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Stuck fermentation (I know, not this again :/ ) and Pressure barrel conditioning

Started by Southyeaster84, February 17, 2021, 08:00:33 PM

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Southyeaster84

Hi all,
Im new to the club, the forum..hell even relatively new to the country.
Im not entirely new to brewing and used to do all-grain back in SA. SWMBO kindly gifted me a basic starter kit to kick off the hobby again (She will naturally eventually regret this  :P )

Anyhoo, its a Bulldog Triple Tykes kit. Got it in the FV with an OG of 1.050, aerated by shaking and pitched the included yeast sachet at around 20C. Fermentation started slow on day 1 and increased with decent krausen and airlock activity present on day 2. Day 3 had slowed right down and activity appeared to stop. Temp was around 18C throughout (If the thermometer strip is to be trusted).
I checked the gravity after 1 week and it was 1.022.

I gave a very gentle stir to rouse the yeast cake at this point(I am aware of the oxidation risk), but there didnt appear to be much additional activity by the following day.
On day 10 I took another sample. Still 1.022. Stirred again and raised temp to 22C. Does not appear to have had any effect.

Now, my intention was to cold crash after primary, rack on top of batch priming solution in a pressure barrel and allow it to condition and carbonate. The flavour is great, albeit a bit sweet obviously.
Given the stuck fermentation, would this still be successful? Im more scared the yeast lack any livelihood for carbonation than the risk of an exploding barrel as it has a pressure relief.

Would I be better off making a starter and pitching (krausening) to try to get the gravity down and some active yeast in solution first?
If I do this, would a sample from the FV blended with DME be a good starter mix?

Any advice would be appreciated.

DEMPSEY

What amount of grams of yeast was with this kit. I hear some kits come with 7 grams which is not enough. 11 grams is usually enough up to 1050sg.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

Southyeaster84

Hi Dempsey, this kit indeed came with 7g.
You live and you learn. I will have to source and pitch additional yeast. Thanks for the info

Southyeaster84

Update:
I decided to pitch a packet of S-04.
I didnt have the necessary vessel, let alone equipment (conical, stir plate etc) to do a "proper" starter, so I just pitched dry..

There was some initial airlock activity, but little.
After a week I'm afraid gravity hasn't moved even 1 point..  still 10.22..

So, my last ditch effort to save the batch (If I had a keg setup I would just force prime and call it a day 🙄):

Make a 1.5L yeast starter with dme, boiled 15min and cooled. Pitch ANOTHER S-04..
Once high kausen visible, feed the starter say 500ml of the beer.. leave another 12 hours and pitch starter back to Beer in FV.

I am even considering racking off of current cake into a new FV (I will need to make) before pitching starter back...

Thoughts??

TheSumOfAllBeers

try a forced ferment in a small pet bottle (draw off some of the liquid into a sanitised PET bottle seal and shake). store it somewhere warm so you can determine if fermentation will continue if they yeast get a bit agitated (you are not at terminal, just tired yeast), or you are at terminal, and for some reason your kit beer (extract? ) was only 56% fermentable with the supplied yeast.