Another Stuck Fermentation

[Hale's Ales]

We brewed a Quad, around 21p came from the Malt, the additional 8p came from candy and turbinado sugars. Mash temp was 147 and then did an addition of very hot water to bring it up to 155. We added Yeastex and oxygenated using 02. Yeast was WL575 Belgian Yeast Blend.

Fermentation profile:
Day 0 29p 70F
Day 1 26.5p 74F
Day 2 17.3p 88F (At this point I freaked out a little bit and chilled it to 80F)
Day 3 13.2p 80F
Day 4 11.4p 80F
Day 5 11.1p 76F
Day 6 11.1p 72F (Stuck!)
Day 10 11.1p 65F Repitch with champagne yeast (White Labs) prop
Day 11 11.1p 65F Short Oxygenation
Day 12 11.1p 65F

9.45% abv right now.

At my sample port I'm still getting 50x10^6 c/mL, but my top krausen is nonexistent. I just started a force fermentation test using and ale strain.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[kugeman]

I've never used that particular Belgian strain, but given my experiences with Saison and Trappist yeast, I have to think that chilling the tank (even down to 80) probably shocked the yeast into dormancy. I think your options are:

1)Try and wait it out. Maybe the yeast will come back from the dead on its own. It has happened before, but again I don't have any specific info on this strain.

2)Warm up the tank by circulating hot water through the jackets. Then hope that the yeast begins working again. I have done this with success before.

3)Finish off the beer with another ale yeast strain. Ideally a yeast that will be very happy at 65F. (I'm suprised the Champagne yeast didn't have any effect, but I've never used it so I don't know how to make that yeast happy...)

Just my quick thoughts. Does anyone out there have experience with this specific strain?

[hopsick]

stuck ferment

Try o2ing some new "yeast" .....in a seperate vessel for 15min at 5 psi and pitch into the fermenter ...or do a new starter..good luck

[IPAMEASAP]

stuck

Big beers need big starters, did you under pitch? Even if you purchase yeast that is enough to do 1 batch, according to the supplier, you still might need to build it up before pitching.

[drewseslu]

My guess is that it was the temperature shock that did the yeast in.
Use of Champagne yeast may have limited your other options, as I recall, some champagne yeasts produce chemicals that can inhibit other yeast strains...but I could be off base here.
Good luck, that is one mighty big beer!

[South County]

I have a power point on saison/belgians from a conference and the one thing that is common that surprised me was that all the big Belgian style producers pitch into 50F wort and allow to free rise into the 80F range. I attribute this to a of refrigeration in those years and maybe a better way to control the exothermic reaction occurring. Seems like 8F in 24 hrs may have been to much. If you care to look at that power point get me your email and I'll send it over.

[Graydon]

Stuck

I would calculate my approximate finishing Grav from the non-fermentables and 15% of the turbinado. If you haven't achieved this value you can try stirring with CO2 for 15 min. This should be injected at the bottom of the fermenter to stir as much yeast as possible. The yeast you mentioned isn't on my WL chart but the champaigne yeast shouldn't have a problem with the alcohol.

Good Luck
Graydon