1.030 and Stop. Twice.

[tomc]

Hello.

I've been making my first forays into Extract brewing and seem to be hitting a wall.

I chose the Bathams extract recipe from GW's book as it seemed like a simple recipe to follow... and I had access to the right ingredients. Everything seemed to go well and I hit my expeceted OG of 1.045. I was pretty pleased with myself!

The brew was then stored at 20C with some liquid WLP002 yeast which I'd stepped up myself. There was plenty of activity initially, then it stopped at 1.030.

Figuring I'd done something wrong with the yeast I tipped in some more and gave it a gentle rousing. Then as I had some time on my hands put another brew on. This batch, I put a fresh sachet of Nottingham yeast in to make sure it wasn't the yeast. This second brew has also now stopped dead at 1.030 after plenty of initial action.

So, I now have two brews in FV's. One two+ weeks old and the other one+ week old. Both seem to have hit the same 1.030 wall and there is very little sign of anything going on in either of them.

1) What can I do to rescue them?
2) What can I do to prevent myself from hitting this wall?

At the moment I'm going to be having a very thirsty Christmas!

Many Thanks

[seymour]

I agree, that's odd. You've got two good attenuating yeasts, ideal temperature, should be a very fermentable wort... Dunno. I'd buy or borrow another hydrometer and make sure you're getting accurate readings. Don't forget some require a temperature adjustment.

[tomc]

I've checked the hydrometer and it reads a nice 1.000 with tap water at 20C, so I'm pretty confident its the beer not the hydrometer.

Both beers taste pretty sweet, which suggests that there is something there for the yeast to munch. However it seems that both yeast strains are finding it is not to their liking.

Losing one beer is disappointing, but two

[barney]

how old is the extract?
I am sure that I read somewhere that fermentabilty(is that a word?) decreases with the age of the extract.

[tomc]

The extract (light DME) came from Worcester Hop Shop within the last month. It was in 1kg sealed bags until the day of use. There's no date on the bags, but I have no reason to doubt its freshness.

[worcshopshop]

Your batch of spray malt has a best before date of September 2013.

We will make sure that best before dates are now printed on the labels.

very best regards,

John

[CestrIan]

It could be initial aeration. Did you give it a damn good thrashing before you pitched the yeast? If not then you won't get enough yeast growth to turn all of the sugars in to alcohol.
OR
What temp did you pitch at and could the temp have dropped below 16C during the night?

[tomc]

Thanks for the advice. It could be the aeration. I thought I'd been rough enough with it, but perhaps not... Is there anything I can do to get it going? I assume aerating it now will be a mistake?

I've got an aquarium heater in the FV so pretty confident it's been kept at a nice 20° since the yeast was pitched. Also tried warming it a couple of degrees when I roused to see if it took off again. It didn't.

[seymour]

Thanks for the advice. It could be the aeration. I thought I'd been rough enough with it, but perhaps not... Is there anything I can do to get it going? I assume aerating it now will be a mistake?...

It's up to you. It's possible you could kick-start the yeast again through aeration and increased warmth, maybe even pitch a new yeast packet or a more highly-attenuating strain. The trade-off might be some oxidation, but I think that threat is a bit overrated. English ale is typically drunk very fresh, before it has a chance to become truly stale, and if we're talking about English Old Ale/Stock Ale then oxidation is a desired trait.

If you really want to put the aeration theory to the test, get a drill-mounted paint stirrer, ala Ditch Stout and gun the hell outta it for several minutes. If that doesn't renew activity, at least that's one less thing to worry about...

[Jim]

I'd agree that aeration could be an issue with the WLP002, but I wouldn't have thought it was an issue with the Nottingham (not in my experience, anyway). It's puzzling!

Maybe temperature is a problem - a max/min thermometer would help diagnose that if you have access to one.

[tomc]

That's the plan then!

1) Off to screwfix to get a new paint stirrer. I don't think I can properly sanitise the used DIY one in my garage...
2) Chuck in some yeast nutrient
3) Beat the hell out of it
4) Warm it up to about 22C

If that doesn't get it going. I can safely discount aeration from the list of causes.

I will have to put a max/min thermometer on the Christmas list too. This hobby was supposed to save me money!

[seymour]

...This hobby was supposed to save me money!

Ha, that's a good one! I know it's what you told the significant other, but you didn't actually believe it, did you?

[simon50]

- it may be the extract i think ?

i am experiencing the same problems from DME i bought from worcester hop shop too unfortunately - FG always of ~1.030 although it is past expiry (i got a big bag from them out of date) so i don't know if that is a contributory factor, it was medium though, i don't know the brand.

i posted a couple of threads here because i thought it may be down to bad practice on my part due to temperature control with lager yeast, but i then tried an ale with s04 @ 20c, made sure to aerate it as much as possible, fermentation started within several hours and had a vigorous fermentation, it finished @ 1.032.

i made a 2l starter previously with champagne yeast to try get the lager down some (raised the temp to 20c before adding), but the champagne yeast wouldn't drop it down either, they both ended up in the toilet.

it's probably ok for using for kits i suppose (?) when not accounting for so much of the fermentables as with extract.

i ordered some extract from elsewhere recently, so will be able to confirm my findings in the next few weeks.

i don't wish to bad mouth the company though, because the service is excellent.

[tomc]

Thanks Simon. That's interesting. I have read your thread and it seems a very similar story.

I added another sachet of Nottingham yeast to that brew, plus some yeast nutrients. Then aerated the hell out of it yesterday morning. It was at least 5 minutes with the power drill and paint paddle.

Raised the aquarium heater to 22C and left it till this morning.

Just taken a measurement, it is still reading 1.030 and the nice foamy head that was present after aeration yesterday has completely disappeared. Not a bubble to be seen. It just looks dead and won't budge past 1.030. Also now tastes bloody awful, but that's probably because all the trub from the bottom hasn't settled back out.

I'll run a trial batch in a milk bottle using nothing but extract, starting at about 1.050, but unfortunately my suspicions at the moment are the same as yours.

I get the feeling these brews are both due for the toilet. I just hope that my remaining extract isn't destined for the bin

Seymour wrote:
I know it's what you told the significant other, but you didn't actually believe it, did you?

That's what she believes, but where all this extra kit is coming from is getting harder and harder to explain...

[simon50]

i'm pretty gutted too, i have about 15kg left

i was looking at "pilsner enzyme", to make use of the DME, not especially out of choice! the beer is supposed to come out very thin, with a uncontrollably low FG in the 1.000 region i think, don't know if it would work / is a stupid idea.

http://www.brewery.org/brewery/library/enzymes595.html

surely better then beer coming out tasting of splenda though (?)