Cinder toffee stout

[Fleecer]

Hi,
I recently brewed a 14 litre batch of what I hoped would be an 11-12% cinder toffee stout. Ingredients :

5kg Maris Otter
500g Crystal ERC150
282g chocolate malt
1kg flaked barley
500g torrified wheat
15 litres water to begin with, 5.5ph
10g English Ale yeast B4
500g caster sugar, boiled with 225g golden syrup, 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda mixed in to form toffee. Cooled and dropped in boil at 20 mins.
100g pride of Ringwood bittering hops, dry hopped after 3 days.

OG was 1106, but fermented out at 1.042. Re-racked after a week, added a further 10g of Mangrove Jack's strong ale yeast. Roused vigorously and went on holiday for 12 days. There was a constant temperature of 70°.

I returned yesterday and the gravity hasn't shifted from 1.042. Do I have a problem? The bicarbonate wasn't one of my better ideas, granted, but the toffee was a last minute idea after the wife had made too much.

Cheers
Mick

 

[Sbond10]

Throw sum wilkos ale yeast in and bump up the temp

 

[Slid]

The stuff you have is like 8.5% ABV. The original yeast seems unsuited to the expectation of getting much more. You are asking a lot of a packet of dry yeast to just chuck it in and think it can help much.

At the very least, you might need some sort of yeast "starter" to give the yeast much chance.