Stuck Fermentation?

Which yeast? How much? Mash temp? Ferm temp?

Whatever . . . the only way to check is with a hydrometer. Wait a couple weeks and don't worry so much. It's only beer.

 

I'm going out on a limb here. You probably have an air leak from fussing with your gear. If you have 5 gal of beer in your fermenter and you had krausen coming out the top of a lager, the yeast activity is healthy and NOT FINISHED. From here out you NEED to go by SG, not airlock activity. Hit us back and let us know what kind of yeast you used, how many gal of your 1.072 beer you have in the fermenter and the temp that the fermenter is at now. If it gets fickle you can start to warm it up and let it finish around 65-68F, even with a lager yeast. If you underpitched, the damage is done and you could even finish out with a strain like US 05. It's not ideal, but it will get you down where you need to be. For now, RDWHAHB and let your lager yeast do their work.

 

I do not think your beer is finished. Make sure your lid is tight. Check the level of liquid in your air lock. I am certain that your beer will finish. I have never had a stuck fermentation and I under pitch all my lagers and high gravity beers. ( According to the authorities. ) Good luck!

 

Recipe? 1.022 isn't crazy high. Is this all grain or extract? Mash temp?

I could see an accidental high mash temp getting a FG of 1.022. I wouldn't necessarily say it's stuck

 

I am assuming that you used Munich Malt to make your Imperial Oktoberfest beer. It has been my experience that Munich Malt is a base malt that provides a lot of residuals (it does not highly attenuate). Presuming that you used Munich Malt, then an OG of 1.072 and FG of 1.022 sounds about right to me. My guess is that your beer has completed primary fermentation.

Cheers!

 

Given your grain bill and mash temp, and assuming you used a typical german lager yeast (like WLP830), I'd expect a little more attenuation than that. Somewhere in the range of 75%. How big a starter did you make?

 

Given that you had a combined 7 lbs. of Munich & Vienna Malts plus 1.5 lbs. of Roasted Malt (Briess Extra Special) I am personally not surprised that you obtained a final gravity of 1.022. You have 55% of your grain bill constituted of base and non-base malts which are not highly fermentable.

Cheers!

 

I took the lower fermentability of the of malts into account in my calculated estimate. I also assumed a 60 minute mash. What yeast strain did you assume?

 

OK some ciphering:

The OP got OG of 1.072 and FG of 1.022. That is an Apparent Attenuation of 69% (pretty good for a beer with 55% of Munich/Vienna/Briess Extra Special).

Below are two past batches of Oktoberfest I made which were about 50% Munich Malt:

· OG = 1.052, FG = 1.019 using Wyeast 2633 starter: AA = 63%

· OG = 1.050, FG = 1,015 using Wyeast 2206 starter: AA = 70%

I could include a dozen or more calculations but they would be between 63% and 70%.

It seems to me that an AA of 69% is appropriate for the OP’s Imperial Oktoberfest based upon my homebrewing experiences.

Cheers!

 

Fair enough. With 50% Munich (and all the other assumptions standing) , I'd expect something closer to 70 also. OP's recipe though doesn't have that much Munich. I believe Viennna Malt is quite a bit more attenuable than Munich, and it has behaved that way for me.

 

My lagers always drop a couple of points during lagering (6-7 weeks for me). Assuming this happens for the OP, he will get a FG = 1.020 before packaging. This will result in an Apparent Attenuation of 72%.

Cheers!

 

You could. But how does it taste?

 

I would, before doing anything drastic (like pitching a second yeast). I would also check the gravity again in 3 days and see if it has moved.