Stuck/stalling fermentation

[nessus]

I've been brewing now for the about a year doing all kinds of stuff but this really has me stumped.

I am attempting to make ~3 gallons of Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout clone with all grain.
I used:
9.5 lbs of 2-row pale
2.5 lbs of caramel 120L
.3lbs of lactose
and Columbus and horizon hops

Most importantly I used Wyeast American Ale #1056.

My OG was 1.11 (a little high for 1056) and right now it is stuck at 1.045. I was shooting for 1.03-1.025 FG. I repitched at 1.06 (what wyeast actually suggests to pitch at) and aerated it along with tsp of nutrient. It has been about two weeks since i repitched and I am not seeing any action in the airlock. The temperature I have been keeping it at is 75F. I know that the attenuation is about 77% and right now I am only at 48%

I was wondering what you all thought could be the problem. Is that too high for this strain of yeast? I was thinking of switching to wyeast 1272 to try and finish this through.

Cheers,
nessus

 

[midfielder5]

How many days of fermentation?

 

[duboman]

Have you taken another gravity reading to be sure it hasn't moved any further? 1.060 at repitch is not really an issue for 1056.

A bigger issue goes back to your mash. What temperature did you mash at? If your temperatures were too high during the mash you may have gotten a much less fermentable wort. In addition, 2.5lbs of caramel malt seems a little much and lactose is also a non-fermentable so those two things could be part of the issue as well as combined they are about 30% of the grist.

 

[nessus]

@midfielder it's been about 15 days.

I did my mash between 140-150. I had an efficiency of 70%. I have been checking the gravity over the past three days.

 

[DPBISME]

I have "failed" to put the top on the fermentor before and the presure never got high enough to bubble the Air-Lock... I actually have a Plastic Lid on another that never bubbles....

So open it up and look... or as advised above take a reading....

In every case but ONE my fermentation was going strong...

In the other case Nottingham on top of what was supposed to be a Hefeweisen... a day later it started and I had and English Wheat!

I have also brewed in the Winter where it got to cold for the big-blast of fermentation to kick off and have had to put the whole fermentor in the sink with hot water to get it started... (proabably not your problem)...

Only other thing I can think of is sanitizer in the wort...

 

[dcp27]

did you make a starter or just toss in a smack pack? 1.110 definitely isn't high for 1056 (can go up to 15%), but if you only used 1 pack you underpitched quite a bit.

if the brew doesnt continue to drop in gravity, you could try making a small starter with WLP099 and pitching that while its active, that stuffs a beast and should get you lower.

i would also strongly suggest reducing your ferment temp in the future. a beer this big and at that high of a temp has a strong risk of being full of fusel alcohol. also, unless its early on (<24 hours) or WLP099, i wouldn't ever re-aerate once fermentation has begun, you can oxidate (sherry, cardboard) your beer.

btw, you're at 59% attenuation, not 48%