Stuck Fermentation on a BDSA

[beerrepository]

So I am doing a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. Fermentation started off well, had to put a blow off tube on, life was good. I missed my target when mashing, so I added some DME, started moving again, things were good. I made one last sugar addition, both for points and to dry it out. It's been 19 days and I just took a gravity reading and it is at 1.072. So I am guessing that it is stuck. I have been swirling it periodically to try and rouse the yeast, but I haven't seen any action happening in the fermentor.

Now I would gladly repitch some yeast, but there is a problem. The yeast I decided to use is from a bottle of Noir de Dottignes. I built up over a half gallon for a starter, but apparently I should have gone bigger.

So now my question is, will I have problems pitching another kind of yeast? All I have on hand at the moment is WLP005 which is completely off style. Thoughts?

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Wlp530

 

[r_flagg]

What was your starting gravity? What yeast did you use? Did you add table sugar or candi sugar? Did you account for the additional rise in gravity from your new additions? Temp. of fermentation? I made one with 1388, same vigorous start, began at 1.090 and I transferred at 1.024. Finished at 1.018 even after the transfer, but it did take a couple months total to get down there. Need more info...

 

[beerrepository]

What was your starting gravity? What yeast did you use? Did you add table sugar or candi sugar? Did you account for the additional rise in gravity from your new additions? Temp. of fermentation? I made one with 1388, same vigorous start, began at 1.090 and I transferred at 1.024. Finished at 1.018 even after the transfer, but it did take a couple months total to get down there. Need more info...

Starting gravity was 1.068, with DME and Table Sugar, should have bumped up to 1.086 if I remember correctly, don't have BTP in front of me.

Yeast was harvested from a bottle of Noir de Dottignes, made a 1/2 gal starter. Temps have held steady around 62-64.

I guess I will keep checking it to see if it steady or continues to slowly drop. I will keep rousing it as well to make sure the yeast don't settle.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

I made a BDSA with I can only guesstimate my OG at 1.086 from my calculations, but I hd a great fermentation, and added 2.5 lbs of turbinado syrup I made at about day 5 (when fermentaion slowed).

I like to add the simple sugars in the rimary after the brunt of fermentation has been done on the more complex sugars. A slowed, stalled, or stuck fermentation can occur if you add a high amount of simple sugars to the boil. Yeast will chew through the simple sugars first,and once they get to the more complex sugars they get lazy.

I had an attenuation of about 79% with WLP 530. The beer was a hair over 11%, and my only complaint eas that it was slighty alcoholic with a warm burn that I liked, but would have been much better if I would have added some oak chips.

Regardless, keep an eye on it, and if the SG fails to fall toss some WLP530 in there, you won't regret it.

 

[r_flagg]

Starting gravity was 1.068, with DME and Table Sugar, should have bumped up to 1.086 if I remember correctly, don't have BTP in front of me.

Yeast was harvested from a bottle of Noir de Dottignes, made a 1/2 gal starter. Temps have held steady around 62-64.

I guess I will keep checking it to see if it steady or continues to slowly drop. I will keep rousing it as well to make sure the yeast don't settle.

Well, looks sound. You may try raising the temp a bit if possible. Hopefully it's just sloooow and you'll see more attenuation over time, but if it's been at the same gravity for more than a few days, you may want to pitch a fresh pack of yeast on there. If the bottle you got was sitting in that cooler for a while, you may just have old yeast on your hands.

 

[beerrepository]

The yeast seemed to do well in the starter, but it could be old. Looks like I need to pick up some more yeast so I can repitch

 

[GuldTuborg]

If it's been stuck multiple days at 1.072, I don't think the yeast is very happy. At 62-63F, they're pretty chilly; I'd get the fermentation temp up to at least 68-70F. It's also possible that harvesting yeast out of an aged 9% beer that's been shipped halfway around the world is just netting you very little. Did you step up the starter and give it adequate time for reproduction?

 

[Calder]

My bet is the temp is too low. Is the 62-64 the air temp, or wort temp? You got a lot of activity at the start because the yeast were self heating, but as they got through the sugars, they cooled down; that and the alcohol have resulted in them struggling. Warm it up. That yeast is the Orval strain, Orval pitch low, due to the self heating of the active yeast (they don't want it to go too high), but finish off in the low 70s.

 

[beerrepository]

I stepped up the starter over a couple of days. I started with the Palmer recommended ratio of 1 pint of water to a 1/2 cup DME. Then I added additions equal to that over the next 5 days, swirling the growler I used every chance I had. There was definitely reproduction but maybe not enough for that yeast, which would make sense

 

[beerrepository]

Just to update, I pitched some Wyeast Abbey II yesterday and things look great today. Nice krausen formed and plenty of activity through the blow off tube. Hopefully the two half gallon starters will be able to finish the job.

Also a few days after I posted this, I took another reading and the gravity had actually gone up. Weird.

 

[beerrepository]

This is the fermentation after 48 hours. It is going crazy. There is about a half inch layer of yeast in the bottom of the growler. Really glad I put a blowoff tube on this one or it would have been a crazy mess.