Stalled Fermentation

[cjdubs66]

I'm brewing a dunkleweisen from a kit (brewers best) Being only the second beer I've brewed I decided to follow the 1 2 3 rule and racked a week after. OG was roughly 54 and FG is supposed to be 13-15. When I racked to secondary (over a week ago) the gravity was 21. Since going to secondary the gravity has not changed. The question is, is it worth going through the whole pitching process (also how do you do that really) or should I just let it run another week or 2 and see how it is and call it good. Not exactly sure what kind of yeast was originally used, I'm super new to this and already learning from experience, any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

[lumpher]

the first step to curing a stalled fermentation is to move it to a warmer place. yeast gets more active the warmer it is. also feel free to let the liquid slosh around in the bucket when moving it; it helps to redistribute the yeast and get it going again. when i'm moving mine to get it going again, i intentionally slosh it more

 

[TANSTAAFB]

+1 to warming and rousing. If that doesn't work you could try re-pitching (just rehydrate some dry and pitch) or adding some amylase enzyme (they should have it at your LHBS) which will chew away at a lot of the fermentables but will leave it pretty dry. Or you can just bottle and call it a learning experience.

You will find a lot of people advocate extended primary (3-4 weeks) and no secondary around here. I will let you read up on that and make up your own mind, but if you don't leave it that long, you should always at least take a hydrometer reading to see if you hit your FG before racking.

I guarantee there are a bunch of brewers around here who made a ton of Noob mistakes themselves...and the rest are liars!!!

Welcome to your new obsession

 

[cjdubs66]

thanks for all the advice. I just roused it and moved it to a warmer spot in my house. will update in a week or two hopefully with good news

 

[Calder]

Forget the 1-2-3 rule.

NEVER rack off the yeast cake until the beer has finished. You didn't give any temperatures, but if it got too cold for the yeast (and different yeast work at different temperatures), the yeast could have gone to sleep and dropped out of suspension, and when you racked the beer, you left all the yeast behind.

Sure there is still some yeast left, but it will get stressed very quickly with all the work it has to do.