damien5000
New Member
Hi all,
I've never had a stuck fermentation before, or one that has slowed down to a eternal crawl like this so i'm looking for some advice on what to do next - that is if i have to do anything. here's a run down of events....
On april 25th i pitched WY1007 german ale yeast in to a 5 gallon 100% munich malt wort. I actually pitched it a bit warmer than i think should have (78F), but it cooled down and fermentation went as usual, initially.
For the first couple days it fermented like crazy at 67-68F in the basement, as usual. A week later fermentation was slow. For the last two weeks the water in the airlock is always pushed up, and resetting it by pushing on the bucket lid confirms some fermentation is still happening. Though so slow I have never actually seen it bubble through or see it move. For the last week the brew has been upstairs at around 70-72F, but it is still fermenting extremely slowly.
Today for the first time i decided to check the gravity and i get 1.017 ! .OG was 1.050, and my target is around 1.010 or ~80% attenuation. And it tastes fine so nothing nasty is going on in there.
So, aiming for a dry beer i mashed for 45 minutes at 149F, allowing it to gradually come down to 146F. I then brought the temp up to 168F over 8 minutes to heat it up for the sparge and convert any remaining starches (i mash in a big pot on a gas stove). I didnt bother with any iodine test.
I poured the wort in to the bucket from 1-2ft height as usual to aerate it.
So does anyone have any thoughts on why this has happened? and how I should get things rolling again? Could the yeast be malnourished or something? Or is this normal for 1007 and i should wait it out?
thanks a lot
Damien
ps- i'm away from home tomorrow til friday, so it's going to have to do its slow fermention thing until at least then anyway. cheers.
I've never had a stuck fermentation before, or one that has slowed down to a eternal crawl like this so i'm looking for some advice on what to do next - that is if i have to do anything. here's a run down of events....
On april 25th i pitched WY1007 german ale yeast in to a 5 gallon 100% munich malt wort. I actually pitched it a bit warmer than i think should have (78F), but it cooled down and fermentation went as usual, initially.
For the first couple days it fermented like crazy at 67-68F in the basement, as usual. A week later fermentation was slow. For the last two weeks the water in the airlock is always pushed up, and resetting it by pushing on the bucket lid confirms some fermentation is still happening. Though so slow I have never actually seen it bubble through or see it move. For the last week the brew has been upstairs at around 70-72F, but it is still fermenting extremely slowly.
Today for the first time i decided to check the gravity and i get 1.017 ! .OG was 1.050, and my target is around 1.010 or ~80% attenuation. And it tastes fine so nothing nasty is going on in there.
So, aiming for a dry beer i mashed for 45 minutes at 149F, allowing it to gradually come down to 146F. I then brought the temp up to 168F over 8 minutes to heat it up for the sparge and convert any remaining starches (i mash in a big pot on a gas stove). I didnt bother with any iodine test.
I poured the wort in to the bucket from 1-2ft height as usual to aerate it.
So does anyone have any thoughts on why this has happened? and how I should get things rolling again? Could the yeast be malnourished or something? Or is this normal for 1007 and i should wait it out?
thanks a lot
Damien
ps- i'm away from home tomorrow til friday, so it's going to have to do its slow fermention thing until at least then anyway. cheers.
