Bah!!!!! Another stuck at 1020!!!!

[puravida]

I posted a couple of weeks ago as my last two brews had both stuck at 1020.
Both different beers and different SG.

I thought the answer was lack of aeration of the wort so the next batch was shaken to within an inch of its life for a good 5-10 mins.

Just racked to the secondary and taken the gravity and it's at f****ng 1020 again!!! :evil:
(excuse my french)

What is killing me is everything is the same as many brews I have made in the past - same grain, same brew method, same yeast, same FV, same constant 21C fermentation temp, same santitaion process...

But the past three brews all stuck???

HELP!!

On a positive note - the brews all taste GREAT so I'll be drinking them regardless!!!

 

[pittsy]

im sure its not the case but have you checked your hydrometer , you never know it might of got squashed etc , just a thought prob not like :thumb:

 

[puravida]

good one to check - I did test it in water last time.
SADLY it was okay

 

[Good Ed]

What was the brew length? OG? what yeast? how much yeast?

It may be that your water is low in magnesium, which is an important yeast nutrient. You can always add some nutrient for future brews, I think Brupaks do some.

Do you usually rack to a secondary FV?

 

[puravida]

Well this is the thing - three different beers have all stuck at 1020 and these are beers I have brewed in the past with no attenuation issues.

The good news, though, is I checked on my Ho's Garters wheat beer last night that has been in the primary for 2 weeks and that has attenuated down to 1012 - exactly where Brewsmith said it would.

I'm baffled!!!!

 

[Muddy Funker]

How about a duff batch of yeast?

 

[shearclass]

a simples question, do you use dry yeast, and if so, do you rehydrate it?

I only do kits, but when i first started i didn't rehydrate yeast, and a couple of kits stuck. However, since i have rehydrated yeast, my kits haven't stuck.

 

[puravida]

Must admit I've never rehydrated or used a starter.
What method do you use??

 

[shearclass]

I've read on here that you shouldn't make up a starter as suck for dry yeast, it jsut needs rehydrating.

I normally use fermentis yeast when i am not using kit yeast, (US-05, 04, the lager ones, etc) and i use the instructions either on the pack, or failing that, on the web.

i just steralise a cup and teaspoon, make up about 1/3 of the cup with water at (if memory serves) about 35 degrees C, sprinkle yeast on top of water and leave for 15 mins. Stir it all up, then leave for another 15 mins, then pitch into aireated wort.

It may be coincidence, but this has made a massive difference with my kits both with lag time before you see the wort visibly fermenting and with FG, and I am astonished that the kit instructions do not say to do this.

 

[shearclass]

http://www.fermentis.com/FO/60-Beer/60-11_product_rangeHB.asp

*not sure i have done this correctly, but above is the link to fermentis site, from there you can chose your yeast to get specific instructions.)

 

[puravida]

Top man! :thumb:
I make a lot of bread and always rehydrate the yeast when baking but never really thought too when making beer.
I use the same yeast packs the US-05 and S-04 mainly - next brewday is looking like this weekend so will give that a go!!

Thanks everyone!

 

[shearclass]

No worries.

A kit brewer helping a proper brewer, who would have thought!

Let me know how you get on.

 

[puravida]

Haha! Not sure about the proper brewer bit!
If you are making good beer at home, regardless of the method you choose, you are a brewer right??

 

[beffrey]

I've got the same issue with my first ever AG batches, an APA, and a vanilla oatmeal stout - both have ceased at 1.020 so ABV will be 4.2% instead of 5.2%.

I made mistakes with both:
APA - I transferred to PF at 100F which was silly, and then pitched in a warm room whilst the wort was still 80F. I returned a couple of hours later to find the temp read 28C!

Vanilla oatmeal stout - I forgot to aerate. I also cooled it in the bathroom with the lid off and accidentally set the shower off, whoops. All good fun.

However I think the real issue was that I mashed at 158F for APA, and at 156F for VOS (90 mins, heat loss of 2F). I think If I drop in future to 150F then my problem will be solved?

Anyway to boost the ABV, iv put 300g of sugar into the APA so hopefully ABV should increase to 4.6%, and hopefully dry out what should be a very sweet beer for its style (esp given it is also 10% crystal malt).

Depending on how that goes, I may add another 100g of sugar (7% total grain bill) and then maybe add 200g sugar to the stout as well, although I know this will be nice sweet anyway.

Very very new to all of these so please contradict any of my above thoughts.

 

[Hirsty]

One other thing - if your FV is somewhere cold (or even cool-ish) and the yeast used is very temp. sensitive this can stop the process.

 

[pittsy]

puravida, ive never bothered rehydrating wb-06 and my brews have always kicked off within 12 hours and p.s i bottled my hoegarrden clone yesterday (although i used a wit ale yeast) and i brewed mine after you , i dont think thats the prob rehydrating just helps kicking it off faster

 

[puravida]

Okay - two more brews have now stuck at 1020 and 1025 respectively and both should be way lower.
I've tried EVERYTHING!!!

Aeration, rehydrating yeast, insulation under my FV, pitching onto an old yeast cake etc.

It just occurred to me today that I ordered quite a few sachets of yeast online at once and have probably been using sachets from that same batch every time. Now there is a chance the whole batch I bought was dodgy, right? It would explain why my method that has produced great results for many, many beers suddenly went twisted.

I've always figured that as the fermentation started off vigouroulsy overnight then the yeast is fine. But maybe not???

I've just pitched half a sachet of S-04 from a new online shop into each of the two stuck brews this afternoon so I will see if that kick starts anything over the next few days.

 

[Pinck]

Bad thermometer have you mashing really high, pulling out more unfermentables?

Are you adjusting your FG hydro reading based on temp?

 

[puravida]

Two great suggestions but I don't think either are at fault.

I brew in a bag and my mash temp is not hugely controlled, but I know my thermometer is very accurate - it's always between 155 and 170f.
FV readings always done at room temp.

What puzzles me is nothing in my process or equipment has changed.

 

[Pinck]

I usually play in the 152F range with a +/- of 3F depending on style. For a mild I might run up to 158F, but only because my OG is so low.

How's the beer tasting on the other end? Does the taste test confirm that you're leaving behind a lot of unfermented sugars?