I have a 1.083 OG IPA that stuck at 1.042 after two weeks in a WLP-001 bathed broth of beer. I decided to transfer into a secondary and add some Safale 05. I’m not getting any bubbles in the airlock, but there is a thin layer of krausen. I’ll test the gravity tonight - after four days (hopefully) fermenting. The temp is steady 67 degrees. My other beer, a Red Ale, fully fermented in the same amount of time - 1.053 OG to 1.008 FG… although a different yeast used. Just wondering what could be wrong or how to fix it.
First off, on a 1.083 beer: did you bother to make a starter or pitch enough yeast to begin with? Its really hard to fix a beer if you underpitched. Usually, pitching extra yeast after you under pitched doesn’t do much to help the problem. especially considering that most of the off flavors associated with underpitching happen during the first 72 hours or so of fermentation.
Second, unfortunately, usually the best chance to fix a “stuck” fermentation is the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter. So racking before a fermentation is finished is a bad idea. You may need to pitch a fresh slurry or active starter to get this one stated again.
I had a 1500 mL starter in a (I think) 1.030 gravity wort… let it set and spin on a stir plate for about 12 hours too. But I’ve been having problems with the liquid yeasts I have sent over to where I live (Seoul, South Korea) in that I think they activate during the five to ten day mailing time.
I might just do what you mention and do another Safale-05 starter. Then again, maybe in the four days since I pitched the first Safale-05 yeast it’s started fermenting again.
I would suggest pitching the 2nd active starter, and also warm the beer up as 67 is fairly low after the first couple days, and you shouldn’t have problems with off flavors from temp at this stage in the game. I’ve had success with this method before on a Schwarzbier I’d all but given up on weeks after it had stalled out. Get it up to 72-75 F if you can.