Fermentation help

How big is your batch, and what type of yeast was used? Can you describe the 'left over residue' and is any of it stuck on the side wall of your fermenter? What was the temp of the wort when the yeast were pitched, and about what is the ambient temp where your fermenter is sitting? If it's next to a window does the temp there fluctuate very much during the day? Is it getting direct sunlight? Is your fermenter a carboy so that you're getting a greenhouse effect, thus too much heat?

If you can tell us more information about your recipe is then we might be able to help you better.

 

An original gravity of 0.069? Are you sure it wasn't 1.069? What gravity does your hydrometer read in plain water?

 

No change in gravity ==> no fermentation.

Too soon to give up.
Re-pitch some fresh yeast as soon as you can.

 

Did you only pitch 1 smack pack of wyeast 3711, without a starter? What is the manufacturing date for the smack pack? Even if it was very fresh, 1 smack pack would be a huge underpitch for 5 gallons of 1.069 wort. You needed about 250 billion cells for this batch.

http://yeastcalc.com/

 

Underpitching can cause a sluggish fermentation and can cause a beer to be slightly underattenuated. But after a week at appropriate (or somewhat higher temperatures), zero attenuation is probably not due to underpitching. It may be that there were no viable yeast in the pack. Two questions...

- How sure are you about your current hydrometer reading?
- Can you describe the 'foam' you're seeing? Is it transparent bubbles? Opaque crusty stuff stuck to the sides of the fermenter? Other?

 

If it's your second batch of beer ever, there are a few things you can check. First, the hydrometer reading. Have you calibrated it by checking its readout in plain water and adjusted for temperature? Most hydrometers with introductory kits seem to be calibrated to read 1.000 at 60°F. That said, you indicate there was no change between immediately after the boil and now. It's too late to double check your initial reading, but maybe double check your current gravity after you know what your adjustments for equipment error and temperature are.

Second, when you say it smells amazing and a sample tastes "flat", that would be normal, but does it taste like finished beer, or like the excessively sweet sugary wort you started off with before pitching the yeast? If it tastes like beer, then there has been activity from the yeast you pitched, even if you did not pitch enough yeast or very healthy yeast. If this batch is developing o.k., you may or may not want to try to pitch more yeast at this point, but you definitely want to make sure it is done before you think about taking it off the yeast and packaging. This goes back to the first consideration, that you should be confident in your hydrometer readings.

 

That looks like a residual krausen ring stuck to the walls of your fermenter above the wort/beer line, which means you had some very active yeast. It's hard to believe the gravity hasn't changed at all. Did you add anything (other than yeast) after taking the original gravity reading?

 

Well, it allowed more oxygen to enter, and possibly bacteria/wild yeast. But neither of these things would have prevented fermentation.

 

If it's not sweet, some level of fermentation has happened and the gravity has to have changed. Try your hydrometer in plain water at about a temperature between 60 and 68 degrees F. Does it read 1.000 or very close to it? If so, measure your wort/beer again.

 

Measure and post a picture if possible. I would also almost guarantee it has changed looking at that layer of krausen.

 

Did you do a partial boil? The reason I ask is I did this and took a bottom sample for my OG reading, and it was way to high. The consensus is that the top off water wasn't mixed in well. If you sampled from the top, instead of the bottom you OG reading could have been low. That being said 1.069 is pretty high to be a low reading. It could explain the fact that the OG didn't move though.

 

The visual evidence from your photos does not seem to agree with your gravity reading, so I think we're all kind of shooting in the dark with questions to try to help you. So, borrowing from redmaw's thought above, here's another shot in the dark question (a long shot): when you took your second 1.069 gravity reading did you possibly stir the beer and get the trub into suspension, thus a false high reading could result?