnt itemize it out. So i really dont know what yeast it is.

The beer is actually quite sweet still. It's definitely measuring 1.040 on the hydrometer after proper off gassing period.

This afternoons update: I went the lazy impatient route and just pitched the US-05 right on top without transferring off the old yeast. (It's a 1 gallon batch, not too worried about "screwing it up") I'll keep an eye on it through the weekend and I'll remeasure at that time. Starting my 5.5 gallon black IPA tomorrow so im really just going to focus on doing that one right.

 

[biestie]

Did you make a starter prior to the 2nd pitch of yeast? If not I don't think you'll have much success. I tried that along time ago, with US05 as well if I recall correctly. And it didn't do anything. I did a little research after the fact, and found out why. Beer that's fermented partway has little to no oxygen, and new yeast don't like alcohol either.

 

[kiznile]

Did you make a starter prior to the 2nd pitch of yeast? If not I don't think you'll have much success. I tried that along time ago, with US05 as well if I recall correctly. And it didn't do anything. I did a little research after the fact, and found out why. Beer that's fermented partway has little to no oxygen, and new yeast don't like alcohol either.

I did not..you make a great point..totally didn't even consider that.

I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. Lessons learned right?

 

[kiznile]

Bottled it a couple days ago now. Only dropped 3 priming tabs per bottle to try and prevent over conditioning if the FG really was accurate at 1.03.

No leaking or popped caps...

Fingers crossed!

 

[JLeuck64]

Kaboom....

Be afraid, be very afraid ) :

 

[passedpawn]

Did you make a starter prior to the 2nd pitch of yeast? If not I don't think you'll have much success. I tried that along time ago, with US05 as well if I recall correctly. And it didn't do anything. I did a little research after the fact, and found out why. Beer that's fermented partway has little to no oxygen, and new yeast don't like alcohol either.

I did not..you make a great point..totally didn't even consider that.

I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. Lessons learned right?

No oxygenation needed with dry yeast from a packet. Not a problem. Before the yeast is dried, they are imbued with all the cellular reserves necessary for growth phase.

 

[kiznile]

Kaboom....

Be afraid, be very afraid ) :

5 days now. No kaboom yet. Very little sediment from priming sugars and yeast floculating. Caps aren't even bloated. May have pulled it off lol.

 

[kiznile]

No signs of catastrophe yet. The cap popped up and crowned on my last failed batch. None of that.

 

[kiznile]

Alright, looks like a flop, def has some off flavors, not great. I'm gonna age a few in the closed and a couple in the fridge and see if any turn out alright