Stuck Fermentation or good to bottle?

dpsoccERIC22 · Sep 26, 2014

Hey Everyone, got a question. I brewed a smoked porter earlier this month and am wondering if you think I have a stuck fermentation or not. I'll admit at the end of the brew things got a little hepatic and I had to go somewhere so in the rush of things forgot to take an OG. That being said I did do an OG calculator and it said that my OG should be sitting around 1.063. It's been 18 days in the primary and has been sitting at 1.023 for at least a week. Being somewhat new i'm not sure if it needs to go more (it puts me at about 5.25% abv which i'm fine with and the flavor is really good (maybe too much cherry wood smoked malt but i'll tone it down it the next brew)). I used a wyeast Scottish ale 1728 smack pack with start, had good krausen and temp has been around 66 degrees, maybe going up to 70. So it boils down to: if you were in my shoes would you bottle, or re-pitch, or let it sit in the primary or maybe even move it to a secondary for a period of time. Thanks for any and all input in the matter. Cheers :mug:

flars · Sep 26, 2014

If you move a problem beer to a secondary you will have a larger problem. Was this extract or all grain?

dpsoccERIC22 · Sep 26, 2014

It's all grain. 6lbs cherry wood smoked malt 3lbs dark munich 1lb cara pils 1lb crystal 40L and 1lb chocolate malt. started with 6.5 gallons before the boil and ended with 5 (started with a total of 8 gallons of water)

flars · Sep 26, 2014

The unfermentable grains are a bit high. Efficiency could also have been low. Give it another week, no change in SG bottle.

dpsoccERIC22 · Sep 26, 2014

awesome, thanks for the input. that's probably what i would have ended up doing but it was good to hear from a more experienced source. And i do intend on changing the grain bill on the next brew. the flavor, like i said, is pretty close to what i was thinking it would be, maybe just a bit too much smoke. any suggestions for bettering the grain bill?

flars · Sep 26, 2014

dpsoccERIC22 said:
It's all grain.
6lbs cherry wood smoked malt
3lbs dark munich
1lb cara pils
1lb crystal 40L and
1lb chocolate malt.
started with 6.5 gallons before the boil and ended with 5 (started with a total of 8 gallons of water)

Not sure of the exact taste you are going for, but I would cut the cherry wood smoked malt by about 50% and add pale 2-row to keep the gravity you are looking for.

dpsoccERIC22 · Sep 27, 2014

I do want a little more of the smokey flavor to come through, which is why i decided to try 50% smoked malt on the first go. Hindsight is always 20/20 but the beer isn't ruined and should still be drinkable. maybe i'll take the smoked malt to 4 lbs go 3lbs 2-row 2lbs dark munich and keep the same 1lb malts.