Stalled Fermentation? WLP-017 Whitbread Ale in Special Bitter

[jmitchell3]

Hey all. Wow, this is the first time in 50 batches this has happened.

Have a special bitter mashed at 151F, with yeast nutrient and O2 added - OG 1.044. Pitched single purepitch pack of white labs wlp017 (manufacture date 4/28/16). Had airlock activity within 12 hours. This was thursday night brew.

As of now the gravity has not changed since last night and sits at 1.025 (estimated FG 1.013).

Any thoughts?

 

[jekeane]

I have used 017 6 or 7 times and have had it crap out on me twice. I think both times I caught a lower temp because it was to cold outside and I didnt have a heat source. I roused it one of the times by swirling and warming it up.

I think it's just a finicky strain. I have a pack of it in the fridge to do a side by side with 002 sometime soon.

 

[pdxal]

So, after 3 days only down to 1.025? Be patient.
That said, are you checking gravity with a refractometer? If so, it needs to be corrected after fermentation.
If not, wait longer, rouse the yeast, warm up the fermentor, and wait longer.
Let us know how it is doing after 2 weeks.

 

[jmitchell3]

Yeah began ramping the temp when it dropped below 1.030. Started at 66, ramped to 68, then 70 last night. It has dropped another 5 points in the last 36 hours but just slowed to a crawl. Looks like itll eek out the last 10 points but may take a while. Most fermentations ive had with other strains are pretty steady workers. They do slow after 50% or so but this one is like it has hit a brick wall. First time with this strain so its a learning experience for sure.

 

[jmitchell3]

been at 1.020 for almost 2 days now. I'm not at all happy with this yeast.

 

[CraptainWirtz]

Have you tried swirling your fermenter to get the yeast back in suspension?

 

[jmitchell3]

Still had krausen! I pitched a pack of t58 wednesday afternoon and its come down from 1.020 now to 1.015. Still well above target fg. We will see if it comes down more this weekend otherwise im gonna swirl.

 

[jmitchell3]

Well it finished up about 5 days after the second yeast pitch at 1.012. Gonna keg it up today. Glad i pitched more yeast, but curious if it would have attenuated without. Cheers!

 

[WilliamH]

I'm actually having this same issue with 017 right now too. OG was 1.047 and it's been sitting at 1.018 for about a week. I pitched the yeast about two and a half weeks ago and saw activity in less than 12 hours. Things seemed to be going great.

Really disappointed. And this whole time the krausen hasn't gone down at all.

Glad I found this thread though. Think I'll make a stater with another yeast and dump it in tomorrow. Bummer. I had high hopes for 017!

 

[jmitchell3]

if krausen hasn't gone down it may not be done. Dunno if its just a slow finishing yeast or what. I just pitched the T58 and it seemed to finish it out. Beer turned out great!