Second stuck fermentation in a row?

[JayEff]

Hello,
I seem to have encountered my second stuck fermentation in a row. My first beer started at 1.060, I used 2kg of extra light DME and steeping 150g CaraMunich I on 12 liters. I also used Irish Moss. Using Notty, it was calculated to end at 1.014 and is now stuck at 1.034 (Has been stuck for a good month now). Temperature was at 15°C for a week, then I let it rise, staying within the optimal temperature of the yeast.


My second started at 1.045, using 1kg of extra light DME, 500g of wheat DME and steeping 200g of CaraHell, also for 12 liters of wort. I also used yeast nutrient and Irish moss. Using US-05, it was calculated to end at 1.009 and is now stuck at 1.019. Here I might be overreacting, as it's only sitting at that gravity for 3 days. Temperature was at 16°C for 5 days, then I let it rise slowly, it's still below 22°C, the high end of the optimal temperature for US-05. I was planning to use its yeast cake to continue fermenting the first one, but this isn't looking good.

Both taste good, but due to my lack of experience I can't really tell if there's really that much residual sugar left. I've used two different hydrometers, both read 1.000 in plain water, I haven't tested the calibration for a second point.

What surprises me is that both beers apparently got stuck after fermenting 26 points of gravity.

I'm starting to think I might have misused the irish moss, maybe too much, or something... I certainly won't panic for my second beer too soon, but this is looking decidedly weird, so I wanted to ask: What do you guys think about this?

I'm considering to add some yeast nutrient and dextrose dissolved and cooked in water to both of them...

Perhaps I should dry hop the beers as planned, and then just bottle them as they are? But I'm so worried about bottle bombs...

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I've given your situation a great deal of thought. You must be doing something to kill off our yeast friends. These are some crazy suggestions, but in considering what you have done during your process, these are the kind of things I would look at. Way too much sanitizer got into you beer, especially bleach would kick yeast butt. Sitting your beer on the window sill. UV exposure is tough on little critters. A significant other that doesn't want your beer to succeed. It's honestly really hard to say, but something strange is going on. Watch some YouTube videos and see if you are doing something different then those brewers. Rehydrating yeast, letting it settle out and then pitching the liquid without the slurry. I know my suggestions may sound silly, but somewhere you are missing something important based on your numbers.

 

[arctic78]

I was getting fermentations stop at around the 1.020 - 1.016 with all my extract brews and it was very frustrating. I followed all the correct temps and times and even used pure O2 through a air stone to aerate the wort before pitching and still they always finished higher than expected.
I have since moved to AG a few years ago and I never had the problem again with my beers so not exactly sure what was going on. I did find some things through " The Gooogle " that talked about extract beers finishing high all the time but then again many others make great beers with extract and never have this problem.

Not helping you solve your problem I know but I did have the same issue when doing extract brews so keen to see what others say that may be able to help you with what could cause this. I say go to AG , If at all possible , It is not as difficult as I first though when I started and I found it way more fun.

Good luck.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

May be a long shot, but what are you using to measure your gravity?

 

[JayEff]

Thanks for your many replies!

You must be doing something to kill off our yeast friends.

I don't think so. I've already tried adding some sugar to my first stalled beer to give the yeast a little kick, and they fermented it out (Bubbling started, gravity came to rest at the same number as before). I did watch a bunch of videos and I can't see what I'm doing differently, but for rehydration, my last procedure was this:
Add yeast to a decent amount of warm water (Checked the temperature to be below 35°C) and let it settle for 20 minutes, then start swirling it gently for another 20 minutes or so to suspend all the yeast, then pitch in chilled wort at 18°C.

Way too much sanitizer got into you beer, especially bleach would kick yeast butt.

I use Starsan, and I let it drip out relatively thoroughly - I figure that the little bit that's left shouldn't be a big deal but perhaps I'll let it drip off more thoroughly next time...

I've got no SO, and my second beer was in the dark basement the whole time so far.

I have since moved to AG a few years ago and I never had the problem again with my beers so not exactly sure what was going on.

I might just try BIAB some time...

May be a long shot, but what are you using to measure your gravity?

A hydrometer, single point calibrated. First stalled beer was measured with one which broke so my second was measured with my newly purchased one. (No refractometer if that's what you meant)

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

What are you doing on the boil / steeping side?

 

[JayEff]

What are you doing on the boil / steeping side?

I only boil a very small amount, 5-6 out of 12 liters, and only for a short time, 15 minutes. Others claim to have success with this so I figure that's not my problem. For steeping, I keep about a liter or so at the recommended temperature, I believe I kept it between 150F and 170F the last time, steeping the grains for 30 minutes and then add that to my boil volume.

What if Brewers Friend considers much more of the DME as fermentable than there actually is? Perhaps the extract I used is old, or somehow has much less fermentables than usual... ? This would result in much higher FGs than the calculator predicts... But 1.035? that's a lot...

Edit: I just read here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=2757973&postcount=13 that spray dried DME is not supposed to be used as a sole source of fermentables because the spray drying process reduces the amount of fermentables significantly. This might be my problem, huh? I might just add a bunch of dextrose to raise the ABV to a reasonable level and bottle.