Beer Forum

Well I was all ready to bottle my Merchantman Stout (Foreign style dry stout) out of the secondary and I decided to take one more reading. It had dropped from 1.068 to 1.030 over the course of the primary fermentation, then slowly moved to 1.025 over 2 weeks of secondary. Its been another week and I figured the SG would have dropped some more. It hasn't - in fact it read 1.028 at 66F, but its pretty fizzy so I could be getting some buoyancy from carbonation on the hydrometer. I was expecting attenuation to 1.015 - 1.020 with WLP004.

I figure at this point rousing the yeast and giving it some more time is the thing to do. I tasted my hydro sample, and it does taste a bit sweet, but overall its really great - full bodied and fragrant with all kinds of chocolately flavor overtones. Nice and smooth, though any hop aroma from the Northern Brewers I used seems to be buried in the malt. I'd really hate to turn it all into bottle bombs though.

Its an extract brew, using Cooper's amber I think. Could an extract stout hang at 1025 like this? Also, I've never had to rouse a brew before. I took the entire secondary and shook until the lees were back in suspension and a thick head had developed. Should I shoot some 02 in there? There was about 1/4" of yeast sedimented into the lees; will repitching be necessary? Any commentary is welcome.

Try warming it up. Bring it up to 70-75 and give the yeast a swirl again.

Travis

Tips on procedure? Snuggling up to it? Hot water in a big tub?

The one time I did it I used an electric hot pad in a towel. Set the hot pad on low and use the number of towels between it and the fermenter to contol the temp. Not very high tech, but it worked for me.


Travis

Just a shot in the dark, but have you checked your hydro lately? I was having a problem meeting my expected FG on the last 4 batches or so. I decided to check my hydro and low and behold it was reading 1.003 at 60 degrees in distilled water. This may not be your issue, but a simple check of the hydro can't hurt.

No, though that's a good idea. Is plain tap water the best calibrating test? Or do I have to find some RO or distilled water?

You need to use RO or distilled.

Travis

Thankfully, not a problem for me, since we have a still in the lab at work. I'll get a liter of it for future convenience. Thanks.