Fermentation stall with US-05

[Joerg]

Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat Beer.
Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off tube,
then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity tapered off.

Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad above
1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have killed the
US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in 1/10th
oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that gets it
down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one never
knows. We just got it back, for a while.

[Baloonon]

Post by Joerg
Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat
Beer. Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off
tube, then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity
tapered off.
Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad
above 1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have
killed the US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

Sometimes they're not killed, they've just flocced out.

Post by Joerg
Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in
1/10th oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that
gets it down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

I'm sure it will be fine. If nothing happens, a gentle stir that doesn't
add O2 will often get the yeast distributed back into the beer and back
into action. Or maybe it's just done.

Post by Joerg
Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one
never knows. We just got it back, for a while.

That is seriously scary stuff. I visited friends once in Colorado who had a
wildfire come within about a half mile from their house, and it was still
active about ten miles away. You could see the smoke and watch a steady
stream of helicopters flying overhead carrying water.

[Joerg]

Post by Baloonon

Post by Joerg
Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat
Beer. Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off
tube, then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity
tapered off.
Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad
above 1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have
killed the US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

Sometimes they're not killed, they've just flocced out.

I've tried shaking and rocking, no dice.

Post by Baloonon

Post by Joerg
Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in
1/10th oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that
gets it down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

I'm sure it will be fine. If nothing happens, a gentle stir that doesn't
add O2 will often get the yeast distributed back into the beer and back
into action. Or maybe it's just done.

Right, it's probably done. I sprinkled in some BE-256 dry yeast which is
very high-ABV tolerant. It's been a few days now and not one lick of
airlock activity has resulted.

Post by Baloonon

Post by Joerg
Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one
never knows. We just got it back, for a while.

That is seriously scary stuff. I visited friends once in Colorado who had a
wildfire come within about a half mile from their house, and it was still
active about ten miles away. You could see the smoke and watch a steady
stream of helicopters flying overhead carrying water.

We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become doused
with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another fire farther
away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and when it hit
the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down serious money
for a metal roof.

Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof, manicured
vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck, that has to
be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors are totally
sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and the fire
marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes disasters so much
worse.

[Baloonon]

Post by Joerg
We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become
doused with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another
fire farther away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and
when it hit the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down
serious money for a metal roof.

I once was about a mile from where a lightning strike started a fire and
had to hike fast to get to the car, at which point sizzling ash was
falling. Later I could see the fire from some miles away and it had spread
at that point to several hundred acres. It's scary how fast they can
spread.

Post by Joerg
Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof,
manicured vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck,
that has to be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors
are totally sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and
the fire marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes
disasters so much worse.

It's definitely worth getting the community organized to push for more
enforcement. It's pretty astonishing to me how many people can be in
denial, but then a lot of people where hurricanes hit are in denial about
flooding too.

[Joerg]

Post by Baloonon

Post by Joerg
We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become
doused with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another
fire farther away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and
when it hit the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down
serious money for a metal roof.

I once was about a mile from where a lightning strike started a fire and
had to hike fast to get to the car, at which point sizzling ash was
falling. Later I could see the fire from some miles away and it had spread
at that point to several hundred acres. It's scary how fast they can
spread.

Yes, one has to be fast. Also a good idea to keep an eye out for large
bodies of water to dive into or float down in. That is what I do when
mountain biking in remote areas, keeping a mental note where that was so
I can backtrack in case a fire approaches fast. In some canyons you
wouldn't have a chance to get out in time.

It's similar to large buildings, airplanes and the like where I try to
keep a mental note where the emergency exits are.

Post by Baloonon

Post by Joerg
Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof,
manicured vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck,
that has to be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors
are totally sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and
the fire marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes
disasters so much worse.

It's definitely worth getting the community organized to push for more
enforcement. It's pretty astonishing to me how many people can be in
denial, but then a lot of people where hurricanes hit are in denial about
flooding too.

Yup. Way back when a French expert had told the decision makers in New
Orleans not to build anything that size so close to the water. They did
anyhow. Then Katrina happened.

In Japan there are signs chiseled in rock (!) way above sea level in the
hills saying something like "Do not build anything below here or the sea
will some day take it away". Obviously the forefathers didn't want those
signs to become unreadable for a long time, and for a very good reason.
Then people built stuff at sea level anyhow. Among other things the
Fukushima nuclear power station ...

Back to brewing, on transferring the Barley Wine I had a 1/3 of a gallon
of overflow that didn't fit into the secondary. That went into a glass
gallon jug. In a month or so I'll open that and take a sip, see how it
tastes. Maybe two sips. Heck, maybe all of it. No driving that night
since that had clocked in at 1.100 OG.