Possible stuck fermentation?

[Jeeperforlife]

Ok all im on my first brew...an oatmeal stout. It is a MW kit that i ordered with the regular muntons dry yeast for simplicity sake. I just took my second gravity check...out of curiosity mostly, and on day 13 im at the same gravity as i was at day 7. My current gravity is 1.024. I wouldve thought at this point i would be somewhere near the desired final of 1.012 as stated by the kit instructions. Since day 7 i have swirled the fermenter a few times and moved it to a spot that hangs right around 68-70 deg constant. So, do i need to repitch, is there just that much unfermentable sugar in there, or should i just drink it as is? (it is quite tasty at this point!)
Thanks!

 

[Vuarra]

What was your starting gravity?

 

[Jeeperforlife]

1.059...high according to the recipe, which is why im wondering if i didnt somehow get alot of unfermentables in the brew? My steeping temp stayed at a pretty constant 155 as per the instructions

 

[GrizlyGarou]

1.059...high according to the recipe, which is why im wondering if i didnt somehow get alot of unfermentables in the brew? My steeping temp stayed at a pretty constant 155 as per the instructions

Have you calibrated your hydrometer? Did you correct for the temperature of the sample? Did you add enough top-off water?

If the recipe was a partial mash, then your gravity should be within a few points of what the kit says it should be, so I'd guess your hydrometer is off. Put it in some water (distilled or tap, the difference will be very small) and it should read 1.000 at 60 degrees. Mine's always been off by two points, I'd guess that the paper inside the tube can slide around a little. If it is off, no big deal, just add or subtract to get the right reading.

I just looked up your kit's SG, it looks like your hydrometer is reading high. Drop it in some water. I'm guessing it'll read about 1.013.

 

[Jeeperforlife]

Checked hydrometer after i bought it...its reading 1.00 deadnuts with boiled tap water at 68 deg...i figured that was pretty close

 

[GrizlyGarou]

Well, can't blame that then.

Did you add enough top-off water? I don't think you could have gotten an extra 13 points from steeping.

 

[Jeeperforlife]

I didnt necessarily just top off...when the recipe said to "squeeze the grain bag and discard" i squeezed, rinsed hot water over the bag, then repeated, to try to get out as much of the sugar as possible. The rinse water couldnt have been any more than 110 deg. I continued with this until i had gotten all that i could get out of the grain, then added water to the 5 gal mark

Could this process have added that much possibly unfermentable sugar to the wort?

 

[GrizlyGarou]

I don't think that could account for the difference in gravities, but I suppose it's possible. I'm sure somebody that knows more than me will come along soon enough and give you a better answer than I can.

I wouldn't bottle it yet, though. Let it sit for another week and see if anything changes. Try swirling the fermenter around a little to see if you can get some yeast back into suspension so they can do their job, too.

 

[Jeeperforlife]

Ok thanks for the adcive

 

[mparmer]

I'm still a noobie too, but I've had the same exact problem on 2 of my extract kits from MW with that Muntons yeast. The way I fixed it was pitching a pack of coopers in there. My beer finally hit FG and tasted fine. I'm sure there are other ways to fix it but, for me, I'll never pitch Muntons again.

 

[Jeeperforlife]

Update: Well it mouldnt move from 1.024 so i went ahead and bottled it. Seems to be carbed just fine and not building any excessive pressure so idk what happened really. My second brew is fermenting now, but i gave away the muntons and switched to US-05. This brew has had more vigorous fermentation and has already hit fg.
Lesson learned. Use good yeast.