I’m brewing my second ever batch of beer, it a 5 gallon batch of Belgian Sasion from malt extract. My first batch was a German Heffeweise that turned out perfect and made me think that this wasn’t that tricky.
After boiling I had an OG of 1.057 and I used a liquid yeast, after 12 hours it was going wild for about 24 hours. I live in Arizona so the temp was around 78 degrees. Instead of slowing down over a period of days it just stopped after about 36 hours at an SG of 1.025. I tried re-pitching and didn’t get any response, it stayed at 1.025. It’s been four weeks now so it’s decision time, it doesn’t taste bad so should I bottle it or pitch it and move on? Will it carbonate in the bottle if the yeast is dead? Will it blow up if it would start to ferment again with that much sugar? Could it be that the remaining sugar is non-fermentable?
I’m looking for any suggestions…
What yeast did you use?
It’s White Labs WLP568 Belgian Saison yeast.
That yeast is notorious for stalling.
When you added more, was it straight from the tube or did you pitch an active starter?
It will take off again at some point. Try rousing the yeast a bit and warm it up. Keep it as close, to that 78° temp, or higher, as possible. Others may have some ideas to give it a boost.
DO NOT BOTTLE IT! Unless you added a ton of unfermentables, that yeast should take it to 1.006-1.009 even with 100% DME/LME. Bottling will lead to bottle bombs.
Might be an extract problem. Certain extracts are not very fermentable. One thing you could do is add more sugar (like just regular white cane sugar) to jack up the alcohol and get things going again. But if you do that, you’ll need to wait several more weeks for that to ferment out again. Or you can just live with it. Seems like it’s done fermenting. So I do think it’s most likely because of your extract. What was your recipe exactly?
EDIT: Stevie is probably right. I have never used this yeast. Listen to what he says.
It could be the yeast, but it’s common for extract batches to finish with a higher FG than you’d expect.
Sure, but 58% AA with that strain is just not possible IMO. Drew is one of the most experienced with this strain, hopefully he can chime in.
Actually, the next podcast experiment is about saison stall and that yeast. Unless we know what else was in the recipe and what was in the extract, I’m willing to accept that 58% is possible. I’m also willing to accept that it’s a yeast issue.
True, that’s why I mentioned the addition of unfermentables. I’ve used that yeast with all extract (Pils and Muinch) and still got it well below 1.010. It didn’t want to do it, but it got there.
Great to hear about the next episode.
Aha, sounds interesting. The idea that a yeast should stall because of the tiny amount of pressure caused by an airlock (if that is what you’re after) is completely counterintuitive to me.
White Labs 568 is the blend and should not stall like 565. So, you either had really unhealthy yeast, or a lot of unfermentables in the extract.
I’d still leave it in primary for 2 weeks and let it stay warm.
You could pitch some 3711 and see if that helps it finish. But it might already be in the blend.
Definitely warm it up and rouse the yeast.
You’re right. I didn’t catch that.
OP please add the recipe
Edit - how are you measuring the gravity of the wort? Hydrometers or refractometer?
There are a lot of great comments here, I’m using a refractometer for the gravity readings. That said, the original reading was done with a hydrometer so the OG could be off a few points.
The recipe was:
3 lbs. Extra Light DME
3 lbs Wheat DME
1/2 lb 10 L Crystal Malt (Grain)
1/2 lb Carapils (Grain)
1 oz Hersbrucker
2 oz Citra (1 oz in boil and 1 oz as dry hops)
White Labs WPL568
The repitch was CBC1 and all I did was add it to the fermenter.
YAHTZEE!
Post fermentation is best measured with a hydrometer. If you are using a refractometer, you need to use a calculator to get an accurate reading. Sean Terrill has one that many hold in high regard, but others seem to be ok as well. I linked Sean’s below.
I just ran another gravity test using the hydrometer and it’s down to 1.003, so it’s obviously finished. I had the understanding that the refractometer would read the gravity more accurately than the hydrometer, this is a major difference.
Good thinking, Stevie!
Not so. They are good for sugar but get all jacked when alcohol is present. I have also read that refractometers that are dual scale (brix and sg) are not accurate when it comes to the SG scale as it isn’t a true 1:4 ratio. Cheaper refractometers are also not as reliable in my experience. I have one that will read different from sample to sample, but it sounds like yours is consistent!
Edit to add - Hydrometers are calibrated at a given temperature and require a calculation to get the true value. Every hydrometer I have used is calibrated at 60°, but I hear there are some that are calibrated at 68°. Either way, it should be printed on the scale.
To make your life even worse, hydrometers aren’t always accurate and require testing in distilled/DI/RO water at the proper temp to see how far off it is if at all. In my opinion, this only matters if you are using multiple hydrometers. If a hydrometer is off, the difference between OG and FG will still be constant, just not as accurate.
My post doesn’t appear to have shown up yet, when I retested with a hydrometer it showed 1.003 and the yeast did it’s job. I’m going to move on to the bottling phase with confidence that it should be relatively good beer with a ABV of around 5.1%.
Thanks for the information regarding refractometers, my only question now is why would I continue to use it now that I know it can’t be used directly after fermentation starts?
I use mine for preboil and postboil OG measurements, but a hydro for FG readings FWIW.