Fermentation stuck?

[whinton]

For the first time I have an issue with fermentation that I would appreciate some input on.
From an AG recipe I had an OG of 1037. I was expecting it to finish around 1011 but after a week (my usual time with SO4 yeast) it was at 1018. It hasn't dropped anymore for the last 3 days.
Temperature has been pretty constant at 21 degrees. Did I mess up re-hydrating the yeast? It was 11.5g for 27Ltrs.
If it has finished I'm going to have to throw it which is a bit of a waste but if I can learn something from it .......
I ferment in a bin and don't use any airlocks and haven't had a problem in the past. Now that I am a bit concerned, I've invested in a heat pad for the bins to sit on in future!

Cheers

Wayne.

 

[terrym]

For the first time I have an issue with fermentation that I would appreciate some input on.
From an AG recipe I had an OG of 1037. I was expecting it to finish around 1011 but after a week (my usual time with SO4 yeast) it was at 1018. It hasn't dropped anymore for the last 3 days.
Temperature has been pretty constant at 21 degrees. Did I mess up re-hydrating the yeast? It was 11.5g for 27Ltrs.
If it has finished I'm going to have to throw it which is a bit of a waste but if I can learn something from it .......
I ferment in a bin and don't use any airlocks and haven't had a problem in the past. Now that I am a bit concerned, I've invested in a heat pad for the bins to sit on in future!

Cheers

Wayne.

Usual advice with stuck fermentations is to rouse the yeast either by swirling the FV or stirring without introducing any air. And/or raise the temperature a bit. You could also try some more yeast in a starter but there may not be enough fermentables in the brew at SG 1.018 to encourage it to continue. If the SG doesn't go down any more I would not dump it, I would go ahead and bottle or barrel and accept it may be sweeter than you would have wanted. However it may be a good idea to put some in a PET bottle so that you can monitor conditioning to satisfy yourself that the fermentation has not restarted.

 

[Slid]

I expect it will carry on fermenting slowly. I would not bottle it yet myself.

What I suspect has happened is that the initial ferment may have been a high temp, which has made the yeast "lazy". This happened to me with a recent brew and I spent ages loosening and tightening the screw top lids to nurse it along.

As terrym says, PET bottles help to determine the state of play on these awkward little blighters.

My suggestion is to leave it a bit longer before bottling. 1018 is not where it is going to stop. Ale yeast will carry on fermenting, albeit slowly, at fridge temps.

 

[Dads_Ale]

You may have under pitched.
The link below:

http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Safale-S-04-en.pdf

recommends a pitch rate between 13.5g to 21.6g for a 27 litre brew.

You may need to pitch some more yeast if it does not drop any more.

 

[MyQul]

If it has stuck and you can't get it going again, what I'd do is make a very hoppy beer and blend it (in the glass?) with the sweeter one. It'd be a shame to waste 27L of beer.

Some forumites have had success using amlase enzyme to get a stuck brew going again after trying everything else

 

[Checkstone]

I have a similar problem, probably due to underpitching (I did use a starter but not big enough).
I pitched 22g of US-05 into 16pints of wort (Sg 1.05) as a starter, then after 24 hours pitched this into my main fermenter containing 36 gallons of wort @ SG 1.058
It got started really well with great fermentation for first 4 days and SG went down to 1.032, but has now slowed right up and only dropped a further .004 in the last 3 days.. Currently at 1.028
Temp has remained constant between 19.5 deg C and 22 deg C.
There is still a little action in the airlock.. am I just too impatient and need to wait longer? I have made another starter and am considering pitching this in to boost the yeast count up... Any suggestions?

 

[user 15657]

I've had this problem a few times recently and am working through a number of suggestions. This time I ran an aerator pump (frothy mess!) for 30 minutes or so before pitching. Next time I will be waiting for the temps to drop to below 20 before pitching.

I'll be trying the same 49er partial boil malt extract brew for a number of brews with small changes on each one just to see what difference it makes to the final beer. I'll learn a lot if I can hold out long enough with the same beer each time! Just pitched the yeast on attempt 2 on Sunday.

 

[steveh2112]

i have a similar problem in my bottles. i bottled yesterday after 12 days in the FV (maybe not long enough but i'm impatient).

i don't know the SG as i can't find my hydrometer anywhere, but the beer tastes great already, is not sweet tasting and definitely packs a punch so i think the fermentation worked well. i cooled it down to about 8C for a couple of days before bottling and its very clear.

i added boiled sugar syrup to the bottles (PET) and bottled.

i saw a cool tip on youtube where you leave a space at the top of the bottle and then squeeze the bottle to purge all air in the bottle then cap it. then as it ferments in the bottle, it should push the bottle walls back out.

well so far nothing is happening. i realize its only 24hrs at 20C but i would expect fermentation to kick off pretty quick.

do you think i should try something, or just wait?

thanks

 

[ericmark]

I read some where how the yeast when it dies tells the other yeast so they go into hibernation. I had a ginger beer stop and adding more yeast did restart it but it stopped again. So I moved to a clean fermentor and then added more yeast and off it went and continued. I would give it time to settle and then move to clean fermentor which will reduce sediment anyway, then see if the move re-starts it, if not then add more yeast.

 

[dan125]

well so far nothing is happening. i realize its only 24hrs at 20C but i would expect fermentation to kick off pretty quick.

do you think i should try something, or just wait?

It takes considerably longer for bottles to carb up as there's only a small amount of yeast to do the job.

 

[Checkstone]

Update:- I left it bubbling slowly and the SG is now down to 1.020, I'll be patient and hopefully it'll continue down to the 1.013/1.014 area over the next few days!

 

[whinton]

You may have under pitched.
The link below:

http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Safale-S-04-en.pdf

recommends a pitch rate between 13.5g to 21.6g for a 27 litre brew.

You may need to pitch some more yeast if it does not drop any more.

Sad to say, this does seem to be a common problem. I added more yeast after aerating but 3 days have passed and still no change. That brew has been fed to the drain and good health to all that drink her!
This month I only had two weeks between brews so with the second one I was particularly careful with temperatures. Thanks Dads_Ale. It took me a while to work out the where the 13.5 to 21.6g came from but after sorting that I pitched 15g to my 25 litres. So far so good again. Started at OG 1040 and after 4 days I'm down to 1020. I usually leave it 6 to 7 days.

Thanks all that have posted. I'm still really non the wiser on how to get a stuck fermentation going again but suffice to say, pay more attention on getting things right when pitching and it wont become stuck :lol: