Hello all... long question here, but trying to get all the info I can in there.
I brewed 10 gallons of strong golden, split into 2 batches. The first batch fermented with the ardennes strain (3522, I think) and went down to 1.008 in a week so all good there. The second half of the batch isn't going so well... I used the 1388 strain, it stopped at 1.034 after a week and didn't move again for a full week. I got another big pitch of 1388 going and pitched that in, a week later it's dropped to 1.016 and appears to have stopped again, but that's still much too high... I really want it to dry out to around 1.006 or so. It's not a wort problem as the other half of the batch went down nice and low... both batches were also aerated the same, so I'd say not an oxygen problem.
For temperature, I've been doing what I read was recommended for these yeast strains... start pretty cool then just let it go as high as it wants. I started around 62 and it was up around 80 after a week.
Any recommendations? I'm thinking of just pitching a ton of cal ale or champagne yeast in there to see if I can drop it down the rest of the way. Just not sure if even cal ale will be able to get started in there since I'm 8% alcohol already and probably not much o2 left.
