Only on my third batch and it looks like my fermentation is stuck. I'm thinking the way forward would be to make a starter and pitch again at high Krausen? Yeti Clone, OG 1.089 5 Gallons. Oxygen tanked the wort for 1 min. 2L stirplate starter, Wyeast 1056. (lost a bunch of yeast due to my flask being too small, I figure maybe the cause of the stuck ferment is underpitching) Fermented for a month. No temp control but it sat between 68 and 72 for whole time. Once airlock had stopped I took the first 1.046 reading a couple of days back. Today it is still there. Would adding dry yeast be a decent option? Thanks
Have you tried rousing the yeast (by rocking the fermenter)? If that doesn't work, repitching might be the answer. (Also, longshot, but...you're not using a refractometer are you? If so, you're not treating the (FG) reading as if it's an unfermented wort, are you? I only ask because that would probably yield a false answer of somewhere around the 1.046 you got.)
Doh! the dangers of new toys. Been using a hydrometer until now. Thanks Vikeman, I'll drag out the hydrometer and compare.
Here's the refractometer calculator I have been using for a fairly long time (download link about a quarter of the way down the page)... http://seanterrill.com/2011/04/07/refractometer-fg-results/ This one is good enough that I hardly ever break out the hydrometer anymore. I'm guessing your refractometer has a 'dual scale' with SG on the right side. Don't believe that second scale, even for OG readings. (It's for sucrose solutions, which your wort mostly is not.) Sean's spreadsheet is righteous, adjusting for both the typical composition of wort, and for the fact that alcohol skews the refractive index.
Addendum: I should have mentioned that I use a wort correction factor of 1.02 by default. I change it to 1.04 for worts with lots of simple sugar additions to the malt derived sugars.
Thanks for the tips. Good to understand a bit more about the refractometer and grabbed the spreadsheet as suggested.
Damn, I was gonna suggest making the infamous bretty yeti. Maybe next time. On another note, op, i'd like to check out your recipe if you're willing to share.
No, I didn't. If I had realized he was there, I would have liked to thank him in person for his spreadsheet. I'll have to check out the Zymurgy article. I'm way behind on my homebrewing reading.
I was tempted to try Belgian Yeti if I repitched. The recipe was grabbed from this BYO article. http://www.byo.com/stories/item/1454-tasting-double
