Stuck Fermention - Repitched. How long?

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bondra76

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I had a stuck fermentation with a gravity around 1.032 - pitched some SF-05 to get down to 1.013ish

How long would you say that I need to actually wait for the yeast to ferment and clean up? I've never had a stuck fermentation before and repitched. Do I honestly need to wait an additional 30 days?
 
What is SF-05? Do you mean US-05 made by Safale? How long is dependent on factors. What was the beer? A really big beer might be done at 1.032. What is the temperature of the beer? It should not have taken the original much more than 10 days to ferment, so you don't have to wait another 30 days. I would check it in about a week.
 
Just curious — What was the initial strain pitched?
 
Yeah it was Safale. It’s an IPA and I used a Wyeast Kolsh pack with a starter at I think 1500 or 1750 ml. The only thing I screwed up on is that I let the yeast settle in my starter and only dumped in the yeast slurry. That was probably my flaw. As far as the fermentation went I started around 55 and kicked it up to 65 over time. I just took the 1.032 reading and then repitched. Sounds like I’ll wait a week before cold crashing.
 
Yeah it was Safale. It’s an IPA and I used a Wyeast Kolsh pack with a starter at I think 1500 or 1750 ml. The only thing I screwed up on is that I let the yeast settle in my starter and only dumped in the yeast slurry. That was probably my flaw. As far as the fermentation went I started around 55 and kicked it up to 65 over time. I just took the 1.032 reading and then repitched. Sounds like I’ll wait a week before cold crashing.

You did not screw up the starter. That is a normal procedure when making starters. I usually don't want to add the starter "beer" to my wort. A starter usually has no hops and was fermented at too high a temperature to make good beer. So I cold crash it, pour off the "beer" and pitch the slurry. Pitching a starter at high krausen is a great method and I do that with small starters. - less than a liter.

Your stuck sparge could be that you fermented below the recommended temperature range. Making is slow, not stuck. (56 - 70) 65 degrees F is where I would have started.

A normal fermentation should take 3-7 days, Ten is often given as the long end. Then you want to give the yeast a few days to "clean" up after themselves. Some say this doesn't happen. I always ferment 2 weeks then feel it is ready to package. I usually procrastinate so almost all mine ferment a little, and sometimes, a lot longer.
 
When I pitched the Wyeast I started at 55 and eventually worked my way up to 65. It had petered out though.

I don’t think I was under temp based off Wyeast’s recommendations on temp off their own website (https://wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/kölsch). The listed range is 56-70. My only thought is that I was using the kolsch yeast for a “clean” IPA to accentuate the hops but maybe an IPA is too robust for kolsch yeast. I also didn’t cold crash my starter though. I took the starter right off my stir plate and then dumped off the beer and threw in the slurry. I’m thinking I lost some yeasties that were still suspended in that beer.

Anyways - lessons learned on the homebrewing adventure.
 
Not quite sure how you separated yeast from the starter beer without cold crashing. If it came right off the stir plate it would have all been mixed together.

Sounds to me like you poured off a good portion of the healthy yeast. Might be a combination of low temps, and not enough viable healthy yeast
 
Not quite sure how you separated yeast from the starter beer without cold crashing. If it came right off the stir plate it would have all been mixed together.

Sounds to me like you poured off a good portion of the healthy yeast. Might be a combination of low temps, and not enough viable healthy yeast

Yes, I get no "yeast cake" when using my stirplate. The yeast is mixed evenly through the whole starter so if the OP poured off 75% of the starter wort he effectively poured off about 75% of the yeast. 55 degrees is below the recommended range for the yeast so the cool temperature would certainly have slowed the fermentation but shouldn't have stopped it. I suspect it was a combination of the two that caused the problem.
 
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