Hey all. I brewed Jamil’s Black Forest Stout for a holiday beer. OG was 1.071. Primary went well. I put two cans of cherry puree from Northern Brewer into a secondary fermenter and racked the stout on top, gravity was down 1.019. I don’t brew with fruit, but was expecting a vigorous refermentation to kick off. Quite the opposite has occurred. The cherry puree just seems to be sitting on the bottom of the fermenter and there are few signs of anything going on. No CO2 action that I can see (i have a blowoff tube in some starsan), and no swirling as in primary. There was a tiny thin layer of foam/krausen? on the top for a few days, but nothing spectacular by any means. It’s been about 10 days. I haven’t taken a gravity reading, but the later of fruit just siting on the bottom really bothers me. Any advice?
You definitely need to take a gravity reading. If it hasn’t dropped as much as expected (about 3 “points” for every pound of sugar), it could be because there isn’t enough yeast left to ferment the fruit in a reasonable timeframe. Swirling the yeast and fruit back into suspension could help, or you may have to pitch more yeast. (For this reason, I would generally add fruit in the fermenter.)
I did stir earlier this week, but didn’t seem to help. If I do add more yeast, could I just sprinkle some dry yeast, let sit for a couple of minutes, then stir it in? Or does the yeasthave to be active?
At a minimum, I’d rehydrate it. Pitching an active starter would probably be better.
Fermentation of beer racked over fruit in a secondary probably isn’t going to look the same as the initial primary fermentation. I’ve given up on trying to guess how fermentation is going based on how it looks.
A gravity reading is the only reliable way to gauge the progress of fermentation.
Pitched a rehydrated pack of nottingham. Will wait a couple of days and see what/if anything happens. If not, I’ll take a reading. Maybe it is just done. Smells darn good!