Help with a stout stuck at 1.030.

what was your mash temp at? surprised no one's asked that yet.

 

and he ends with "Hopefully the Brett is dead, or I may have some exploding bottles in a few months." - so unless we get an update from Michael we won't know how it turned out...

 

This beer was brewed in 2007. If you scroll down he has posts for tasting every year up to 2012. According to those posts it worked.

 

Let's rack it onto a pie.

Edit: pitch brett is MY catch all snarky homebrew comment. Someone needs to get off my kool aid.

And lastly, I'm on the "let's see your recipe" band wagon. Maybe this didn't mash long enough. Maybe it doesn't have enough diastatic power to convert. Maybe its chock full of unfermentables.

 

Big difference between OPs 1.060 stout (presumably) stuck at 1.030 and Old Sock's 1.101 stout that finished at 1.030 before he pitched the Brett. In Old Sock's case, once the Brett was neutralized, there was nothing for the repitched US-05 to eat, except for the priming sugar. In OP's case, once it reaches 1.020 (as jae advised), how would he know that there wasn't still any maltose (for example) left that the repitched yeast (for carbonation) would eat along with the priming sugar?

Okay. Then your advice sort of makes sense if you add in a "wait for SO2 to gas off" step before re-yeasting. But there's still the assumption that when OP would neutralize the Brett when the gravity reached 1.020 that there's nothing left for an ale yeast to eat.

 

That's true, but I'm just assuming that the OP knows his predicted FG, and could easily play it safe by letting the brett ferment just a tad lower than that and then killing it. Obviously its not a guarantee but is the risk worth the reward? IMO yeah. If there's no other option to fix the beer, I think that's a pretty good choice even if its not perfect.

And anyways my post was just responding to your post about the possibility of the residual SO2 killing the yeast for priming, not about whether there would be bottle bombs or over-carbonation.

 

If the original yeast was 1968/002 or Windsor, I would just rouse gently...if a higher attenuating yeast was used I'd check my thermometer and cut back on the unfermentables on my next batch. If this had loads of darker extract...punt : )

 

I thought the point of this forum was to provide good advice... adding brett to a vanilla stout because the gravity finished higher than expected and then trying to stop fermentation? Really???

Glad the OP decided to rouse and wait, and not oxygenate or add brett.

Would be nice to see the original recipe and the expected FG to see how far off the actual FG is. If its too high, like many said, pitching a rehydrated (properly) pack of US-05 or an actively fermenting starter of a more attenuative, clean yeast, may help.

 

Good choice. If that doesn't have the desired effect, then perhaps add some rehydrated SF-05, without aerating, I would say.

 

Now, I know nobody has asked for the recipe yet, so allow me to be the first!
Seriously, it's usually better to determine if there actually is a problem before you solve it. I (and others, I'm sure) have made milk stouts with (intentionally) about 50% attenuation.

 

Nothing beats going from 1.085 down to 1.045 and being done.

 

Did anyone know that HF Everett

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22511/61062

finishes at 1.027? what an underattenuated (world-class) mess!