Old kits and a stuck fermentation

[CoolKats&Kolschs]

Hey everyone,
I had a question to put out there about my old brew kits.
I just started brewing again and had 2 old brewing kits that I never got around to making (about 6 years old). I figured I’d still try to turn them into beer. The American pale ale came out more like a brown ale but was still pretty okay.

I have a Belgium triple that’s been Fermenting for 2 weeks (one week in the primary with a lot of action for the first 4 days). It hasn’t been doing much in the secondary fermenter and the Current Gravity has only dropped a .001 in 6 days. OG 1.086
Current Gravity 1.030
Kit says FG should be 1.017-1.020

sugars were old but yeast was new and did great for 1st 4-5 days. Don’t know if it’s worth trying to get down to the 1.020 FG or just keg it and call it a beer. (And burping on occasion to prevent excess pressure)

 

[RPh_Guy]

What yeast did you use? Not all strains have the same attenuation.

Check out the troubleshooting section here and see if anything jumps out at you:
https://***************.com/wiki/Stuck_fermentation

 

[CoolKats&Kolschs]

What yeast did you use? Not all strains have the same attenuation.

Check out the troubleshooting section here and see if anything jumps out at you:
https://***************.com/wiki/Stuck_fermentation

It was the same strain that came with the original kit. So I would assume they would have supplied one that should work with the 8.5-9% that it should be. I just looked at the paper that it came with but it didn’t specify. I’m going to let it keep going til the weekend. I’ll keg it, carbonate it and see what happens. Not optimistic because of the age of the ingredients

 

[Calder]

Are you checking gravity with an hydrometer or a refractometer? It is probably a stuck ferment, but in a lot of cases where people report FGs around 1.030, it is because they are using a refractometer and do not correct for the alcohol, and the actual FG was a lot lower.

 

[CoolKats&Kolschs]

Are you checking gravity with an hydrometer or a refractometer? It is probably a stuck ferment, but in a lot of cases where people report FGs around 1.030, it is because they are using a refractometer and do not correct for the alcohol, and the actual FG was a lot lower.

I am using a hydrometer. The alcohol is about 7.6% right now. I’m debating wether to pitch some more yeast that can handle the current abv and get it up to the desired 8.5-9% according to the kit

 

[RM-MN]

Fermentation temperature has a bearing on what the final gravity turns out like. If you have been keeping the fermentation temperature low like you should for the initial ferment the yeast might have just went to sleep. Warm the beer for a few days and see if you woke them up.