It all depends.........sound familiar?
The main areas of concern with low attenuation are yeast culture,
fermenting temperature, and quantity of non-fermentables.
Some cultures finish sweet and others attenuate a little dryer. This
is one variable to consider. Could it be that the culture is, say, a 1968
or a Irish style? This could be a normal and typical TG for this culture
although a little higher than I prefer.
Temperature and flocculation are two areas that can contribute to high
TG. If the temperature is much below 66° some cultures flocculate and drop
out of suspension. Fermentation may continue slowly and adding a few
degrees and a couple of good swirls may re-engage fermentation. I have had
very interesting and similar results using some of the temperamental
cultures.
Non fermentable sugars cause heavy body and high TG. What temperature
was the grain mashed? Were there large quantities of dextrines added
or generated?
I would suggest adding some heat, rousing up the yeast,
and re-measuring in one week. If too sweet, boil some hops and
water for an hour and add the liquid portion to balance against the excessive
sweetness.
Best of luck.
Rick O
>>> "Crist, Jonathan" <
cristj@bsci.com> 03/04/02 08:33AM
>>>
A friend ran into a few problems on a porter (1.080 SG). He
pitched 2 tubes
of yeast (one Wyeast and one White Labs) and it started
fermentation well
but stalled out at 1.033. I had him add a little yeast
energizer - it
restarted and dropped to 1.028 and still is fermenting very
slowly.
70% attenuation should get him down to 1.024 and that still
seems sweet.
2 questions:
1) should he be patient and wait, or try
more energizer or more yeast or
?????
2) if the yeast have stalled out,
what should he do when he bottles? At the
current pace the bottle might
eventually charge. Adding priming sugar might
just make a sweeter flat
beer.
I read in a winning MHBA recipe adding a little 2024 pilsen yeast
at
bottling - is this one possibility, or dangerous with that much
available
sugar?