So I am 14 days into a fairly standard Robust Porter. Pitched a partial cake of Nottingham, measured to size and gravity. Everything went well till about 1 week ago. Pitched at 64F, fermented at 68F, fermentation stalled at 1.025. Confirmed with hydrometer.
I tried rousing the yeast. No gravity movement after 3 days.
I pitched a large fresh batch of rehydrated S-04. No gravity movement after 4 days. I also let the temperature free rise, and it sits in the 74F range. Stuck hard at 1.025.
Any other ideas? Never had Notty let me down before… I really want this down around 1.016.
After rousing, warming up, and pitching more, I’d say you’re stuck there. Was this a recipe that normally finishes ~ 1.016 ? Just wondering about your grist, mash temp, etc. Worst case you could blend it with a drier one, or maybe add some crushed coffee beans to your secondary or keg, to balance out some of the excess sweetness/richness.
Sure. I have brewed this once before, it finished at 1.015. 10.5 gallons at 80% efficiency. OG weighed in at 1.064, higher than the last batch at 1.058.
Mashed at 152F (60 minutes), pH at 5.5
18 # Maris Otter
2 # Brown Malt
1 # Pale Chocolate
1 # Carared
6 oz Debittered Black Malt
4 oz Roast Barley
Irish Moss
48 g Northern Brewer @ 60
48 g Cascade @ Flameout - steep 15 minutes
Pitched estimated 500 billion cells of Nottingham slurry, 5 days old.
Except for the sweetness, the roast flavor is spot on. I used up some extra dark malt sitting around - hence so many specialty malts in the recipe - but I didn’t change it this time. There was nothing out of the normal through the mash or boil. Fermentation started out quite vigorously and just stopped right there.
I like the suggestion of the roast coffee. It would take 5 gallons of a very dry beer to bring this down a bit. I suppose a similar recipe around 1.050 on US-05 could perhaps attenuate that low and not bring any funky off flavors in blending.
I do have some Trappist High Gravity I could run a starter on. Just don’t want the phenols and esters from it. May not matter as this is too sweet as it sits.
My theory here, and I’m no scientist, adding the yeast that has not been fermenting (cake, liquid or dry) to the beer that already has a significant amount of alcohol, does nothing but piss them off. Giving them a small 1.040 starter ahead of time allows them to hit the ground running.
Sounds like a candidate for Brett. This week’s episode of Basic Brewing Radio featured a bunch of beers that the brewer thought finished a bit sweet. He decanted the bottles back into fermenters and refermented with Brett B, Brett C or Lacto. The Brett Brux version was the favorite of the porters.
I’d go smaller personally. I would try 1 liter shaken a couple of times in the beginning then pitched at krausen. Maybe even smaller volume. Anybody else have thoughts?
I actually have a 15 gallon whiskey barrel hydrating, just was planning something belgian-ish for it. It’s already had Brett Brux and Trois beers in it - so this would head that way quickly. I also have some dregs from bottles of Trinity Red Swingline I dragged back to Texas.
I would still need to brew another 5 gallons of this for the barrel anyway. The fermenter is fine sitting for another week - so I just need to make a plan and execute. Was hoping to have the porter ready to drink in a few weeks… but I can put something else down for that.
Notty gets me about 77-78% attenuation every single time, REGARDLESS of mash temperature or amount of crystal malt. Maybe all you need to do is pitch more Notty. I am very surprised by your result. You did not use any lactose or maltodextrin, correct??
You can even just grab some yeast off the bottom of the fermenter for krausening (that way you can save the other packet)
If I need to get a yeast starting for another beer, I sometimes stick my racking cane into he yeast cake at the bottome of a beer and siphon off into a two liter flask and let it settle for an hour or so… then decant the beer on top and dump in some 1.036 wort I made up with DME.
Do this an when the yeast is fully going, dump it in.
I would keep the yeast starter at room temp and dump into room temp beer. (That way temperature wont be a shock to the new yeast) My experience is that you need to pitch in active yeast to bring the beer down further. Sleeping yeast…stay sleeping. Active yeast…stays active, and at the very least, grabs a bedtime snack before going to sleep.
No, I’d say the last resort is Amylase Enzyme. That’ll dry it out, but there’s no way to stop it where you want it. You could end up with a porter that finishes at 1.005.