Stalled Fermentation

[Skipp]

Hey all,

I'm still new at this hobby, and I'm looking for some help.

I brewed a Brown Ale on May 23rd. Everything seems like it was going fine on my brew day except for my pre boil gravity coming in to low so I did a 90 min boil instead of 60. Doing this got the wort to 1.055og. I fermented with WLP007 (2 vials) for 10 days at 67f. On day 10 I took a reading and see my gravity was at 1.030. so I let it go for a few more days and it had not changed. I called my LHBS and was told to rouse the yeast cake and raise the temp to 72f. Then 2 days later the gravity hasn't changed. SO I contacted the LHBS was told to repitch more yeast, its still at 1.030. Finally I was told to try some yeast energizer and here we are 72 hours later and I'm still at 1.030.

Does anyone else have any solutions? Any thoughts on what did I do wrong? Should I just consider this batch a bust and dump it?

Thanks,
Steve
From Phoenix

[brewinhard]

Did you properly aerate the wort? What did your grain bill look like? What was your mash temp? Is your thermometer and hydrometer properly calibrated?

We just need some extra info to help guide you here. (I would not consider this a dumper yet).

[Skipp]

9.5lbs Marris Otter
1lbs Crystal 60
.25lbs Chocolate Malt
1.6oz Black Patent


Mash was to be 152f however it fell to 146f.

I shook the carboy for 2 min to aerate.

I calibrated the refractometer with distilled water prior to using it on the brew day.

--UPDATE--

I just got help with this on another forum. Maybe someone here can explain why the Refractometer doesnt work for FG?

[brewinhard]

Refractometers are not accurate for useful work with FG because the alcohol produced during fermentation throws off the readings unless you want to do some crazy math every time. Hydrometers are much more accurate for
FG readings (provided they are properly calibrated)

[Effingbeer]

Looks like you're at 1.014 FG after quick entry into Brewmath app. And thats probably where you need to be, especially if you've ha the same reading for a few days. It's not perfectly accurate, but for beers under 1.070, it's close enough for me. I do usually use a hydrometer for FG because I want to taste it. You can't underestimate the sensory lab of the human body.

I just got help with this on another forum. Maybe someone here can explain why the Refractometer doesnt work for FG?

[BDawg]

Refractometers work by measuring how much light bends as it passes through the liquid. As the yeast produce alcohol, that affects how much the light bends too, but the problem is that it doesn't change the bend as much as the presence of sugar does. Like was said above, there's some crazy math you could do by hand if you know what your OG was, OR you could punch the OG and refractometer FG measurement into Promash/Beersmith to get the actual adjusted FG. Or, you could use a hydrometer and drink the sample. In any event, a 1.014 FG for a brown sounds right in the ballpark, so carb it up and enjoy!

HTH-

[edit] Also, next time 2 mins of shaking really isn't adequate aeration.
You should look into getting an Oxygen stone and using that instead.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/oxygenation-kit.html

This thing uses the little O2 tanks you can buy at Home Depot or Lowes.
90 seconds of pure 02 and you have some very happy yeastie beasties.

Yes, you can save 15 bucks and get the aquarium pump version, but 20 mins of that still won't dissolve as much 02 in as 90 seconds of pure oxygen. It really is worth the extra 15 bucks, IMO.

[kcschmitt]

Couldn't agree more with Bdawg in the pure o2. I noticed a significant difference in my yeast health after switching and rarely ever have issues with high fg.