Vanilla Java Stout Stalling?

[DamageCT]

I am just getting back into the brewing game and recently created a vanilla java imperial stout.
The SG was 1.091 and the yeast seemed to rip through it in about three days but I let it sit on the yeast bed for about 2 weeks.

After checking the gravity before moving it to a secondary, it seemed to be at about 1.030. I used wyeast American ale yeast, it sat at about 65-70 degrees for two weeks. I had a balanced enzyme count with my plain two-row having about 9 more lbs than the rest of the special grains.

Is this a normalish FG for such a large beer? I don't ever remember having an FG of over 1.020 on anything I've ever brewed before and am slightly concerned that it stalled..

 

[flars]

Perhaps it had not stalled, but has a higher SG because of unfermentables in the recipe.

 

[DamageCT]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking may have happened, I'll post the grain bill

 

[DamageCT]

Grain bill attached, plus two vanilla beans and an oz of coffee beans, the coffee beans might be what is keeping it at a higher gravity. Sorry couldn't get it to upload straight up and down for some reason

View attachment 1428329756760.jpg

 

[Hello]

Did you make a starter? With an OG of 1.091, you would have needed it. You're only getting about 67% attenuation there. Based on the grain bill, I think you should be able to get a few points lower, maybe. You're nearing 20% of speciality roasted malts, but I don't think that is too much.

If you didn't make a starter, you could do a force fermentation test. Take about 6-8 ounces of your beer, put it in a flask, pitch an entire package of wine yeast, something cheap like EC-1118 yeast, keep it at room temp for a couple of days then take a gravity reading. If it moved, then your stout is stuck. If not, then it is just done. Now, I will say I did this on a stout myself and it hadn't moved for days. I swirled it and gave it a few more days, (no need to worry about oxidation because I'm tossing the sample anyway) and still no movement. It was at 74F by the time I was done.

I bottled, and I think there was excessive priming sugar used. The bottles are gushers and have had to be kept cold this whole time. Fermentation either kicked up again somehow or the priming sugar was excessive.

 

[DamageCT]

I most definitely made a 1.5L starter. I repitched now that it's down to 1.030 and haven't seen much activity at all since the repitch (Saturday), should I just move to the secondary and see if it works itself out within a week?

 

[Hello]

You could do that and see what happens. It really may just be done then.

 

[DamageCT]

I might give it a few more days on the yeast bed and then move it and update everyone in a week or two :/

 

[flars]

I wouldn't move it off the yeast cake until you know whether it is stuck or done. The force ferment with a SG sample, is a good way of doing this.

I wouldn't move it to a secondary brite tank at all. Three weeks in the primary, for a beer that finished in 6 to 12 days, will be sufficient time to compact the yeast/trub layer and clear the beer.