Stuck Fermentation US-05

[sicktght311]

Never had this happen before in the barrels and barrels of beer i've brewed over the past 5 years, but my cream ale fermentation seems to have stuck. Its a base recipe i've brewed many times before and never had a problem reaching my final 1.008-1.010 final gravity. I'm currently around 60% attenuation which is super low for US-05. I typically keep my yeast packets in the freezer, and let them warm up naturally over the course of my brew day, and never had any problem with viability from this practice. I sprinkle dry. Probably should have looked at the date on the packet. It was from Amazon, so its possible the yeast was really old and expired, but the first couple of days took off like crazy so i would think it was viable. Dropped from 1.047 to 1.028 in 2 days

Starting gravity - 1.047
Current stuck gravity - 1.016-1.018

65% 2 row
25% Flaked Corn
10% Flaked Rice
8oz Cocoa powder
Mash Temp of 152 (herms controlled)
1x packet of US05 at 67 degrees (glycol controlled) for the first 4 days, then 72 for day 5, now up to 74 to try to finish fermentation

This is supposed to be a Cherry Chocolate cream ale, so even with an addition of 24oz of Tart Cherry Concentrate Juice at day 5 of fermentation, its still stuck. I added the Tart Cherry at 1.018 and i'm stuck here hovering between 1.016 and 1.018. I figured the sugars in the juice concentrate would kick up fermentation and dry it out, but hasnt at all. Bumped fermentation temp up to 74 degrees last night to try to squeeze the last few points out, so we will see what its like at the end of today.

 

[Ridenour64]

The one time I had a batch come out with a FG that was way too high was the result of an uncalibrated dial thermometer on my mash. Mashed way too high.

 

[sicktght311]

The one time I had a batch come out with a FG that was way too high was the result of an uncalibrated dial thermometer on my mash. Mashes way too high.

Normally mash temp would instantly be something to blame, but i'm PID temperature controlled, with a probe at the herms coil exit back into the MT, a probe at the MT exit, and an analog thermometer in the side of the mash tun. So i'm confident my mash temps were accurate

 

[sicktght311]

Well its been stable at 1.016. Turned the temp up to 74 to see if i can squeeze a couple extra points, burped co2 through the dump port to stir the yeast up, all to no avail. Guess this one is staying at 65% attenuation. I'll chalk it up to a packet of under viable yeast. Expiration date was 09/2022 on the packet, so it wasnt necessarily old.

 

[Falstaff]

Don't mess with it too much. Might not be as low as you want but you've definitely made beer. People are probably sick of seeing my post this but once it's below 1.02 then you are in the "finished" range imo. Yeast is just fickle sometimes.

 

[ncbrewer]

Don't mess with it too much. Might not be as low as you want but you've definitely made beer. People are probably sick of seeing my post this but once it's below 1.02 then you are in the "finished" range imo. Yeast is just fickle sometimes.

It makes me nervous when it doesn't ferment out like I expect, because I bottle condition. If it starts back up after bottling, you could get bottle bombs. I raise the temp and give it lots of extra time, then make sure gravity is stable.

 

[Falstaff]

It makes me nervous when it doesn't ferment out like I expect, because I bottle condition. If it starts back up after bottling, you could get bottle bombs. I raise the temp and give it lots of extra time, then make sure gravity is stable.

Yeah I get that. Bottle bombs concern me too unless I drop down to 1.0.

 

[sicktght311]

Looks like after sticking at 1.016 for 3-4 days, i cold crashed, and now i'm at 1.014. Weird. Leaving it cold crashed for a little while longer to ensure its done, and it drops clear, then i'll keg it and call it a day. Still only got about 70% apparent attenuation

 

[Protos]

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