I need to have my head examined. I rewrote my stout recipe and didn’t noticed there’s way to much crystal malt. When you consider the carapils addition, it’s out of wack. Well, now I have a stuck fermentation. Started at 1.060 and died at 1.030. Five days into primary and I have brown juice. I’ve stirred and waited to no avail. I added another package on us 05 and nothing happened. Now I have yeast but no sugar for it to eat. If I try to bottle it with corn sugar they will probably explode. Should I add 1/2 lb of table sugar to the primary vessel and see if it eats it? It’s an 8 gallon batch boiled down to 7.25 gal in the fermenter.
I’m guessing you used a refractometer and didn’t compensate for the presence of alcohol. If this is the case, take a hydrometer reading and you’ll find it’s done, or very close to be done, fermenting and has an FG reading somewhere around 1.012
Nope. Learned that lesson before. This was hydrometer. Readings taken for three straight days.
I guessed refractometer because the numbers worked so well:)
What percentage of the recipe is crystal malt vs base malt? Posting your grain bill would be useful.
If the problem is truly too much crystal malt then it’s not a stuck fermentation, it’s simply done fermenting and you will have a cloyingly sweet beer. If this is the case you won’t have bottle bombs unless you have an infection.
Thanks for the response. The recipe is:
12 lb Maris Otter
2 lb Aromatic malt
1.25 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb Carawheat
1 lb carapils
8 oz crystal 120
8 oz Black Pearl
1 lb Flaked oats
Mashed at 156°F
Ph 5.2
Pre-Boil gravity 1.060
1 oz Warrior @60 min
.5 oz Tettnang @ 30 min
.5 oz Tettnang @ 15 min
1 tsp Fermax nutrient last 10 min of Boil
1 whirlfloc @ 10 min
1tsp Irish Moss @ 10 min
2 pkg US 05 rehydrated with 2 cups cooled, 70°F water which was boiled with 1 tsp Fermax added.
Yeast pitched into 70°F, well shaken wort.
So … 2½ lbs out of 19¼ lbs (mental arithmetic in public 
)?
About 13%. That’s a bit high, but no less a source than Brewing Classic Styles includes a full 10% crystal in their Foreign Extra Stout.
As a data point: according to Dave, Pete’s Wicked Ale had 15% C60 in it.
If not too much unfermentable malt then what? Mash temp could be lower but 156° isn’t out of range. Two packs of US 05 PLUS nutrients should have sent the airlock into the ceiling! I suppose it’s time for some sugar.
My current Amber has 20% Caramel (17% C40, 3% C120). It went from 1051 to 1009 with Bry-97.
Calibration of the thermometer in the mash? It could be that the real temperature was a bit higher? If calibrated, then I would guess that it must have been the yeast giving out.
Holy cow…2 lb. aromatic? 1.25 lb. chocolate?
I use three thermometers when I brew. I had a bad one once. Never again.
Holy cow…2 lb. aromatic? 1.25 lb. chocolate?
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I take it you disapprove. Do you think this is the problem? If so, please elaborate. As far as taste goes, it’s pretty good. I’m going for a nutty flavor and thought this would work. I also toasted about two pounds of the Maris for ten minutes at 350°F for the same reason.
I take it you disapprove. Do you think this is the problem? If so, please elaborate. As far as taste goes, it’s pretty good. I’m going for a nutty flavor and thought this would work. I also toasted about two pounds of the Maris for ten minutes at 350°F for the same reason.
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Yeah, besides the crystal you have a lot of other low/non fermentable there.
Not sure what’s going on and I don’t know enough to adjust your recipe without tasting the beer. I’ve been in this boat a few times where a beer I designed came out not the way I wished. I like to brew “blend-in” recipes to see what happens if I try to salvage these beers. In your case, I might brew the same recipe with the crystal malt, aromatic, and chocolate malts reduced and/or eliminated so as to have something I can blend into the original brew. It often works, and I learn a few things by approaching the problem this way. Try it! Or don’t!
I expected to lose some DP roasting the MO, but I figured two pounds wouldn’t make this big of a difference. I also am surprised that it’s not disgustingly sweet with all of that uneaten sugar floating around in there. My calculations were based on beer smith’s which gave Maris Otter a Linter of 120. That with the aromatic malt calculates to 64. That seemed like enough to me but maybe I’m wrong.
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I also am surprised that it’s not disgustingly sweet with all of that uneaten sugar floating around in there.
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Not enough diastatic power would have left a lot of starches unconverted so I wouldn’t expect the result to be excessive sweetness.
Well at least it tastes good enough to drink. I’ll just have to consider this a featherweight stout and be done with it. I just wish I knew what I did wrong so as not to waste anymore time and money.
I will try this one more time without roasting the Maris Otter and adding less adjuncts. I will also lower temp mash, and maybe add some amylase enzyme to the mash.