Is my brew definitely stuck?

[wushurichard]

ok, i made up a silver can stout on tuesday using DME and some additional grains/hops. OG was 1.042 and now it has been at 1.021 for 3 days, i have changed the temp so its now been in a warmer climate for the 3 days.

My question is; should i add a yeast starter yet? If so i have coopers yeast, muntons and some us-05 what would be the best bet?

thanks

[floydmeddler]

You could gently rouse the yeast with a sanitised plastic paddle or spoon. If there is no change over 48 hrs, I'd chuck in the Muntons. OR if you don't mind a dry stout, just chuck in the S05 now.

[Stomach]

You could gently rouse the yeast with a sanitised plastic paddle or spoon. If there is no change over 48 hrs, I'd chuck in the Muntons. OR if you don't mind a dry stout, just chuck in the S05 now.

Does US - 05 give you a dry drink then?

Cheers

[Paddy Bubbles]

It's a more "attenuative" yeast, which means it's more efficient at fermenting the sugars in your wort. It will ferment more of the residual sugars, leaving you with a drier (less sweet) beer.

Be warned, it can take a long time to clear. I've got an amber ale that was fermented with US-05, and it still hasn't cleared after 5 weeks in the bottle. Some serious cold conditioning required. I'd use Nottingham instead. It'll give you a similar profile to US-05 but it flocculates a lot better.

[Stomach]

It's a more "attenuative" yeast, which means it's more efficient at fermenting the sugars in your wort. It will ferment more of the residual sugars, leaving you with a drier (less sweet) beer.

Be warned, it can take a long time to clear. I've got an amber ale that was fermented with US-05, and it still hasn't cleared after 5 weeks in the bottle. Some serious cold conditioning required. I'd use Nottingham instead. It'll give you a similar profile to US-05 but it flocculates a lot better.

Aha, could explain why my Ginger Beer is too dry! I used US - 05 in it!

Thanks for that mate!

Cheers

[Paddy Bubbles]

Not so sure about that Stomach. Your ginger beer was probably made up of a lot of simple sugar, am I right? Any yeast will ferment simple sugars out 100%. I think a lot of ginger beer makers will crack open their brews before the yeast gets a chance to ferment all of the sugar. I've never done ginger beer myself but you could explore the idea of sweetening it with some artificial sweeteners.

But I digress...