Does anyone have thoughts on what could lead a beer to under-attenuate? The situation is this, I recently brewed a batch of our smoked porter (7bbl system) which had a starting gravity of 15.0 degrees plato. The mash was normal (single temp infusion at 154 degrees F). We use the whitelabs california ale yeast, and I pitched about 3-4 gallons for a 7bbl batch. Nothing out of the ordinary, fermentation seemed to start fine and the beer I pulled the yeast from had attenuated to 72%. However this batch of smoked porter got stuck at 7.3 degrees plato.
My first thought was that I must have under-pitched the beer, and so I added more healthy yeast, and have managed to get the beer down to 6.7 degrees plato (or about 55 % attenuation). Obviously I'm not comfortable serving the beer as is and I'd hate to have to dump it. If anyone has thoughts on what might have caused the problem in the first place, or if anybody has a trick up there sleeve for restarting a stuck fermentation I'd be forever grateful.
If you're ever in Lake Placid, NY stop in and I'll buy you a brew.
thanks...
My first thought was that I must have under-pitched the beer, and so I added more healthy yeast, and have managed to get the beer down to 6.7 degrees plato (or about 55 % attenuation). Obviously I'm not comfortable serving the beer as is and I'd hate to have to dump it. If anyone has thoughts on what might have caused the problem in the first place, or if anybody has a trick up there sleeve for restarting a stuck fermentation I'd be forever grateful.
If you're ever in Lake Placid, NY stop in and I'll buy you a brew.
thanks...
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