Coopers wheat stuck at 1020

evolving_doors

Ok starting gravity 1055,
Coopers wheat + tin light malt + 500gm dme medium + half jar of honey (+ tea, sazz, coriander kitchen sink etc...)
constant temp of 18 degrees
Good fermentation for first 3 days
Reached 1020 day 4 , added some more yeast and bout 80 gm sugar day 6 and have light stir
Day 9 now and still on 1020!

Advice from net said if the daily temp was going to be low (less than 20°} then start fermentation off at high temp...which i did
Now I'm thinking I've overworked the mix with too much starting sugars (next time il add the sugars gradually) and the mix has crashed.

What to do?

rack into secondary might rejig it and finish it off..

Let sit for another week or so and bottle...

More sugar/stir...

Came across a site where someone recommended throwing in a champagne yeast (i have the lalvin 118 from cider exploits)

Split into demi johns and experiment!...

im not overly concerned about a mad high ABV..

evolving_doors

Armelodie wrote: »

Ok starting gravity 1055,
Coopers wheat + tin light malt + 500gm dme medium + half jar of honey (+ tea, sazz, coriander kitchen sink etc...)
constant temp of 18 degrees
Good fermentation for first 3 days
Reached 1020 day 4 , added some more yeast and bout 80 gm sugar day 6 and have light stir
Day 9 now and still on 1020!

Advice from net said if the daily temp was going to be low (less than 20°} then start fermentation off at high temp...which i did
Now I'm thinking I've overworked the mix with too much starting sugars (next time il add the sugars gradually) and the mix has crashed.

What to do?

rack into secondary might rejig it and finish it off..

Let sit for another week or so and bottle...

More sugar/stir...

Came across a site where someone recommended throwing in a champagne yeast (i have the lalvin 118 from cider exploits)

Split into demi johns and experiment!...

im not overly concerned about a mad high ABV..

Anyone?

engrish?

Armelodie wrote: »

Anyone?

I'd say just bottle it. I don't always reach the intended fg, don't worry about it.

evolving_doors

engrish? wrote: »

I'd say just bottle it. I don't always reach the intended fg, don't worry about it.

Ya that's what I'm thinking alright...

Considering the amount of sugar that was in it and 1020 fg, how much sugar for bulk priming 21 odd litres?

cheers

Martyn1989

Sanitise a spoon and go in and gently rouse the yeast and forget about it for another week. It will be fine, its too early to bottle though.

Edit* I wouldn't even rouse the yeast just leave it to do its thing

evolving_doors

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Sanitise a spoon and go in and gently rouse the yeast and forget about it for another week. It will be fine, its too early to bottle though.

Edit* I wouldn't even rouse the yeast just leave it to do its thing

Ya I did a bit of gentle rousing a few days ago but to no avail...bottle next week it is so

Khannie

I would not bottle at 1020. It sounds like a recipe for a bottle bomb. If it starts to ferment again in the bottle you're going to be in trouble.

BeerNut

1.020 is about the upper limit of where I'd bottle. I've had a few kits finish here and they've been fine.

I'd always allow a full two weeks for fermentation, though, and for something that high I'd give it another couple on top of that, just to be sure.

evolving_doors

Aye I'll give it another week and a half then bottle away... I have faith in those swing tops..

Of late I've gotten really lazy with keeping or sticking to exact measurements so I just throw a tea spoon into a bottle but I'm slowy moving back to racking into a secondary and batch priming these days...

Assuming it'll be about 20 odd litres of racked clear stuff without the gunk.. what's the amount of dextrose needed to make it gassy enough do ye reckon?

BeerNut

This says witbier should be 2.1 to 2.6 vols, which is an unhelpfully big range. I'd go on the low side just in case, so say 2.3 vols.

To get 2.3 vols into 20L @ 18C it says add 111g of dextrose.

evolving_doors

BeerNut wrote: »

This says witbier should be 2.1 to 2.6 vols, which is an unhelpfully big range. I'd go on the low side just in case, so say 2.3 vols.

To get 2.3 vols into 20L @ 18C it says add 111g of dextrose.

Grand job... I'll work from that

evolving_doors

Ok just to follow up on this issue.

Left it for another week (still stuck at 1020) but racked off into secondary for bulk priming.... once I got half way down I noticed some stuff rising to the top as if the fermentation was starting again after I'd roused the gunk,, but to hell with it I bottled it anyway.. maybe I should have given it a better stir the last few times (probably way too gentle)

2 weeks later and 1st bottle seemed a bit soupy/greasy but not too bad, 3 weeks later the second bottle seems a lot better ... totally different animal when I mix in the sediment from the bottom of the bottle.. In terms of hoegarden clone it didn;t come close (a slice of lemon helps a little though)

Lessons learned...

Don;t start at the upper end of the temperature range, especially with tonnes of sugar in it...

Next time consider feeding the sugar over a longer period and wrapping the bucket in a blanket to keep the temp a little bit higher for a longer period....

Tube

What was your yeast, and were you happy with your aeration?

evolving_doors

Tube wrote: »

What was your yeast, and were you happy with your aeration?

Aye, twas safbrew T58 (didn't use the kit yeast)....
if you mean whisking up the original mix , ya I aerated the heil out if it before pitching in the yeast.

tteknulp

I done a muntons wheat ,1kg wheat malt ,+ 0.5kg dex it finished at 1017 after 2wks wouldnt go lower.

Tube

Looking back at my notes T58 always finished around 1.014 for me.

evolving_doors

Tube wrote: »

Looking back at my notes T58 always finished around 1.014 for me.

ya used it before ages ago and think it stopped at 1012... Would be an interesting experiment though to feed it slowly rather than pile on all the sugar at the start...

Anyone ever just used the coopers wheat with the yeast supplied, and NOT went mental with other additions?