Bramstoker17
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone!
I'm getting incredibly frustrated with a recurring problem where my beers are all stalling out way early, usually somewhere around the 1.020 mark. I've had a beer with an OG of 1.060 stall around there, a beer around 1.044 stall there, and several others. Some background to help diagnose the problem.
I've been brewing all grain for years doing a 2 kettle BIAB system where I mash with the normal volume of water, then have the sparge volume in another kettle and move the bag over to that one. I combined kettles, boiled, used an immersion chiller, and then aerated by shaking. I usually use Imperial Organic yeast and they don't recommend making starters with their cans so I never did. I NEVER had a stuck fermentation with this method.
A few friends who were interested in getting into the hobby and I sprung for a more sophisticated set up. I now have a three vessel stainless steel 20 gallon Mega Pot system. I do 12 gallon batches in it. I fly sparge, pump my beer from vessel to vessel, I have a plate chiller, and I use an oxygen wand to oxygenate my wort.
I've done about 4 batches on this set up now, An IPA, a DIPA, a blonde and a Kolsch. Each beer has stalled out on me. I've used Imperial Yeast as I always have. At first I thougt I oxygenated wrong since I had never used a wand before. The first batch I did 45 seconds, but I realized I did it too hard. The beer stalled. The next one I did it for 30 at a reasonable rate. The beer stalled. I wondered if I was over-oxygenating so I did 20 seconds the next time. The beer stalled. I realized I was probably under-oxygenating after doing some more reading so for my last batch, the Kolsch, I did a low flow rate for 2 minutes prior to pitching. The beer foamed up a ton so I can't imagine there wasn't enough O2 in there. I checked the beer after a week and a half and its stalled.
I checked my Thermopen to make sure it wasn't off and it was all good. I checked my hydrometer and refractometer and they are good. I did change my water to Primo water from Walmart, but its supposed to be like RO water from what I've read and I use minerals to adjust. I also switched to lactic acid rather than acid malt to control mash Ph. I only add salts and acid to my mash or in the boil kettle, I've never added anything to the HLT for sparging.
I have no idea what could be causing this to happen. Its only since switching to my new system that I've been having this problem and its getting so very frustrating! Any ideas what could be going on here?
I'm getting incredibly frustrated with a recurring problem where my beers are all stalling out way early, usually somewhere around the 1.020 mark. I've had a beer with an OG of 1.060 stall around there, a beer around 1.044 stall there, and several others. Some background to help diagnose the problem.
I've been brewing all grain for years doing a 2 kettle BIAB system where I mash with the normal volume of water, then have the sparge volume in another kettle and move the bag over to that one. I combined kettles, boiled, used an immersion chiller, and then aerated by shaking. I usually use Imperial Organic yeast and they don't recommend making starters with their cans so I never did. I NEVER had a stuck fermentation with this method.
A few friends who were interested in getting into the hobby and I sprung for a more sophisticated set up. I now have a three vessel stainless steel 20 gallon Mega Pot system. I do 12 gallon batches in it. I fly sparge, pump my beer from vessel to vessel, I have a plate chiller, and I use an oxygen wand to oxygenate my wort.
I've done about 4 batches on this set up now, An IPA, a DIPA, a blonde and a Kolsch. Each beer has stalled out on me. I've used Imperial Yeast as I always have. At first I thougt I oxygenated wrong since I had never used a wand before. The first batch I did 45 seconds, but I realized I did it too hard. The beer stalled. The next one I did it for 30 at a reasonable rate. The beer stalled. I wondered if I was over-oxygenating so I did 20 seconds the next time. The beer stalled. I realized I was probably under-oxygenating after doing some more reading so for my last batch, the Kolsch, I did a low flow rate for 2 minutes prior to pitching. The beer foamed up a ton so I can't imagine there wasn't enough O2 in there. I checked the beer after a week and a half and its stalled.
I checked my Thermopen to make sure it wasn't off and it was all good. I checked my hydrometer and refractometer and they are good. I did change my water to Primo water from Walmart, but its supposed to be like RO water from what I've read and I use minerals to adjust. I also switched to lactic acid rather than acid malt to control mash Ph. I only add salts and acid to my mash or in the boil kettle, I've never added anything to the HLT for sparging.
I have no idea what could be causing this to happen. Its only since switching to my new system that I've been having this problem and its getting so very frustrating! Any ideas what could be going on here?