I have a 10 gallon batch I split between Wyeast 1028 and Danstar Saison, OG 1.056. The five gallons that has the 1028 is stuck! It's been two weeks, and it's dropped to .021. My fermentation temp has been very consistent @ 66F. The saison fermented great, and is cold crashing right now to be kegged in the next few days. The only thing I can think of is I under pitched. I knew it was right on the cusp, but figured it would be okay. Now that it's pretty much depleted of oxygen, and the easily fermented sugars are fermented, what would you suggest I do to finish up the job? Thanks in advance! Chris
Stuck (same exact gravity three days apart)? Or slow? Either way, you might try raising the wort temperature a couple of degrees. It's possible. What was your OG and batch size? How much yeast did you pitch and how old was it? Besides raising the temp, for now I'd suggest just being patient. If it doesn't move after that, consider pitching more 1028.
No, according to Kara Taylor at White Labs, during her NHC seminar A Guide to Blending Yeast Strains,
But I would bet she was talking about a typical fermentation, not one that is crawling along for whatever reason. I wouldn't assume that the yeast derived flavor profiles have been completely set on this beer.
Underpitching didn’t do this to you. My advice would be NOT to rack to secondary, and swirl the fermenter to get the yeast back into suspension. English yeasts like to get sleepy and settle out before they’re done fermenting. Swirl, swirl, and get the yeast woken up again. If you already racked the beer, then the only thing that can save this beer is to add more ACTIVELY FERMENTING yeast, a.k.a., krausening. And swirl.
It could have, depending on how severe. The yeast would not have to be actively fermenting when pitched, though it wouldn't hurt. Having used 1028 dozens of times, I can say that in my experience, it does not tend to floccuate early, quit at low-ish temperatures, etc.
Thanks for the input people! the saison finishes at 1.009 and tastes amazing. The OG on this ten gallon batch was 1.056 and there was a solid 5+ gallons in the carboy. I'll try swireling it lightly to hopefully wake up those yeasties. The 1028 was produced a week before I got it from my LHBS, and swelled up nicely in the smack pack. I usually give them lots of time to aclimate to pitching temp before pitching. I think I'll just get more 1028 if the swirl trick doesn't do it.
I'd call that underpitched, but not severely enough to cause a stuck/very slow fermentation. I wonder if there's an issue with the wort. Especially since the saison yeast half finished (or didn't finish yet) at 1.009. What was your wort made of, i.e. grain bill, mash temp, mash length?
I have only used Danstar Belle Saison yeast once but in that Saison my OG was 1.059 and FG was 1.001. My fermentable was 7 lbs. of Briess Pilsen DME. Cheers!
Good data point. I'm really starting to suspect a wort issue here. Like maybe a really (accidentally) high mash temp.
That could be. I could have also pulled the Saison prematurely. The grain bill was: 23lbs pilsner, 2lbs crystal 20, 1.5lbs crystal 40, 60min mash, 90min boil. This was my first batch on my new brew setup, and the kettles are very different from my old system. I probed multiple locations in the mash tun, and stired semi often to keep temps even. i would not rule out the high temp in the tun though. During my second batch my mash temp raised four degrees in 20mins after cutting the flame. I might have had uneaven mash temps throughout the tun.
