US-05 stuck?

[bransona]

Hi, everyone,

I'm a pretty new brewer and have recently used US-05 in two batches. The first is a chocolate peanut butter porter, the other a DIPA (single-hop equinox, YYUUUMMM). The fermentation seemed to take off in both of these with no problem whatsoever.

BUT...

9 days later---the porter (OG 1.072) has only dropped to 1.033, whereas the DIPA (in just seven days) has gone 1.082 to 1.015. I rehydrated the yeast in both cases, both in their own sterile wort and at the correct temperature. They've obviously been fermenting, and honestly, they're both pretty damn tasty! It's just so odd to see so little progress in the one that has had more time!

That porter was 2-row, crystal 20, caramunich 60, pale chocolate, and a touch of roasted barley. Mash temp was a very consistent 148-150. The PB2 and cocoa powder went into the last 5 minutes of boil. Temp control has been a swamp cooler ~64*, but I even moved it out of there for the past few days because the krausen (which was beautiful) was sticking around VERY persistently (moved into ~68* ambient room temp). I haven't wanted to rouse the container too much to wake the yeast up. It seems like US-05 is usually a beast, so I'm very surprised to see it stall out like this. This is the first gravity reading I've done, so it may not be indefinitely "stalled," but I thought after 9 days of good temp control that it would at least be down to 1.020.

Whaddaya think, guys?

 

[specharka]

My guess is your porter is done, not stalled...peanut butter and cocoa are not fermentable. What was your recipe? How much adjunct did you use?

 

[bransona]

My guess is your porter is done, not stalled...peanut butter and cocoa are not fermentable. What was your recipe? How much adjunct did you use?

In a 1.5 gallon batch---

2lbs 2-row
4 oz of everything I mentioned before
Also a half pound of oats
3oz PB2
.8oz cocoa powder

Mashed at 148 for an hour. Rehydrated us-05 in the wort and pitched at ~61, then fermented at ~64 ambient.

I know the oats and barley are also contributing to the SG now, but gosh, it just seems so high ._. It really does taste great though! I'm shocked at how well balanced it is for this recipe.

 

[dierythmus]

When I use US-05, I always use 2 packets for anything more than 1.070.

Not sure if this helps, just throwing my 2 cents in.

 

[bransona]

In this itty bitty batch, half a packet should be plenty. Half a packet certainly chewed up my DIPA into a delicious concoction

 

[specharka]

In a 1.5 gallon batch---



2lbs 2-row

4 oz of everything I mentioned before

Also a half pound of oats

3oz PB2

.8oz cocoa powder



Mashed at 148 for an hour. Rehydrated us-05 in the wort and pitched at ~61, then fermented at ~64 ambient.



I know the oats and barley are also contributing to the SG now, but gosh, it just seems so high ._. It really does taste great though! I'm shocked at how well balanced it is for this recipe.

Yeah, even with full conversion none of that adjunct is very fermentable. If you like how it turned out, that's great. Not every beer has to be a quaffer.

Next time you make it, just remember to limit the amount of adjunct you use -- 30% is very high, even for a sweet stout. In this case, high final gravity is indicative of wort fermentability, not yeast performance.

 

[bransona]

Ok, makes sense. Yeah, my first batches slowly went down in adjunct as I realized how little they needed, lol. This one is the third I made, and only the second I concocted from scratch. If I went back and did it again, I'd probably drop them all by half, roasted barley down to maybe just one ounce. The balance of flavor from the equal proportions of those specific malts is honestly pretty nice, and not as sweet as you would think. I'll keep that balance but let it be a little drier.

Could I theoretically make a robust porter from basically this recipe, but up the 2-row by a pound? Since I like the flavor, yknow?

 

[hanuswalrus]

Did you aerate/oxygenate both batches the same before pitching the US-05?

 

[bransona]

I certainly did. The fermentation was beautiful on this one. I'm with specharka after realizing how much adjunct I used.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Yeah, must be the adjuncts. The aeration thing was the only question I didn't see asked above so I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[dierythmus]

In this itty bitty batch, half a packet should be plenty. Half a packet certainly chewed up my DIPA into a delicious concoction

Doh. You're right. I didn't even notice the batch size.

 

[bransona]

Yeah, definitely a solid guess. I use pretty big buckets though, so aeration has yet to be an issue (I just shake to aerate, and there's always lots of air in there). And yeah, 5.75g of yeast always does plenty for me lol

 

[davidst]

In a 1.5 gallon batch 1 packet of US-05 is more than enough and I doubt you'd even have to rehydrate it. I'm brewing a beer with cocoa and lactose and I expect a high final gravity also, I'd say that if the hydrometer readings don't change a few days apart, you're probably done.