Yes BrewDemon and Mr. Beer kits are pretty darn easy but sometime you need a little help from the Borg to get you on the right track. Post your questions here!
Only 4 grams of yeast seems a bit on the light side for this, given the OG of 1.088. MrMalty recommends 7 grams. While it could be a larger amount of unfermentables as has already been mentioned, I'm leaning more towards a stuck or slow fermentation. Bringing up the temp to 70 for a day or two and then checking the gravity again is a good idea. Could be it is just slow. I do like Mashani's idea with the Bella Saison yeast:
If I get a stuck fermentation in the future and I'd rather end up with dry beer then sweet beer, my plan is to make a small stir starter out of some Bella Saison, to build up some ready to rock daughter cells, and then add some sugar to the stuck batch and toss in the starter. That yeast will ferment out ANYTHING that is left in there to eat.
rickbray66 wrote:Only 4 grams of yeast seems a bit on the light side for this, given the OG of 1.088. MrMalty recommends 7 grams. While it could be a larger amount of unfermentables as has already been mentioned, I'm leaning more towards a stuck or slow fermentation. Bringing up the temp to 70 for a day or two and then checking the gravity again is a good idea. Could be it is just slow. I do like Mashani's idea with the Bella Saison yeast:
If I get a stuck fermentation in the future and I'd rather end up with dry beer then sweet beer, my plan is to make a small stir starter out of some Bella Saison, to build up some ready to rock daughter cells, and then add some sugar to the stuck batch and toss in the starter. That yeast will ferment out ANYTHING that is left in there to eat.
Rick
Thanks, I have some more S-33 on order that should be here by the weekend. I am right at 3 weeks in the LBK for this, so I can wait another week or so, if I need to. I am going to recheck the gravity and watch it. Hopefully it will move. I do have some Belle Saison, but I don't know what that would do to a stout with this much adjuncts as far as taste. I'd probably like it. I sampled a bit last night, and it sure tasted good, creamy smooth thick and slightly sweet from the lactose (I hope).
My first Saison took 32 days to finish fermenting using the Wyeast Belgium Saison yeast, which has been known to drag at times. I suspect it might have been due to my fermenting temps being at the lower end of the window. Other times when I've used that yeast at warmer temperatures it has worked very well. I don't have my notes in front me right now, but my gravity dropped about 10 points or better over that last week and a half.
haerbob3 wrote:champagne yeast will ferment just about anything. plus it is cheap $0.99 I always keep it on hand. I use in my priming solution for my high ABV Bel's
Thanks for that tip. Just ordered up 10 packets of red star for 5.25. Cheap insurance.
OK so last night I was going to bottle another batch of beer, this one was a MB Octoberfest based one:
MB 850g Octoberfest
BD 550g Pale LME
Booster
1 cup honey
4oz MD
OG 1.076
Last night the gravity was only 1.020. Similar to the PM Stout. I am wondering if my new fermentation chamber is set too low, and I got my yeast to go dormant, or slow way down. When I was fermenting before the Fermenator, I was around 74F and things moved right along. This is the 3rd batch like this this week. I did bottle a batch of Patriot Ale that was 1.070 OG and I bottled at 1.014, hopefully done, but now I am suspecting that these others are not and I was fermenting too cool. I am letting the temp rise to 21C (69.8F) in the hopes that things will start to move again. I do have some champagne yeast on the way if I need to re-pitch. I am going to let these sit till next week and check them again.
How low do you have it set at? I don't see this anywhere?
S-33 should ferment eventually in the low 60s, but it likes it much better 64+, and is actually a yeast that doesn't mind it 68-70. It's actually a good yeast to use at warmer temps. That's why BD and Mr. Beer use/used it.
Oh Yeah, I never did say what I had the temps at. I had the ferments going at about 63F. I've never had any problem fermenting the normal MB stuff in the low seventies (74F), I just though I must like off-flavors, 'cause I was making good beer. But this refrig was either going to the dump, CL, or survive as my ferment chamber, so I maybe got things too cool in my excitement. I've got it at 70 now (taking forever to warm up). I am going to leave these over the weekend and check the gravity again Monday.
If your have warmed it up you may also try rock it gently to stir the yeast up into the wort again. Although I've never had that completely re-activate the yeast myself that is one of the first things most often recommended.
I can't remember if you have a refractometer, if not I highly recommend one, they only need a few drops of wort for sampling and you can test every 3 days to see if your gravity is moving when you suspect a stuck fermentation.
We got the RSG 32ATC because it had great reviews (apparently there are some bad ones being made) from Amazon for $30. We can get gravity readings from hot wort now because the few drops cool down rapidly.
Oh Thanks for the reminder. I do have a refractometer, and I do have the OG, so I should use it in this case. I been using the hydrometer. Jez, what a maroon.
OK, I did another gravity on the stout and even after sitting at 70 all weekend it was still at 1.034. I will report back any bottle bombs, but I think I loaded this way too much, and it's going to be, as someone implied, an ice cream topping.
