Is it stuck?

[retourrbx]

Hi - I've had a porter going now since the 19th - the OG was 1.054, it is currently at 1.022 and doesnt seem to be doing much...

The fermentation temperature was 15 degrees before a couple of days ago and now its ~20... do you think I should agitate the yeast at the bottom to get the fermentation going again?

I've hears that a blast of CO2 directed to the bottom of teh bucket would be a good idea to mix the yeast up - what do you think?

Cheers

[oxford brewer]

Never heard of the co2 method but its worth giving the yeast a gentle stir back into suspension(with a sterilised spoon of course!) and then checking the gravity in a few days.If its still the same gravity then it has finished or stuck.
Is the Porter a kit beer? if it is then try this http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3523
If not others will be along later to help

[retourrbx]

Thanks - reading through that, I've given it a stir and I'll leave it until the weekend to see if it has lowered the gravity. It was an extract recipe. I've got another load of ingredients waiting to be made up so I can do this over the weekend, make a large yeast starter and put some of that yeast in with the porter... Lack of aeration and too cold a temperature have hindered its progress I think - I need to make a wort stirrer for my drill... oh yes! and use an aquarium heater...

[retourrbx]

Would the yeast nutrient for a wine yeast be acceptable?

If I just dropped some of the yeast nutrient into the porter now would that rouse the yeast do you think?

[retourrbx]

I added some yeast nutrient and gave it a stir... nothing... I repitched some yeast.. nothing... (although it wasn't a great deal)

When I sparged I let the grains sit in the water rather than rinsing them - could that affect the FG?

i think i'm going to get this into secondary and accept that it's going to be a very mild porter

[retourrbx]

The speciality grains that needed to be added - they were in a grain bag in the 2 gallons of water at around 65 degrees for half an hour, then i sat them in a gallon of fresh water at 70 degrees and added this to the two gallons before adding the malt extracts to this three gallons and bringing to the boil...

[retourrbx]

http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.ph ... ale+Recipe

this was the recipe pretty much... not to worry, if it tastes nice I can drink more of it...

[SteveD]

2 kg of specialty malts seems a lot.

I'm in agreement with Daab. There seems a lot of dextrine producing malts there which will up your final gravity, plus if you didn't give the yeast a fighting chance initially then it will tend to stop short on something like this. If the nutrient, a rouse, and pitching another yeast has no effect then I suspect it's already fermented out the maltose. Bung it into a secondary or a cask, stick it in a quiet corner, and forget about it for a while.

I have a porter that started at 1070 and stopped at 1024 - dextrin. Subsequently over 2.5 months of maturation it has dropped slowly to quarter gravity and is drinking nicely already. Just give it time.

[retourrbx]

Thanks I will do... so even if the fg is high, that is due to unfermentables and the alcohol content would actually be higher than it would first seem?