Stuck Fermentation

[tahoetavern]

Is my brew toast? I brewed a Brewers Best extract "Belgian Tripel" on Oct 14th my OG was a little high 1.088 target (1.083-1.086) I took my first FG reading on Dec 1st. It was 1.030 still high (1.017-1.020) was my target. I repitched some yeast on Dec 10th. I went on vacation and rechecked when i got home on Jan 2nd. Still no change. I pitched another pack last night as a last ditch effort. Am I wasting my time? Or is there something I can still try? Any help would be awesome.... Thanks

 

[firestem4]

What yeast are you pitching? Maybe the ABV is too getting too high for the strain?

 

[ncbrewer]

Or if it was an extract batch, it might be done. Sometimes extract beer stops at a higher than expected FG.

 

[flars]

Is my brew toast? I brewed a Brewers Best extract "Belgian Tripel" on Oct 14th my OG was a little high 1.088 target (1.083-1.086) I took my first FG reading on Dec 1st. It was 1.030 still high (1.017-1.020) was my target. I repitched some yeast on Dec 10th. I went on vacation and rechecked when i got home on Jan 2nd. Still no change. I pitched another pack last night as a last ditch effort. Am I wasting my time? Or is there something I can still try? Any help would be awesome.... Thanks

What yeasts did you pitch and the amount on each of those days.

 

[tahoetavern]

First pitch was a pack of Safale US-05, second was a pack of Safbrew s-33. It was a extract brew. The beer tasts good it is just to sweet. Both were 11.5 g packs

 

[boydster]

I wouldn't use S-33 to try and save a stuck fermentation, it has been a little finnicky for me in the past.

Are you rehydrating the yeast? That is a big beer, and if you are just dry pitching, you could have been seriously underpitching, resulting in the poor attenuation you are seeing. I would probably make a starter with some liquid yeast and pitch it at high krausen to try and take the beer down a little further. Extract can sometimes finish at a higher gravity than the target, but if it still tastes sweet I would try to help it finish before attempting to bottle it.

FWIW, I like T-58 for a dry Belgian yeast. If you get a chance to try it, I would recommend it.

 

[tahoetavern]

I rehydrated on the second pitch. Learned about it after the first attempt. My local HBS is very limited so I grabbed the best that I could.

 

[tahoetavern]

I rehydrated the second pitch. Learned about it after I did the first one. My local HBS is very limited, so I got the best yeast I could.

 

[RonPopeil]

first, US-05 won't make a tripel mate. second, it would be best practice to use the same yeast when you repitch. third, you're underpitching by a lot. 1.088 OG is way high for a single packet of dry yeast. realistically you'd need to use 3-4 packets.

try buying some wyeast 1056 or white labs wlp001 along with some light DME. fill a large pot with 2 quarts of water and 1cu of the DME. bring to a boil and let it roll for 10 minutes before soaking it in a sink full of cold water. once it's cooled pour it off into a sanitized pitcher, spaghetti sauce jar, etc. anything that can hold the fluid. pour the vial in and let it work. once that clears out pour off most of the liquid and swirl it up then throw it in the bucket.

 

[tahoetavern]

I will order some liquid yeast tonight, I don't think I will ever use dry yeast again...

 

[boydster]

I like dry yeast, but it still needs some TLC to make the best beer, just like liquid. Good luck, hope this batch turns out well for you. Just be sure to do the starter and pitch at high krausen, otherwise the yeast are likely going to just stay dormant (your beer is a much more hostile environment for them now than it was right before you pitched).