Stuck fermentation lager

[Bart]

Hey all,

I made a dopplebock OG 1.084. Everything by the book been keeping it in my keezer with a temp of 47F its been fermentating for 2.5 weeks. Around week and a half into fermentation i noticed that the krausan was gone. I checked the gravity week 2 and it was at 1.051. I incresed the temp to 52F to maybe excite the yeast a bit. Nothing. I swirled the bottom a bit, nothing. I checked the gravity after 3 days and its still at 1.051. Airlock is bubbling a bit but im assuming its just the left over CO2 coming out . The yeast was a wyeast bohemian lager 2124 which i did a 2 stage 2 liter yeast starter. So 4 lites which was about 400g of dme. I decant the yeast starter and pitched at 50F. What do i do now?

 

[GoeHaarden]

All-grain or Extract? Hydrometer or refractometer? Do you by chance remember how old the yeast was? Even with week old yeast, it looks like you may have underpitched a tad for a 1.084 lager...

You could try pitching some rehydrated 34/70. I've never used it for a stuck fermentation, but it has always performed solid for me and I'm pretty sure 34/70 is close to, if not, the same as wyeast 2124.

 

[Bart]

Extract, and with a hydrometer. The yeast was about a month to two months old but i used 2 packages and two 2 liter starters.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Ohhh....two separate 2L starters should be enough. Being an extract brew, it really only points the finger at your yeast now which sounds like it was bad.

I guess I would either repitch some 34/70 and/or ramp the heat up to 65-68F to see if you get any kind of response.

 

[divrack]

thats weird if everything was indeed by the book. did the yeast look nice and creamy or dark and bad and how did the starters go?

id maybe try chucking in some dry lager yeast as suggested.. although any lager ive made that didnt go perfectly has ended up being a waste of space... have you given it a sniff to see whats happening re off flavours? you could always chuck in some ale yeast for shits and giggles and see what happens finishing it warm. im guessing it wont be very good anyway. i had some lager batches i thought id done everything right with turn out bad, or at least not good. that said ive never done extract brewing so im not sure if there are any common causes of problems on that side.