Yet Another Stuck Ferment Question...

[tomc]

I put on a kit two weekends ago and then went away for a fortnight with work.

When I left I had a nice frothy head of FV and thought everything was going swimmingly... It wasn't.

I pitched the yeast at an OG (Nottingham) at 1.042. After 14 days in the FV it seems to be stuck at 1.030 and is not budging.

Some emergency actions yesterday morning involved re-pitching another sachet of Nottingham and giving it a gentle rousing. I started the new yeast off in about a pint of wort and it seemed quite happy. However when I came downstairs this morning expecting to see that it had taken off again it hadn't. The little yeasties still seem pretty dormant. Barely a bubble.

The FV is heated with an aquarium heater (which is still working - I checked!). The wort is at 21C.

Is it a case of just leave it for another 24 hours to see what happens? Or is it that because it's been sat for 14 days there is no oxygen left in the wort for the yeaties to get strong on? Am I better off re-racking to a secondary FV and re-oxygenating or worrying about nothing... will nature just take its course?

Many Thanks

[Stomach]

Hi mate.

Firstly, what kit is it and what fermentables went in it?

1030 is high for a stick, so more info and maybe we can sort it for you!

Cheers

[tomc]

Hi Stomach. Thanks for the reply.

Things seems to have improved significantly since the weekend.

The newly pitched yeast appears to like it's new surroundings much better than the old yeast and has helped dropped the SG to 1.016. It's still coming down too. If I can get it to somewhere near the 1.010 mark I'll be very happy.

I'm now planning on just leaving it to sort itself out and rack it in another 10 days or so. Will it suffer from being on the trub for so long - 4 weeks by the time it'll be finished?

It also takes bloody lovely already! I keep taking SG readings... Just to make sure it's still dropping of course...