Stalled Beer

[slobrien78]

Started a Porter on the 19th of this month. The first day it showed a small amount of fermentation but not nearly what I would've expected. Then it stopped. No Krausen nothing. So, after 3 days pitched a second yeast to see if that would get it going but nothing happened. At day 5 with no activity checked the hydrometer reading and got a 1.020. This seems a bit high and it didn't change overnight. Other than the seeming lack of fermentation the beer looks and smells just fine. I am not sure why the second pitch of yeast didn't do anything at all. Please note that I missed out on getting an initial hydrometer reading so I have no idea how much it fell but the directions say that the expected beginning gravity is 1.043-1.045 and the expected final is 1.012-1.014. So, I was going to put some coffee beans into a secondary to get a nice coffee porter out of this but now I am nervous that this beer is not working. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Does the current reading indicate that maybe the beer fermented enough? Thanks for any input!!!
Stacey

 

[bonzombiekitty]

1.02 is a bit on the higher end, but that's a common spot to stop at if you used extract. Depending on your recipe, your predicted FG may not be correct. If the gravity hasn't moved for a couple days, you're fine, go on to the next step.

SO it's a little high, but not at any point that you need to be concerned. A lot of my beers ended at 1.02, particularly my extracts no matter what I did, and they all came out just fine.