A stuck fermentation is when the yeast stop fermenting early, leaving the final gravity reached considerably above the expected final gravity. Can be caused by temperature swings, poor yeast condition or using a strain with insufficient alcohol tolerance.

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Nothing visible happening in fermenter after three and a half days - what should I do?

My first brew has been in the primary fermenter for three and a half days (brewed Saturday night, it's now Wednesday morning). It's in a plastic bucket fermenter with an airlock. There are no bubbles ...
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5answers
2k views

How do you tell if your fermentation is stuck?

How long do you wait before taking corrective action if your fermentation doesn't start? Are there any other good ways to tell if it's just taking a while to get going?
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4answers
262 views

Wheat Ale “stuck” at 1.025?

I am trying to brew a stronger wheat ale, and after 9 days in primary, I seem to be stuck at 1.025. My OG was 1.070 and I pitched a smack pack of Wyeast Bavarian Wheat at about 70F. I had a very ...
5
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3answers
912 views

How can I restart fermentation on a stuck strong dark belgian ale?

What can we do to restart fermentation that got stuck over the winter? Our club brewed about 7 gallons of this recipe in November. Primary went well, but then the weather got cold and the yeast went ...
5
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4answers
977 views

36 hours after pitching straight from the vial, no signs of fermentation, what now?

After pitching noticed yeast was one month past 'best date' (thanks local homebrew shop).No perceptible activity at +36 hours. No krausen, airlock isn’t bubbling wort looks the same as when i poured ...
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3answers
908 views

My cider stopped fermenting until I swished it around in the bucket a bunch, then continued. Is that normal?

My malted cider had been brewing after about a week in my plastic brewing bucket to the point where the little 'hat' thing in my airlock fell onto the 'neck' (no internal pressure). I opened it up ...
4
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1answer
312 views

I think I ruined my first brew

After years of finding excuses to not home brew, I finally gave in and bought a starter kit from Brewers Best and ingredients for my first batch; Muntons Connoisseurs Export Pilsner. Anyway, it's ...
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5answers
654 views

Warming up a demijohn / carboy

As a continuation to my previous question about a very slow fermentation of sloe wine, I think my demijohn is just too cold where it is. I haven't taken readings - I'm still fuzzy on how - but judging ...
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3answers
94 views

What is the 'cake'?

I've been looking into ways to restart unfinished fermentation and some sources talk about using a Cake, or yeast cake from previous brews. They also talk about pitching on the cake. I've searched to ...
3
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2answers
756 views

Stuck fermentation

My beer is stuck at 1.052 and it started at 1.092. The type of yeast is wyeast #3522, so I expect it to get quite a bit lower. It's been 3 weeks since we brewed it and it's now rather clear. I suspect ...
3
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1answer
516 views

How do I un-stuck a mead's fermentation?

Some relevant facts: 18 pounds of Trader Joe's Mesquite honey, water to 5 gallons, yeast nutrient and energizer (I think it was 1 teaspoon of each, but a computer failure ate my notes). Yeast: ...
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349 views

Possible Stuck Fermentation

I'm attempting to brew a high gravity stout, OG 1088. Its been in the primary for two weeks. I assumed it had completed fermentation since it feremented extremely vigorously, so much so I had to use ...
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2answers
166 views

Can I rescue a batch that may not have had enough water at its start?

I have a high-gravity belgian ale, which after 3 weeks of fermentation is holding at 1.058--very, very sweet to the taste. Its first few days of fermentation were very active, and I fear I may not ...
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3answers
209 views

Cider fermentation stopped after only 4 days. What to do?

I bought a "Magnum Apple Cider Kit" 1.7Kg kit. Added 1 Kg of corn sugar + 300 gr brown sugar and oak chips. For the first 3 days it has been fermenting like crazy. Today (4th day) the fermentation ...
2
votes
1answer
790 views

How do I know when a starter has hit 'high krausen', when using a stir plate

I've been advised to pitch an alcohol tolerant yeast "at high krausen" into a barley wine where the fermentation has slowed (OG 1.101, now 1.035). But if I've got it on a stir plate, how do I know ...
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3answers
237 views

Sloe wine: going very slowly

Having started enough sloe gin this year to last a decade, I decided to use the rest of the fruit to brew some sloe wine. I'm new to brewing, and this might seem like an odd choice, but I have high ...
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vote
1answer
405 views

Day Three, still no apparent fermentation

During my most recent brew session I may have been a little too relaxed, and had a few too many homebrews during the process. I feel like I did everything right and kept everything sanitary, but ...
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2answers
105 views

Is clarifying while fermenting a problem?

The all-grain saga continues. I boosted the SG to 1.070 from the OG of 1.030 with cane sugar. 10 days later, the fermentation seems to have stopped and the gravity is 1.040. As mentioned before, the ...
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1answer
89 views

The runaway and the non starter!

So we got a can of Coopers German wheat beer kit, and decided to do 2x10 lites batches, trying slightly different recipes with each one. We boiled up orange zest and corriander seeds and added the ...
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2answers
196 views

High 'finished' gravity

I pitched about a cup of decanted starter S-04 slurry into a 1.061 OG American IPA 8 days ago at 65 degrees. The gravity has been stuck at about 1.028 since pitch day + 48 hours, when the krausen ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views

Not much activity after 24 hours

Yesterday I brewed up a batch of an american brown ale. 24 hours after pitching, it doesn't to look to be moving so well. There are hints of a krausen, but not as much as there should be. I don't see ...
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1answer
145 views

Troubleshooting a stuck fermentation with Ringwood Ale

I'm brewing an IPA using Wyeast 1187 (Ringwood Ale) and it seems stuck. I'm brewing 19L (5G) with an OG of 1.052 and pitched two (smacked) smackpacks of 1187 straight into the primary bucket. I used ...