Stalled fermentation?

[The_dude_]

Ive been stuck on where to go next for a few days here. I'm brewing an ipa that I started February 4th with a starting gravity of 1.084-1.088. I hit 1.090 with a hair over 5 gallons on a full boil. Pitched 2 white labs English ale at around 70-72 degrees. No activity for three days at 67 degrees, then had massive fermentation for 3-4 days. At about 6 days into fermenting the basement got down to 58 degrees during a cold spell, so I moved fermenter upstairs where it's been at about 65 degrees. Have now been stuck at 1.030 for about a week. The recipe shows I should be at 1.018-1.021. Any help with my next step is very much appreciated, this is my first time not hitting FG and am in need of some ideas. I do have some dme, safale-us05, and 2 white labs California ale yeast tubes. Not sure if it's too late to pitch a little more yeast. Here is my recipe.

8 lbs light dme
3 lbs light lme
1 lb Vienna malt crushed
1/2 lb carapils malt crushed

.75 oz galena 75 min
.50 oz galena 60 min
.50 oz Columbus 30 min
1.00 oz warrior 15 min
1.50 oz columbus 5 min
1.50 oz citra 1 min
2.50 oz citra dry hop

Thanks again.

 

[Copbrew133]

You pitched what appears to be an inadequate number of yeast cells. According to the Brewers Friend calc. If the viability of the yeast was 100&, which it never is by the time we get it, you would have needed upwards of 400-500 billion cells roughly for the high gravity ale. You pitched at best 200 billion depending on "freshness" of the yeast. At this point you could try to warm it up to say 70-72 ish and gently swirl the fermenter, w/o splashing, to try to get the yeast active again or most likely you're going to need to repitch more yeast in the form of a strong and active starter or you could try the rehydrated packet of Us05. The ABV your at is just under 8% so the yeast is going to need to be healthy and kicking some butt when it goes in there to try and finish up. If all else fails taste it. If it doesn't taste too sweet just go with it.

 

[agrazela]

Looks to me like your grains were simply steeped for flavor, not mashed, because they don't seem to contribute much to the gravity based on my calculations. Is that correct? If so, I'll assume you are an all-extract brewer?

(My calcs also put you at somewhere around 75-80 IBU.)

Anyway, virtually 100% of your points are coming from extracts. In a high gravity, kinda long-boiled (75 min) beer like that, I'd be surprised if you got better than 67% fermentability (which is what you got), especially considering the probable underpitch (as described by previous poster). Even "best case" (moderate gravity, proper pitch rate), extract is going to have a fermentability of not better than ~75% in my experience.

So as I see it, your options (some of which were already outlined by previous poster) are:

1) If it doesn't taste too sweet to you, go ahead and dry hop and bottle it as planned.

2) If it is too sweet (and I'm guessing it is), warm it, swirl it, let it ride another week or two, and hope for some more fermentation (IMO, unlikely to work, as your yeasts are pooped)

3) Number 2 above, but with a yeast re-pitch (IMO, a bit more likely to work, but only a bit! Your "easy" sugars are already gone)

4) Number 3 above, but also adding in a bunch of dextrose (up to 1.5lb, boiled into 1.5-2 cups water and cooled) to try to "kick-start" a second fermentation (IMO, could work, but you'll still likely end up around 1.030 FG, and now you're up to ~1.100 OG and down to ~70 IBU)

5) If you have the capacity (e.g., current beer is in secondary and a primary is available, and you've got enough bottles), brew up a well-pitched extract/dextrose "blender" batch--probably aiming for OG ~1.050 / FG ~1.010 / ~50-60 IBU, ferment that out, blend them in the bottling bucket, and wind up with a "double batch" of something approximating OG ~1.070 / FG ~1.020 / ~60-65 IBU / ~6.5% ABV (This gives you a completely different beer than you were planning of course, but it will definitely work)

6) Standardize in your bottling bucket with about 1.5 gal boiled/cooled (to eliminate dissolved oxygen) bottled deionized water, winding up with ~6 to 6.5 gal of something approximating OG ~1.070 / FG ~1.023 / ~65-70 IBU / ~6.1% ABV (Also gives you a completely different beer, but again will definitely work and is probably your best bet if you don't have the capacity to do a "blender" batch, or if you want to get this thing bottled ASAP)

(In my limited experience, you are asking a lot of all-extract when you go above OG ~1.060-1.070, even with some simple sugar adjunct; IMO, a 90-pt, all-extract, no adjunct pale ale/IPA has almost no chance of winding up at an acceptable FG, perhaps unless massively overpitched)

 

[The_dude_]

Thanks for the replies. I had never even considered the last couple of options. I'm thinking I may get the fermenter back up to 70 degrees if I can, rehydrate my safale and pitch it into warmed fermenter. If that doesn't work I'll bottle it and consider it a learning experience.