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help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentation?

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:25 pm
by SomeGuyBrewing
So I attempted an Imperial Stout. Shot for the low side of the style. Some notes: I BIAB. Generally get 60% BH Efficiency (its low but consistent give or take 1%, so for now due to limitations I'm ok with it).
Recipe:
1 Gallon Batch
2.75# - 2-Row
5 oz. - Pale Chocolate
5 oz. - Coffee Malt
3 oz. - Crystal 75L
2 oz. - Carafa II
2 oz. - Roasted Barley
2 oz. - Carapils (probably didn't need this but trying to use it up)

7 grams - Warrior (15AA) - FWH
6 gram - East Kent Goldings (5AA) - 20 Min
6 gram - EKG (5AA) - 7 Min

Safale 05 - 3/4 of Packet ( I did not rehydrate. I know I should and will in the future but did not for this batch)

Fermented @ 62 degrees

OG - 1.083

?FG? - @ 2 1/2 weeks = 1.036

At this point I thought "What the Hell?". Did a little reading online about stuck fermentation. Under-pitching seemed to be most thought of reason. Don't think that was my problem, if anything I over-pitched. Some people suggested gently rocking the carboy a few times and raising the fermentation temperature up a couple degrees each day. I tried this. I rocked the carboy and raised temp by 2 degrees each day until I got to 68 degrees. I let it sit at 68 for 4 days now. Its been 1 week since first FG reading and it is still 1.036 as of last night.

So my questions are as follows:
Did I screw this up somehow? What did I do wrong?
Is it Stuck? Is it done?
If I bottle it will I have potential bottle bombs on my hands?
Is there a way to fix it?

The hydrometer sample actually taste really good! Nice chocolate and coffee flavors, a little roastyness, slightly bitter at the end, and the slightest alcohol taste...YUM.

I await the BORG's guidance :borg:

Re: help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentati

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:18 pm
by Inkleg
What was your mash temperature? Higher temps means less fermentable wort, but you should be lower than that.

Re: help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentati

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 4:17 pm
by SomeGuyBrewing
Mash temp hovered around 155-156 during the entire mash. It did not go higher than 156.

Re: help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentati

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:54 pm
by SomeGuyBrewing
Just an update:

So it seems as if my problem has stumped the Borg or just no one really cares :laugh

Anyway just wanted to update (because hey, I like when things are followed up on) on what I ended up doing. Went over to the good people at http://www.homebrewtalk.com and got some feedback.

The general consensus was with the high amount of specialty grains and the high mash temperature, the wort had enough unfermentables to the point that it was probably done. Next time I'll cut the specialty grain down and mash 150~152

Got some tips if I wanted to sour it and bring FG down even further. Not going to go that route but the information was useful and will probably put into effect in a future brew

I went ahead and bottled it. Put the bottles in a trash bag and boxed them up, just in case the slim chance fermentation was stalled and yeast gets going again creating bottle bombs. I probably won't open one until late Sept. early Oct. Update to follow.

Re: help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentati

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 6:45 am
by Inkleg
Had me stumped, I figured at 156 you should have at least finished below 1.024. So I went to advanced search at HBT the day you posted this to look for information and found your other thread. Kinda felt like a stalker. :lol: Glad they were able to help you over there, good place with lots of info.

Re: help/advice/guidance-Imperial Stout (?)-Stuck Fermentati

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:26 pm
by SomeGuyBrewing
Yeah usually if I encounter something that I'm not sure of along the brew process I come here first. Do some searching, maybe ask a question. 9 times out of 10 if I don't find an answer here, I'll find it over there. Thanks for taking the time to look into it though! I appreciate it.