Weyermans Amber LME stalled - reasons ?

[Bru]

Im an AG brewer but recently brewed at a friends place using Weyermans Amber LME. OG was 1.055, one sachet of US-05 was pitched. Its been 3 weeks and gravity is at 1.028.
Im assuming the cold weather we've had has caused fermentation to stall.
Is there any other reason anyone can think of ?
Im going to heat the beer to 68*F and it will hopefully get started again.
Im hoping the stalled fermentation has nothing to do with the amber LME.

 

[Bru]

Anyone ?
Does Amber LME behave the same way as a crystal malt ? In other words if you mashed with 100% Crystal 60, for example, your attenuation would be less than normal regardless of your mash temp because its not as fermentable as pale 2-row. Is Amber LME the same ?

 

[Clementine]

You can't mash Crystal Malts, in the making of Crystal malts they get the sweetness by mashing inside the grain, ie the get the green malt to mash temps so that the conversion takes place inside the grain then they kiln and lightly toast the grain to make the sugar caramelized (unfermentable) so there is no enzymes left to do any converting. I don't know the exact numbers but I would say 90%+ (if not 100%) of the sugar from crystal malts is unfermentable.

Amber DME will have some unfermentable components in it (as do all extracts) and it will be more than a light or pilsner LME but it is fermentable, it should only be a couple of points higher than the same recipe but with a light LME base. The Weyermann website does not give a lot of info but they say that it is made with Munich malt type I, which would result in a fermentable extract with just a bit of color.

I suggest you are stalled:

1) Did you aerate the wort, I have heard someone saying dry yeast does not require aeration (crazy talk, it is not as important as you pitch greater numbers when you use dry still required).

2) How cold is cold? if you are warming to 68 then it was definitely on the cold side of good. Try even warming to low 70s if 68 does not do it.

Clem

 

[Bru]

Thanks for the reply. I suspected it stalled. It was made at a freinds house and he left it to ferment in his shed. Temp probably got to about 43*F. I'll suggest he warms it up to get it going. Im an AG brewer, this was my first extract batch.
And BTW - you can mash crystal malts

 

[ArcaneXor]

And BTW - you can mash crystal malts

You can add crystal malts to a mash. But you can't mash them by themselves. No enzymes = no mash.

 

[Bru]

True...........

 

[Clementine]

And BTW - you can mash crystal malts

Sorry I did not mean you can't put them in the mash what I meant was there was no need for the enzymes to do any work as you are just leeching out the sugars that are already "mashed" in the crystal making process. In essence they are being steeped at the same time the rest of the grain is being mashed.

43 wow, that might have really put the yeast to sleep. I have read that some people have trouble waking yeast in beer that has got that cold. You might have to get a little aggressive in your rousing process. However start gently and get more and more aggressive on temperature and getting them off the bottom. Your SG reading is getting close so you don't want too much O2 to get into the brew or it will remain in there skunking the brew.

Clem

I was trying to figure what shed would get to 43 degrees this time of year and then I saw your location...

How were you able to figure out how to put your all-grain
equipment together?

Chris

Chris be nice.... oh hang on he is a Springbok fan go for it
Did I mention I'm an Aussie (for Americans reading this Kiwi's, Aussie's and South African's start wars over Rugby)

 

[Bru]

Aaaaargh lol
The main purpose of my thread was to establish if Amber LME is less fermentable. I obviously suspected the low temps caused it to stall.
Thanks for the replies all.
Clementine - didn't Samoa give you guys a hiding recently ?

 

[Clementine]

Come on that was our B or maybe even C side getting some pitch time.... now when the A side was out v the Springbok -> Does 39:20 mean anything to you.

Back to Beer, did warming it rouse it or are you going to have to get creative?

 

[Bru]

lol
We took a nailing from NZ on Saturday

I havn't spoken to my neighbour in a while. I told him to warm it up but hes been hectic with work so Im not sure what hes done (you can take a horse to water (beer) and all that...).