2.5 weeks ago I brewed what was supposed to be a 1.100 OG ale (June Zymurgy Lagunitas Brown Shugga’ clone). My 60 minute mash was 2o under, @ 153o instead of 155o. I used a stir plate and pitched a 1800mL starter, per Mr. Malty, at 59o, and have slowly been warming it up since then. It’s currently up to 66.
My issue is I’ve been stuck at 1.040 for about 5 days now. I added some yeast nutrient and roused the cake twice. I’m probably answering my own question, but could being 2o under lead to such a difference in readily available sugars that my FG could end up being so high? Should I raise the temp to the low 70’s?
Your yeast was in the low 60’s for 2.5 weeks? raising it to about 68 degrees would allow the yeast to be more active, therefore, lowering your attenuation. But it has been a while since you pitched. If that were my situation I would pitch a new starter. A fewer amount of yeast cells though
Not sure where that guy is supposed to end up, but you may have a combination of issues here - big beer overstressed yeast; less fermentable wort than expected; dormant/shocked yeast. But the starter should have been pretty close to what is needed at 1800ml, the mash temp is not out of line at that temperature and I can’t imagine the yeast was shocked at 59F. Is there a possibility that the temperatures are inaccurate? I would raise it up at this point and see what happens. Then perhaps try a hardy yeast strain addition to see if it can metabolize it further.
good luck and post what you do and what happens - I am curious to know.
Adding some safale 05 was on the top of my list of fixes. I should have prefaced that my fermentation chamber is a big square igloo cooler filled with ice packs and water, so while the water temp outside the carboy started at 59, the internal temp was probably closer to 65 once fermentation started. I even mixed the grains for 10 minutes because the grain bill was so large (22.5 lbs). I’ll pitch some more yeast and will let you know what happens.
This is also the third time this has happened to me in the past year or so, esp for my bigger brews, so perhaps my thermometer is el cheapo and it’s time to get a new one.
My experience with 1968/WLP002 is that you need to oxygenate well and pitch about 2X what the calculators say in order to get it to finish before it drops. 3 days at 62 then up to 68-70 to finish.
What you guys are all missing is that WLP002 is a very quick flocculating yeast. You may only need to rouse the yeast on the bottom to get it started again. The Burton Union system was designed to keep this strain in suspension - it loves to clump together and drop out. Try rousing, if that doesn’t work a fresh slurry should work.
rousing wlp002 can be a big pain in the butt. Major, having a conical can probably do it with co2 injected through the bottom valve which might actually work. In my experience short of adding fresh wort you can’t really get this yeast to un-floc by any reasonable means at home. I vote for trying to add a big bump of fresh yeast.
To the OP, if you want to know how much potential for attenuation you have left, take a sample (8-10 floz) and add a whole tube of WLP002 and treat it like a starter. Shake it to aerate. keep it really warm, do everything you can to make the yeast happy instead of trying to make good beer. give it a few days and take a reading on that. That should be pretty close to your true floor on this beer. Then you will at least know for sure that you can get it to go lower or not.
To the op, you say you’ve run into this problem multiple times over the last year with big beers. Have they all been with 002/1968? Have you tried ramping at all?
Kinda makes me wonder about oxygenation of the wort…
IME, you need a good does of O2 and a big healthy pitch of yeast for big beers to attenuate well. With both of those, I’ve been able to get 1968 to do it’s job on a big old ale of +/- 1.098.
To the OP, you mashed way too warm at 153 F for an OG 1.100 beer to expect good attenuation. Next time if you want your FG to get down into the 1.020s, mash at friggin 148 F, especially if using a low attenuating high flocculating yeast like WLP002.
It’s done fermenting.
The only thing you could try now is krausening with an obscenely large yeast “starter”, maybe a full gallon, of highly attenuative yeast such as US-05 or maybe even a saison yeast (I like Belle Saison). With either of those, it won’t produce a lot of flavor anymore given that fermentation is 80% done, but it should finish the job for you. And keep it warm, around 70-ish or maybe even 72-73 F.