stuck fermentation

[mikerigger]

So I am doing the midwest brew's Old Castle kit. I did 2 weeks initially in primary and it has now been about 5 weeks in secondary. I have been checking the specific gravity for about 4 weeks and it has not dropped below 1.02. About 3 weeks The temp was about 68degrees so I moved it to a slightly warmer room to see if that would make a difference (it came up to about 72 degrees). After another week of no change I added another packet of yeast (safale dry british ale) still no change. I tasted it as well and it seems sweet. What should i do? I have one more packet of yeast, should I add it? Any prep before I put it in?

 

[tslayer]

What about giving it a shake to aerate and maybe add some sugar to see if you can kick start that yeast again? Boil the corn sugar and water first or maybe add honey or even Belgian candi sugar.

 

[Cimerian]

How about bottle it?

 

[Yooper]

No, don't shake it!

If it's at 1.020, that's simply done. Unfortunately, extract can be relatively unfermentable and stop at 1.020. That's happened to me more than once (or twice). Just consider it done, if the SG hasn't changed, and bottle it.

 

[tslayer]

Interesting..still learning myself but would it not be possible to get the yeast going again. Maybe raise the Alcohol level slightly. Especially if it is much sweeter than desired? Or after so long is that not possible?

 

[MrManifesto]

Interesting..still learning myself but would it not be possible to get the yeast going again. Maybe raise the Alcohol level slightly. Especially if it is much sweeter than desired? Or after so long is that not possible?

at this point, it probably isn't. adding more yeast probably won't help either, as it's now a relatively high alcohol and zero oxygen mixture. it might work if he made a big starter and pitched it and at krausen, but even then, it's a crapshoot. probably taste fine how it is, though.

 

[mikerigger]

Thanks for the advice. I am a bit new to the process. I have been kegging rather than bottling. I have an empty keg ready so perhaps I will just go ahead and keg it.

 

[Calder]

I don't know how far it has to go, but if you really want to try for more, you need to get a decent sized starter going and then add that to the beer. Just sprinkling on yeast is not going to do much since the environment is not very friendly to it.

 

[Reelale]

Yeast won't help if the only sugars contributing to the gravity are unfermentables. That was what Yooper was saying earlier.

 

[osagedr]

Next time don't rack it so soon--no need to.

Also create better fermentation conditions.