high fg for treacle stout

[varadamo]

Hi all - decided to try a treacle stout and made up a recipe using beersmith - the brew stopped ferementing short of what i was expecting - og -1050  dropped to 1020 - i thought the temperature was a bit low so put the brew into my new fridge freezer / stc set up at 20c   for another week - seemed to be new airlock activity - but still 1020 - seems high - any  brewers here who may have tried similar have any advice pls ?
been in the fv for nearly 4 weeks now

[Ciaran]

Are you reading it with a refractometer or hydrometer? Forgetting to compensate for alcohol has caught me out before.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

You may also need to look at your Mash temperatures and stand times, you may not have converted enough starches to fermentable sugars. Lower temp mashes require significantly longer stand times hence the need for an iodine test before you up the temperature and denature the enzymes

[Parky]

Similar issue with stout using treacle on the thread below, which might be of help (or even reassure you that the fermentation can at start up again) -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057001770

The poster in the above thread seems to have sorted the issue by stirring up the yeast cake and leaving for additional time.

With the beer being in the FV for 4 weeks my own approach (and take this with a large pinch of salt!) would be to rack it to a secondary vessel and repitch fresh yeast in there at a suitable temp. At least this will be side step the possibility of the old yeast causing off flavours, but maybe that's just me being over cautious 

Another suggestion I can give you, for getting a stuck fermentation going again (if that's what it is), is to add simple sugars to the FV when you stir up the yeast (say 50g of sucrose/dextrose). I've read somewhere that this kick starts the yeast back into action and encourages them to have another go at the less fermentable sugars.

The other suggestion I could make is to taste the beer as it is now, and determine if it's still sweet (i.e. if there are still fermentable sugars in there). If it is, then you know that lack of fermentables isn't the issue, and probably just the yeast needing a kick up the backside.

Also, the new airlock activity you report may just have been CO2 released from suspension when you moved the FV, rather than fermentation. I get the same when moving my FV to the cooler when cold crashing.

Like I say, take the above with a pinch of salt, but hope you find something of use there 

[DEMPSEY]

Also to note what yeast did you use and how much did you pitch

[Adam]

I've recently had a similar issue with a stout. I had underpitched a vial of WLP004 Irish Ale yeast and after a long lag time (nearly a week) I had a pretty gentle fermentation that began to slow right down after another week.
A few days ago I happened to be racking another beer which was sitting on a trub of US-05 yeast, so I took a pint of the suspended yeast from that and pitched into the stout. Almost immediately the fermentation of the stout kicked off again and was vigorous for another few days, airlock activity seems to have stopped as of last night so tomorrow il take an fg and if I'm happy il chance bottling.

[varadamo]

thanks all for replies and advice - using a hydrometer for measurement - yeast was safbrew s 33 - pitched one rehydrated pack originally and about 2 weeks ago when i seemed unsure about low temp i pitched another pack same yeast and gave it a good old stir before placing in fridge at 20c  - there is currently some pressure on airlock as the water is pushing to the bottom of the U  -  not sure as when i open fridge temp drops  - so still working away ?
as regards mash temp - im doing BIAB with a PICO boiler - mash temp was high 60,s to 63 i think over an hour.
Added warmed treacle to FV before pitching yeast .
Anything wrong so far ?

[fergus]

If you are re-pitching a new yeast, be sure to make a starter first (whether it is dry or liquid yeast). Pitching new yeast into a beer that has been fermenting for two weeks and has alcohol present is not going to do much. You need to get those little guys primed and ready for action first by making the starter and then you can fire them in