Pumpkin Ale Stuck?

[finny13]

Hey guys. Brewed up AHS pumpkin ale kit last week. Everything went smooth during the brewing process. I pitched some windsor dry yeast and let ferment in the primary for a week before racking to the secondary for another week.

My original gravity according to the kit should have been 1.052. It ended up being 1.058 probably because of the 60 oz of pumpkin that was added to the boil. When i took my final gravity reading this morning it had only fermented down 1.024. According to the kit I should be down to around 1.013. Even taking into account I started off a bit higher originally I'm still a bit off.

Should I let this sit a few more days and check again or should I just bottle it? If i did bottle it today would I run into some un expected flavors or would I just end up with a weaker ( around 4.5%) pumpkin ale?

Thanks!

 

[BillyBroas]

It may not be done yet. Have you taken multiple gravity readings over consecutive days? That's the only way to know if fermentation is complete - when the gravity remains the same for a few days. If you only took one reading, you maybe have just tested it at 1.024 while it was on its way to 1.013. What temperature are you fermenting at?

If you bottle it now and it's not done fermenting, you risk exploding bottles. You also want to give the beer time after fermentation to clean up off-flavors.

Finally, I'd recommend leaving the beer in the primary for more than a week before transferring, and consider no secondary at all.

 

[finny13]

i fermented in the primary and secondary both at around 66. It was the first gravity reading so Im going to let it sit till the weekend and then take another and hope it drops about 8-10 points. if not I may have to get something to kick start it.

 

[cactusgarrett]

I think Windsor is famous for finishing high. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you were done at 1.024. It'll also depend on mash temp and grist (specifically the amount of unfermentables).

 

[BillyBroas]

yea take some more readings. Also put it somewhere warmer if you can, in the 72-75 range. That may kickstart it, and you don't have to worry about off flavors because those would have been produced during the very early parts of fermentation. The warmer temps later on are actually good for cleaning up byproducts.

What cactusgarrett said may be true though. I've never used it, but it looks like other people have gotten very low attenuation. It could be done.

 

[PassionBeer]

I brewed the Pumpkin Ale recipe from AHS and mine got stuck at 1.020. I left it in the primary for two weeks, racked to secondary for two weeks and took a gravity reading before I bottled -- it dropped to 1.012. It seems it was all patience.

 

[finny13]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Im gonna let it sit for another week. Just got a little scared this morning when I thought it was stuck. Thanks!