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Stout Stuck @ 1.050

mcelvis

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I have an oatmeal stout that started @ 1.080 and after 7 days I racked it to secondary because it LOOKED like it was finished fermenting. I took a reading while racking and it was only down to 1.050, my target is 1.017. It's now been 12 days and I'm getting nervous. I'll take another reading tonight, but what should I do? Any help would be much appreciated.
 
are you measuring with a hydrometer or refractometer?

what was your method?  all grain or extract?  what yeast did you use?  did you make a starter?

might want to throw some dry yeast on top.
 
Using a hydrometer
Using the BIAB method
Used Nottingham (Danstar) Made a starter with 1/2c DME and 2c boiled H2O. I kept everything clean and brought temps down, starter seemed good.
 
only thing that i can pick out off the bat is that with a dry yeast, instead of making a starter, next time just rehydrate it: 

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html

...and don't take it off the yeast until you've taken a reading.
 
First off, don't worry. The beer is fine if your sanitation is solid.

Large beers can take up to 30 days to finish fermenting. The stall point is suggesting that the yeast stopped with the simplest sugars in the wort and you still have maltose left to go.

Since you already racked it, I suggest getting another batch of yeast. Got a brewery or brewpub in town? Go get at least a pint of slurry from them. If not, you'll need to build a new starter, but use some yeast nutrient in it.

The most common reason for beer to stall so early is that the cell walls of the yeast were not developed properly. With all beers, and especially high OG examples, lots of oxygenation is required. Even oxygenating 2 or 3 times at 4 to 6 hour intervals is helpful with beers at 1.080 and higher. Dry yeasts that have been subjected to time and heat can quickly consume their sterols and seem like their growing in a starter, when they are actually starving and not ready for making beer.

Starters should be made from malt and have some nutrient added. They should be aerated during the whole growth cycle.  Acetaldehyde smells like unripe apples and is the last thing made before yeast converts it to ethanol. So, if your starter smells of green, unripe apples, then you've successfully kept the yeast in its growth phase. 

Using canned malt syrups can be problematic because these have had a history of being "thinned" with adjunct sugars. It's going to depend on the manufacturer, though. The best bet is to either use a dry malt from a reputable source, or better yet, make your own.

 
Well the bad news is that there's no brewery within 1.5 hour drive from where I am.  Everything I get to brew with is ordered off the interwebs. I have a package of safale 05 in the fridge that I could pitch, or wait a week for some more of the Nottingham. I have some DME that I could use for a starter.
BTW, on my 1st starter I had a strong banana smell.  Is that a precursor to something off?
 
mcelvis said:
BTW, on my 1st starter I had a strong banana smell.  Is that a precursor to something off?

It's an ester from your yeast.

It *could* be a sign of yeast stress or mutation, since it's usually associated with wheat beer yeasts. Obviously, if your beer turned out perfectly, it'd be no cause for concern. However, just because you found it and the beer didn't finish, it isn't an automatic sign of a problem.

I would go ahead and start the S-05. Pitch it in at high krausen and oxygenate the beer. If you don't happen to have any yeast nutrient, but you do have some old yeast slurry, boil some of the slurry with the DME. The spent yeast will burst and become food for the S-05.
 
brewfun said:
Since you already racked it, I suggest getting another batch of yeast. Got a brewery or brewpub in town? Go get at least a pint of slurry from them. If not, you'll need to build a new starter, but use some yeast nutrient in it.

I actually was going to post about a similar problem. I made an imperial stout that has been in primary for 4 weeks and am concerned I'm stuck as well. My gravity isn't as high (1.032). It should be down towards 1.025. My O.G. was 1.086. I made a 1.5L starter, cold crashed and then decanted. Then pitched in another 1.5L starter (I made 2 starters because I was expecting better efficiency). My yeast was healthy and my sanitation practices are solid. I didn't think it was as simple as adding additional yeast.

brewfun said:
The most common reason for beer to stall so early is that the cell walls of the yeast were not developed properly. With all beers, and especially high OG examples, lots of oxygenation is required. Even oxygenating 2 or 3 times at 4 to 6 hour intervals is helpful with beers at 1.080 and higher.

Are you suggesting to add oxygen during fermentation? Or the starter? I use a stirplate with a foam stopper. And I aerate my wort via dumping through a funnel with a strainer so I would think it gets plenty of oxygen, right?

What exactly to do? I'm still on my yeast cake and I've thought about racking to secondary just for some form of agitation, other than rocking the carboy.
 
bobo1898 said:
I made an imperial stout that has been in primary for 4 weeks and am concerned I'm stuck as well. My gravity isn't as high (1.032). It should be down towards 1.025. My O.G. was 1.086. I made a 1.5L starter, cold crashed and then decanted. Then pitched in another 1.5L starter (I made 2 starters because I was expecting better efficiency). My yeast was healthy and my sanitation practices are solid. I didn't think it was as simple as adding additional yeast.

In your case, I don't think adding more yeast is the right course. You may have overpitched already, which can waste beer and use up limit nutrients, like zinc. The OP had only 3.5% abv, and yours seems to be about 7%; yeast can get sluggish or completely stop after 6%.

All I think you should do is simply roust the yeast and give it time. You're, within 1% abv of your target. Patience is your best tool, at this point.

Are you suggesting to add oxygen during fermentation?

No, once high krausen is reached, more O2 isn't what you want. What I suggested is multiple oxygenation intervals during lag and low krausen. I suggested oxygenating 3x at intervals no farther apart than 3 hours.

In your case, you beat that need by using the two starters. Once you have a full fermentation population, you're done.

I've thought about racking to secondary just for some form of agitation, other than rocking the carboy.

I think that's exactly what will help. However, don't expect the yeast to roar back into action. You'll likely just see a slow drop in gravity that'll take several weeks.
 
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