Fermentation stopped too early

[YeastFeast]

Hello!

I'm fermenting a Brewer's Best Oatmeal stout right now [OG:1.056 - 1.064] and [FG: 1.016 - 1.020]. I used the yeast that came with the kit: Windsor 'British style beer yeast'. I cooled my wort down to 70º and then added almost 2.5 gallons of room temperature water to get it up to 5 gallons. I took my large stirring spoon and stirred it aggressively for maybe 4-5 minutes to get it mixed and aerated as well as I could.

Right now it's "stuck" at 1.029. It started out great with a rapid fermentation in the first 24 hours but died down quickly after that. The fermentation took place on my concrete floor in my basement where it's actually on the low end of the yeasts recommendation (64º - 70º). My digital thermometer read about 63º on the floor.

My OG reading was 1.066 before I pitched the yeast. After day 8, I checked it with a hydrometer and it read 1.029. I got it up off the floor where it's a little warmer (65º-66º) as I thought that might help the yeast? Three days later (last night), I checked it again and it hadn't moved at all, still exactly 1.029.

This is my second batch ever so any ideas what I may have done wrong or anything I can do to get the yeast going again? What would you do at this point?

Thanks!

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, i would move it to a warmer place, some where around 70 deg and let it Finnish out and condition for another week.

Then since its a stout, i would secondary it for 3 to 6 months @ 70 deg (mine like that recipe go 4 months) to further age/condition the beer.

Or you can bottle it and age/condition the beer in the bottles too.

Just so you know Stouts and big beers normally take a long time to get to drink them, lighter beers are much quicker to drinking time, quick beers are something like wheat beers, IPAs, low alcohol beers, you can search for quick turn around beers to get your pipeline going, then go for the long term beers.

Cheers

 

[BigFloyd]

Windsor is known for taking off fast, running hard and crapping out early.

Do you happen to have any lactose in the batch? One pound of it will raise the FG by .007

 

[YeastFeast]

Hello, i would move it to a warmer place, some where around 70 deg and let it Finnish out and condition for another week.

Then since its a stout, i would secondary it for 3 to 6 months @ 70 deg (mine like that recipe go 4 months) to further age/condition the beer.

Or you can bottle it and age/condition the beer in the bottles too.

Just so you know Stouts and big beers normally take a long time to get to drink them, lighter beers are much quicker to drinking time, quick beers are something like wheat beers, IPAs, low alcohol beers, you can search for quick turn around beers to get your pipeline going, then go for the long term beers.

Cheers

Thanks for the advice. I'm all about making good beer, not quick beer, I have no problem waiting. So as far as Stouts go, is it better to age in a secondary (no carbonation) or in bottles (carbonated) or doesn't it make any difference? I'm up for doing it either way as I have an unused 5 gallon carboy doing nothing right now.
Thanks again!

 

[YeastFeast]

Windsor is known for taking off fast, running hard and crapping out early.

Do you happen to have any lactose in the batch? One pound of it will raise the FG by .007

Hi, here is the recipe. Is the lactose the .5 lb. Maltodextrin?

FERMENTABLES
3.3 lb. Light LME
3 lb. Extra Dark DME
.5 lb. Maltodextrin

SPECIALTY GRAINS
1 lb. Oats
10 oz. Dark Chocolate
12 oz. 2-row Pale
6 oz. Victory

HOPS
1 oz. Brewers Gold Bittering

 

[flars]

The maltodextrine is the unfermentable sugar. Part of the ingredients for body and smooth mouthfeel.

The recipe instructions are not the best. OG and FG are sort of general guides. The instructions are probably the same for almost all of their recipes.

SG is still kind of high for safe bottling. Since the SG is high I would plan on keeping this one in the primary for three to four weeks at the warmer temperature. Give the yeast every opportunity to bring the SG down.

Racking to a secondary will remove the beer from the majority of the yeast and in this case it would be detrimental to your beer finishing lower.

 

[YeastFeast]

The maltodextrine is the unfermentable sugar. Part of the ingredients for body and smooth mouthfeel.

The recipe instructions are not the best. OG and FG are sort of general guides. The instructions are probably the same for almost all of their recipes.

SG is still kind of high for safe bottling. Since the SG is high I would plan on keeping this one in the primary for three to four weeks at the warmer temperature. Give the yeast every opportunity to bring the SG down.

Racking to a secondary will remove the beer from the majority of the yeast and in this case it would be detrimental to your beer finishing lower.

It's only been a total of 12 days so far so was planning on letting it sit in the Primary for 3 weeks or so anyway. Just wasn't sure at this point what to do if the SG doesn't drop any further? I'm guessing it's not going to drop as I got the exact same reading 3 days apart.

 

[WileECoyote]

Thanks for the advice. I'm all about making good beer, not quick beer, I have no problem waiting. So as far as Stouts go, is it better to age in a secondary (no carbonation) or in bottles (carbonated) or doesn't it make any difference? I'm up for doing it either way as I have an unused 5 gallon carboy doing nothing right now.
Thanks again!

I like using the carboy better than aging in bottles, but aging in the bottles seems to happen quicker too.

Its a preference thing, other than if you age in a carboy for a long time you might meet to add yeast before bottling to make sure you have enough yeast to carb your beer up.

I keg everything now, and most are transferred right from primary to keg to age, my longer aging beers go to secondary so they are not taking up a keg for a long time.

Cheers