Primary has not reached desired gravity, but has been steady for 3 days. Rack it?

[eddiek85]

I've been fermenting a Punk IPA clone for about 9 days now and I want to be at about 1.022, but have currently been steady at 1.030. Does this mean ferm is well done and I shouldn't bother trying to reach the target?

Here is a bit of additional information. I fermented for about 3.5 days and saw consistent bubbling. I then faced a scheduled power outage for my building. I prepped for this by taking 2 gallons of ice and placing them a few inches away from the fermenter which sits inside of a temp controlled freezer. I came home and noticed the technique worked pretty well, dropping the temp down to 15.5 (was trying to keep it at about 19 according to the recipe). After this, I noticed a dramatic halt in activity. A day went by and I didn't see any bubbling, but then a day after that I saw very minimal bubbling. About 1 bubble every few minutes. At this point I thought I would go ahead and record gravity for 3 days. It's been 3 days and now it's steadily at 1.030.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[mredge73]

Allow it to warm up a little more and see if it finishes out. Bring it up to 22-24C and see if activity picks back up.

 

[IslandLizard]

It certainly is not done at 1.030. The fermentation stalled (yeast went dormant) because of the low temps. As @mredge73 said, warm it up and leave it at that temp until it's really done. You may need to rouse the yeast (carefully swirl or stir) to coax it to resume fermentation. It may take another 2 weeks.

Should we assume your 1.030 is a hydrometer reading?

 

[mongoose33]

Allow it to warm up a little more and see if it finishes out. Bring it up to 22-24C and see if activity picks back up.

And if there's enough room in the carboy, you might try swirling it a bit to see if you can resuspend the yeast--might try that after raising the temp.

 

[eddiek85]

It certainly is not done at 1.030. The fermentation stalled (yeast went dormant) because of the low temps. As @mredge73 said, warm it up and leave it at that temp until it's really done. You may need to rouse the yeast (carefully swirl or stir) to coax it to resume fermentation. It may take another 2 weeks.

Should we assume your 1.030 is a hydrometer reading?

Thanks for the reply. No this was a Plato reading of 7.6 that I just used the conversion chart since everyone seems to use gravity. I'll raise the temp and give it a swirl. Should I be worried about Krausen stuck on the walls washing into the beer when I swirl the fermenter?


Thanks again all!

 

[IslandLizard]

Thanks for the reply. No this was a Plato reading of 7.6 that I just used the conversion chart since everyone seems to use gravity. I'll raise the temp and give it a swirl. Should I be worried about Krausen stuck on the walls washing into the beer when I swirl the fermenter?


Thanks again all!

What instrument did you actually use for the gravity reading? A hydrometer or something else? Some hydrometers have a Plato scale.

Some instruments (e.g., refractometer) don't read "gravity" correctly once alcoholic is present, and need a correction formula applied.

Any krausen remnants that make it into the beer is fine. Just don't scrub the wall. Be easy on the swirl, don't mix a load of air into it. If this is in a bucket and you've already lifted the lid to take your reading, you've lost the protective headspace CO2 already, you can give it gentle stir instead, bringing the yeast from the bottom back into the beer.

I've racked stalled beers into a keg, yeast and all. Purged headspace with CO2 to prevent oxidation, then rolled, shaken, and blown CO2 through the liquid out diptube once a day for a week to rouse the yeast in hopes of resuscitating it and knock a few points off. Mostly without the desired result, but occasionally yielding a happy surprise.

A repitch of a different, higher attenuating yeast at full krausen is the next step. Or enjoy the beer for what it is.