Repitching yeast to unstick fermentation?

[ReverendOwl]

I did my first BIAB last weekend, my OG was supposed to be 1054 but it came out at 1058. Two days after pitching, the gravity had fallen to 1036 so seemed to be chugging along nicely (I never really see airlock activity, I suspect by bucket has a dodgy seal, but the lid has been nice and swollen). Two days after that the gravity had only fallen to 1034 and now 6 days after that it's still not changed.

I think fermentation got stuck because it's impossible to keep a constant temperature in my flat, it gets so cold in the night. I'm going to invest in a heating belt and temperature controller this week to keep it constant. Should I also get some more yeast and repitch it or is this batch a write off? It's will have been stuck at 1034 for over a week before the heating and yeast will arrive, is it too late?

Any advise is greatly appreciated!

 

[day_trippr]

Chilling wort below the active range of the yeast strain used can definitely put them to sleep and stall the fermentation progression.
But, warm them back up to their Happy Place, and they'll almost always take off running again.

So you might want to hold off a second pitch until you get your heating solution up and running. The yeast will wait...

Cheers!

 

[HermannWeihs]

This happened to me today with two 7 Gallon batches... My temp controller was displaying a wrong temperature so they were for a week @42 ºF.
I will try bringing the temperature up as well and share my results.

If that doesn't work... can repitching yeast save my beer? I've never tried it, it's my first mistake of this sort.

UPDATE:
I adjusted the temperature to 60 F and the airlocks started bubbling like crazy... I guess it can work for you as well mate.
Cheers.

 

[pdxal]

Give it more time.
We really need more information on the beer, including grist, mash temperature, yeast, and fermentation temperature(s).
Are you checking gravity with a refractometer, by chance?

 

[ReverendOwl]

The heating belt has kept it a steady temperature, I roused the yeast bed multiple times, still no significant drop - maybe 2 points in as many weeks. Was 1032 last night but I repitched some more yeast (despite almost every article I read saying it probably wouldn't help) and it seems like it might be doing something, the bucket lid was all swollen this morning. I will take another reading either tonight or tomorrow.

I don't have the recipe to hand (on the train at the moment) but it was the Velveteen Chocolate Milk Stout from Dark Revolution Brewing at BrewUK. I also added orange zest in the boil as well as lactose sugar, but I checked with the people who made the recipe/beer and the FG on the recipe takes into account the unfermentables (although the orange was not in the recipe, I guess it's possible it could add some unfermentable sugars?)

I use a hydrometer for gravity readings. I checked it in water (tap) last night and it was out by 1 point, but it was tap water and so could be offset by chemicals, but either way it wouldn't offset it by the 15 points I'm missing!

 

[kristiismean]

Orange zest will not add much sugar if at all. Using orange in a recipe might not be a good idea. High in acid, but simple sugars..

 

[ReverendOwl]

Tested the gravity and still at 1032, if it's not moved by Sunday I may just dump it

 

[TomVA]

I would taste it before dumping. With a gravity drop of 26 points you should have 3.4% alcohol, which is in the style range for a stout.

TomVA

 

[JonM]

Unless you really need the fermenter space, brew another batch and try this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=72072

 

[kh54s10]

Taste it before dumping it. It might be high for final gravity, but it could still be good. I would also give it longer than this Sunday. So what has it been? About 17 days? I rarely even check on a beer in less than 14 days. I have had a few that seemed high at that point and just out of laziness I left them without doing anything, a week or two later they had dropped in gravity and were good.