Stuck at 1.030: FG target 1.025?

[Frothymonk]

I'm brewing a clone of Gulden Draak using Wyeast Trappist high gravity. My O.G. was 1.103. After one week in the primary I transferred to the secondary and the S.G. was 1.035. One week later the S.G. was down to 1.030 and it has stayed there for a week. I have tried to raise the yeast to no avail. What can I do to reactivate the yeast?

 

[smagee]

What was your recipe? Which yeast strain? Did you use a starter? Sight unseen, one week primary for such a large beer seems like insufficient time, particularly if you didn't use a starter. Your fermentation might be done; 1.030 isn't really a terrible finish for a beer of that size, especially since it's only five points off. Admittedly not ideal, but posting the recipe may help identify potential factors.

 

[Crustovsky]

Only a week in primary? Probably shouldn't have racked it off the big yeast cake while it was still fermenting.

Repitch it onto another yeast cake if you have one at the ready. If not consider parking the beer in secondary for awhile until you do.

 

[Brewer3401]

Only a week in primary? Probably shouldn't have racked it off the big yeast cake while it was still fermenting.

Repitch it onto another yeast cake if you have one at the ready. If not consider parking the beer in secondary for awhile until you do.

Good thought. I go 12 days at 66 F with an OG of 52-58, the a diacetyl rest for 2 days at 72 F
I always get between a 10 and 12 for FG
Still, from 1.103 to 1.030 is pretty good.
I agree on the brite tank (secondary), just let it sit and let whatever yeast is still in there scrub out the diacetyl and nasties.

 

[janivar123]

What temp is it sitting on now?
might help if you get closer to 80f for a week(will still be slow sinse you removed all that yeast)
Or it might have reached FG already

 

[Tall_Yotie]

What yeast did you use?

I had an Imperial Stout with the same OG/FG target you had. It stopped at about 1.030 rather than 1.025, and I decided that it was already going to be sweet and probably got all the fermentables it could, so just let it be. Turned out great, second batch I did reached my expected FG.

 

[Frothymonk]

My recipe was
Grains
1lb. 65L German Crystal Malt
5oz Belgian Cara Munich malt
4oz Belgian Biscuit malt
2oz acid malt
Crushed and steeped in 1 gallon 150 degree water for 30 min and sparged with 1 gallon @150 degrees. Added to stockpot and boiled.
10.5 lb. Extra light DME
1 lb. wheat DME
1 lb. rice solids
1 oz Perle @7.7%AA
4 gallon boil for 45 minutes
_added 1/4oz of Kent Goldings
and 1 tsp. Irish Moss and boiled for an additional 15 minutes.
I cooled the wort to 73 degrees.
Pitched a half gallon of Wyeast Trappist High Gravity @ 73 degrees.
I placed it in a temperature controlled room which has stayed constant between 70 and 73 degrees.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

You might want to edit your recipe post. All it shows is 1lb of 65L grain. No extracts or other info.

 

[wyzazz]

My recipe was
Grains
1lb. 65L

Yeah, that's not going to help...

 

[beerkrump]

I wouldn't be too worried about it. Your talking about, what, a 4-5% difference in attenuation. That's to be expected. Let that puppy age and bottle it in a couple of weeks.

 

[Brewer3401]

1.103 to 1.035 is 64.03% ADF with 9.10% ABV

Anything that starts with that high of an OG won't get down to 1.010, unless you use a wine or champagne yeast.

Bad thing, is that it needs to age before you really know how it came out - give it at least 6 months - probably will taste really good after 12 months.

 

[GuldTuborg]

What DME did you use? As in, who made it? Different companies make products with different fermentabilities. Add over a pound of crystal malt, and you'll get less attenuation. At over 70%AA, you might be done, but you might not, either. Wyeast 3787 can sometimes take a little time to finish up at the end, I've found. Racking it when it was so far from your projected FG was probably a mistake.

 

[Nateo]

Unless you did one of these, you can only make a WAG about what the FG should be:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Fast_Ferment_Test

 

[GuldTuborg]

^^^ True, but if it's mostly extract, you should be able to make a pretty good guess based on the manufacturer's declared fermentability (taking into account other ingredients used). It's a slightly different kind of guess (it takes into account different variables), but it ought to get you in the ball park.

 

[Nateo]

In this particular case, 103>30 is 71% attenuation, and the target 103>25 would have been 75%. 71% attenuation is pretty good for a beer that big, and it's probably splitting hairs to compare the two. I'd say it's probably "done" and not "stuck."

I've found the most consistent way to brew Belgian beers with low FGs is to start with lower OGs. A lot of sugar helps too.

 

[Frothymonk]

Thank you all for the advice. I've sampled some of the wort used for hydrometer readings and it has good flavor. It hardly feels heavy or sweet at room temperature but I'm concerned this may not be the case at serving temperature. I still see some very minor activity in the secondary, but nothing through the airlock. I sterilized a hydrometer and placed it in the carboy to avoid continued infection risks from weekly hydrometer readings. Would any of you recommend adding a small amount of amylase enzyme?

 

[Frothymonk]

I used Breiss DME.

 

[Brewer3401]

Thank you all for the advice. I've sampled some of the wort used for hydrometer readings and it has good flavor. It hardly feels heavy or sweet at room temperature but I'm concerned this may not be the case at serving temperature. I still see some very minor activity in the secondary, but nothing through the airlock. I sterilized a hydrometer and placed it in the carboy to avoid continued infection risks from weekly hydrometer readings. Would any of you recommend adding a small amount of amylase enzyme?

If it tastes good flat, it will lighten up some when you carbonate it.

You dry hopping this puppy ?
Style highly hopped ?

 

[GuldTuborg]

Would any of you recommend adding a small amount of amylase enzyme?

Oh, man. If it tastes good, stop tooling with it. Don't fret over numbers. Sure, brewers know their metrics and such, but have you ever in your life heard a fellow brewer say "Wow, this beer is so good. I can really taste that 75%AA. And it finished at 1.025, right? Awesome." No, we don't ultimately like numbers, we like taste.

One more thing - beer tastes less sweet when carbonated versus when it's flat.