this yeast has no appetite, it seems

[Ambrozyne]

Hi,
Hope I can get some advice on this:
I made a batch of simple extract beer almost 20 days ago now. Fermentables: mostly LME(5.5 lbs), some crystal(not really a fermentable, I know) and 300 grams(10 oz?) a maltodex/dextrose mixture. I left the wort to cool overnight and pitched S04 the next day after aerating what I thought was well enough. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't. Temp was 77 F. @ pitching.
Fermentation took almost 3 days to take off. That's nothing to worry about, so I've read, but fermentation has been real sluggish all along. Never vigorous, as some people claim S04 ferments. OG was 1051. After 18 days it was still at 1021. Still some bubbles but gravity didn't drop anymore. I agitated the fermenter a couple of times and pitched an extra sachet of Muntons I had, just to see if I could get it to go a couple points down. Nothing happened. So, I guess I'll have to settle for a somewhat sweet beer this time. That's O.K. The sample I took tasted pretty good so I'm ready to bottle it if it doesn't budge anymore and as soon as it clears up a bit.
My question is this: seeing that my yeast hasn't got any appetite for the sugars that are still left in my wort, will they consume the priming sugar I intend to offer them at bottling time? Iow, will this beer carb in the bottle?
What do you guys & girls think?

 

[Piratwolf]

Your priming sugar is likely exactly what your yeast want. Looking at your recipe, it's not that your yeast lack appetite--they lack digestible food! LME can often end up finishing high on it's own, but then you added two sources of long-chain sugars that most beer yeasts have trouble with.

My advice is to keep calm & prime on

 

[Ambrozyne]

Thanks Piratewolf,
You say I added two kinds of long chain sugars to my wort that yeast have trouble with fermenting. I take it you refer to the maltodextrine and dextrose mixture I added? But isn't dextrose just what I will give to my yeasties at priming time?

Edit:
Sorry for the name mistake, Piratwolf!

 

[Piratwolf]

I was referring to the crystal malts and what I thought was Dextrine (carapils) because I didn't read closely. You're right about the dextrose! My bad.

The chief issue, though, may be the LME. Apparently there is a common issue with it stalling out around 1.020 or so.

 

[Ambrozyne]

Well, I bottled my slightly underattenuated batch of LME beer (FG1020)on October 20th. I still had 22 carb drops left that I used on 11 of my coopers pet beerbottles(740 ml). 11 x 740 ml = 2,15 gallons. After bottling those and marking them with a sticker I still had 2.7 gallons beer left.
These I primed with 2.6 oz. of dextrose (soluted in boiled water, stirred well) and bottled in 14 x 740 ml pet beerbottles.
Now, after only 4 days both are carbing up nicely but the bottles I primed with dextrose, not the drops, are noticably harder. It's already difficult to push a dent in those pet bottles with my thumb. Did I make a mistake and overprimed with the dextrose? I thought 1 oz per gallon was kind of standard practice? Not taking into account carbing to style which is still beyond me...
Any thoughts? Please put my mind to rest!